How to troubleshoot and resolve soft bounce issues with Yahoo/VZG email delivery?
Summary
What email marketers say12Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Mailjet Blog suggests segmenting email lists based on engagement and sending targeted campaigns to active subscribers to reduce soft bounces related to recipient inactivity. They also advise regularly cleaning email lists to remove invalid or inactive addresses.
Email marketer from Reddit suggests checking IP reputation and domain reputation using tools like SenderScore or Talos to identify potential blacklisting issues. They also recommend ensuring proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to improve deliverability.
Email marketer from GMass notes that a common reason for soft bounces is greylisting which is when a mail server temporarily rejects an email from an unfamiliar sender. If retries are implemented the email should succeed on the next attempt.
Email marketer from StackOverflow recommends checking the content of the email for spam triggers. This user has seen instances where certain keywords, links, or image ratios caused temporary blocking by Yahoo/VZG.
Email marketer from Quora recommends regularly verifying the email addresses on your list with an email verification service to remove invalid, inactive, or spam trap addresses. He emphasizes that this reduces bounces and improves overall deliverability.
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that it's a common pattern where Gmail and Hotmail perform well, but Yahoo/Oath performs poorly. He attributes this to bad content or a bad list and suggests better targeting and list rehabilitation.
Email marketer from EmailOctopus Blog shares that a high soft bounce rate could indicate issues with recipient server availability or anti-spam filters temporarily blocking emails. They recommend checking server configurations and ensuring compliance with email authentication protocols.
Email marketer from Litmus recommends to be aware of the specific sending limits and reputation thresholds of Yahoo/VZG. They may have stricter filtering policies, especially for new senders, so gradual warm-up is important.
Email marketer from MarketingProfs advises ensuring that your sending infrastructure is properly configured and that reverse DNS lookups are correctly set up. Mismatched or missing DNS records can contribute to delivery issues.
Email marketer from Campaign Monitor shares that consistently monitoring your sender reputation is crucial. Check tools like Google Postmaster Tools and Microsoft SNDS to identify any delivery issues early.
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that the issue is likely the sender's list. He advises reaching out to discuss the issues and getting them to tighten up their lists.
Email marketer from Mailgun advises tracking and analyzing engagement metrics for each sender IP address. Monitor open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribes to determine which IPs might be experiencing deliverability issues.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains that greylisting can cause soft bounces. She recommends configuring your sending server to retry sending emails after a temporary failure, as greylisting servers will typically accept the email on a subsequent attempt. She notes greylisting is often used by smaller providers.
Expert from Email Geeks notes that VMG is likely pattern matching images, even if they're hosted on a CDN, to identify identical messages from different IPs and domains.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that while less common, Yahoo (VZ) might employ greylisting techniques, especially for senders with inconsistent sending patterns or those with a lower reputation. Monitoring bounce messages for specific greylisting-related error codes can help identify this issue.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests looking at the infrastructure, noting that VMG analyzes links and other content within the message. She mentions a client whose delivery problems were resolved by changing CDNs.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests that soft bounces at Verizon should trigger a compliance investigation to figure out why Verizon doesn't want the mail.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Microsoft explains that understanding error codes in bounce messages is key. A 'mailbox full' soft bounce can indicate that the recipient is not actively managing their inbox, suggesting a potential target for list cleaning.
Documentation from RFC explains that SMTP reply codes in the 4xx range typically indicate transient failures. These temporary errors often resolve themselves upon retry. Analyzing the specific code helps pinpoint if it's a client error, server overload, or some other temporary issue.
Documentation from AWS explains that when using their SES email service, you can configure event destinations to track bounces and complaints. Setting up notifications for soft bounces can help you proactively manage issues.
Documentation from SparkPost explains that monitoring soft bounce reasons provided in the SMTP response codes is crucial for troubleshooting. Common causes include mailbox quota exceeded, temporary server outages, or greylisting. They suggest implementing retry mechanisms for soft bounces and analyzing bounce patterns to identify underlying issues.
Documentation from Verizon Media Postmaster explains that soft bounces are temporary delivery failures, often due to the recipient's mailbox being full or a temporary server issue. They advise monitoring soft bounce rates and adjusting sending practices if they become excessive.
Related resources0Resources
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