What should I do if a user's email hard bounced and they aren't receiving emails?

Email marketer from Mailjet explains that the first step is to analyze the bounce code provided. This code helps identify the reason for the hard bounce, such as a non-existent email address or a blocked domain. Once the reason is identified, appropriate action can be taken, like correcting the email address or contacting the recipient's email provider.

Email marketer from HubSpot recommends confirming that the user actually subscribed and intended to receive emails. Additionally, they suggest verifying that the email address was entered correctly, as typos are a common cause of hard bounces. If the user confirms both, further investigation is needed.

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that in Iterable, when an email address hard bounces, it is unsubscribed from that channel and all message types in the channel. They note that you can manually re-add them or put them through a workflow that does the same.

Email marketer from Litmus suggests reaching out to the user through other channels (e.g., phone, social media) to verify their email address and confirm their desire to receive emails. This helps to ensure you are not losing a valuable contact due to a simple error.

Email marketer from Sendinblue shares that hard bounces indicate a permanent reason an email cannot be delivered. They recommend removing the email address from your contact list automatically, which Sendinblue typically handles. They also advise reviewing the bounce reasons to understand why they occurred and to prevent future issues.

Email marketer from StackOverflow suggests checking whether the domain exists and accepts mail, or whether the user's mailbox is over quota. They also suggest checking if your sending IP address is blacklisted.

Marketer from Email Geeks suggests if the 'dot trick' doesn't work, you can also try the 'plus trick', i.e. username+brand@gmail.com.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign suggests implementing regular list hygiene practices, including automatically unsubscribing contacts who hard bounce. They also recommend using double opt-in to ensure email addresses are valid from the start.

Email marketer from Email on Acid recommends implementing a feedback loop with ISPs to automatically identify and remove bounced email addresses from your list. They also emphasize the importance of segmenting your list to target engaged users and avoid sending to inactive addresses.

Email marketer from Moosend explains if you have implemented authentication methods such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC then this will prevent emails from bouncing that are legitimate. This could solve the problem moving forward.

Email marketer from Reddit advises managing a suppression list to automatically exclude hard-bounced addresses from future sends. This prevents damaging sender reputation and improves deliverability. They stress the importance of automating this process.

Expert from Spam Resource, John Levine, explains that you should confirm with the recipient the email address they are using and what their expectations are regarding emails they think they should be getting. If they are using a catch all account they may think they should be getting a specific email but if it is a hard bounce something is likely wrong at their end that they need to resolve with their email provider.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests that the user could use a new email address or ask the recipient to reconfirm their address, checking for typos to ensure the Gmail address is correct and valid.

Expert from Word to the Wise advises that if you're mailing to addresses that are unknown or really old (like, more than 6 months without activity), then you run the risk of sending to addresses that may have been converted to spam traps. Hitting spam traps does enormous damage to your sending reputation.

Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains that when you get a hard bounce, the address should immediately be removed from any further mailings. Sending to hard bounces repeatedly is a very strong indicator that you don't care about best practices, and hurts your sender reputation.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests trying the 'Gmail dot trick' if Iterable doesn't correct for it. They explain that by adding dots to the Gmail address before the @ symbol (e.g., al.iverson.chicago@gmail.com instead of aliversonchicago@gmail.com), it appears as a different address to the ESP but is the same to Gmail.

Documentation from AWS SES explains that the best practice is to immediately remove the email address from your mailing list upon receiving a hard bounce notification. Continuing to send emails to addresses that have hard bounced negatively impacts sender reputation and deliverability rates.

Documentation from Mailchimp explains that hard bounces happen when an email can't be delivered because the email address is invalid, the domain name doesn't exist, or the recipient's email server has completely blocked delivery. They automatically remove hard bounces immediately to protect sender reputation.

Documentation from RFC 5321 explains that a 5xx SMTP error code indicates a permanent failure. Senders should treat these errors as a sign that the email address is invalid and should not be retried. This is the definitive technical standard for handling bounces.

Documentation from SparkPost explains the hard bounces are permanent failures and should be removed from the sending list immediately. It's vital to distinguish them from soft bounces, which are temporary issues like a full inbox and retries are more reasonable.