Should I send emails to a list with a high hard bounce rate and how to prevent them?
Summary
What email marketers say11Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog emphasizes the importance of regular list cleaning to remove inactive or invalid emails. List cleaning improves engagement metrics, deliverability and prevents you from being marked as spam.
Email marketer from MailerCheck Blog advises that a good bounce rate should be below 2%, with anything between 2-5% needing attention, and over 5% being a cause for concern that requires immediate action. High bounce rates damage sender reputation and deliverability.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests using an external tool to eliminate invalid emails and improving the email acquisition method, which is clearly flawed.
Email marketer from Reddit discusses the use of email validation services to identify and remove invalid emails before sending. They suggest that it's a worthwhile investment for list hygiene.
Email marketer from Email on Acid clarifies that high bounce rates negatively impact sender reputation, increasing the likelihood of emails being filtered as spam, even for valid subscribers.
Email marketer from Omnisend emphasizes the need to maintain a suppression list of unsubscribed or bounced emails to avoid sending to them again. This prevents further damage to sender reputation.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum warns against using purchased email lists due to their often-high bounce rates and spam complaints, advising focusing on organic list growth instead.
Email marketer from Email Geeks advises against sending to a list with a 12% hard bounce rate. They suggest investigating the history and source of the addresses to identify problematic sources. If the list is small, they recommend analyzing the reactivity of the remaining addresses after the initial send and questioning the value of continuing to email unresponsive contacts.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign explains that sending to a list with high hard bounce rates will damage your sender reputation and your deliverability rates, with ESPs potentially blocking your emails as a result.
Email marketer from Campaign Monitor suggests focusing on collecting high-quality email addresses through methods like offering valuable incentives for sign-ups and using clear and concise sign-up forms.
Email marketer from Email Geeks indicates that a 12% hard bounce rate suggests a failure to follow best practices in list acquisition, such as confirmed opt-in, captcha, and real-time email verification. They also warn of the potential for spam trap email addresses in the list.
What the experts say2Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource details the process required to handle email bounces. Processing bounces promptly and accurately is very important to maintaining a good sending reputation.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that email lists decay for several reasons, and it is important to manage your list well and remove addresses that are no longer any good. You should always remove hard bounces, and should regularly suppress soft bounces.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Google Workspace explains that understanding bounce back messages (Non-Delivery Reports) helps identify the reason for delivery failure, enabling better troubleshooting and list maintenance.
Documentation from SendGrid explains that hard bounces indicate a permanent reason for failed delivery (invalid email, domain doesn't exist), while soft bounces are temporary issues (full inbox, server down). Hard bounces should be removed immediately; soft bounces need monitoring.
Documentation from SparkPost details the different types of bounces and how to handle them. It specifies the need to remove hard bounces immediately from the mailing list and implement a feedback loop.
Documentation from Mailjet explains that using double opt-in (requiring subscribers to confirm their email address) helps prevent invalid or misspelled emails from entering your list, thereby reducing bounce rates.