Where can I find documentation on bounce types and when to suppress?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from GlockApps discusses how to calculate and interpret bounce rates to monitor the health of email campaigns. The post highlights the importance of tracking both hard and soft bounces, and provides insights on identifying and addressing the root causes of high bounce rates to ensure optimal deliverability.
Email marketer from Mailgun explains bounce categories and their importance in maintaining list hygiene. They highlight that permanent bounces, often due to invalid email addresses, should be immediately suppressed. They also discuss temporary bounces caused by issues like full inboxes, which may require retry attempts but should lead to suppression after repeated failures.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that they downloaded a SFMC bounce flow, remembering it as useful.
Email marketer from StackOverflow explains that they handle bounce processing by listening for bounce notifications from their email service provider. Upon receiving a hard bounce notification, they immediately flag the email address as invalid in their database to prevent future sends. They also keep track of soft bounces and automatically unsubscribe users after a specific number of soft bounces.
Email marketer from EmailOnAcid details bounce categories and provides some examples of when a soft or hard bounce would occur. Examples of a soft bounce include the mailbox being temporarily unavailable or when the mailbox is full. A hard bounce would occur when the domain name doesn't exist or the email address does not exist.
Email marketer from Validity discusses bounce handling best practices, recommending that hard bounces should be removed immediately and soft bounces should be monitored. They also suggest setting up a suppression list to prevent sending to known invalid addresses.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares a 2013 bounce handling guide from Return Path which includes some soft recommendations but does not specify the number of hard bounces or mailbox fulls to suppress after.
Email marketer from Reddit discusses that they automatically suppress addresses that result in hard bounces and retry soft bounces a limited number of times. They also suggest using a third-party email verification service to proactively identify invalid email addresses before sending.
Email marketer from SendGrid discusses email bounce codes and what they mean for deliverability. They state that 5xx errors indicate permanent failures, while 4xx errors signify temporary issues. They recommend automatically removing email addresses that generate hard bounces and monitoring soft bounces to identify potential problems with deliverability.
Email marketer from SparkPost details the different types of bounces and recommends actions for each. Hard bounces should be immediately removed, while soft bounces can be retried. They also mention 'blocked bounces' which occur when an email is blocked due to reputation or content issues. They advise monitoring all bounce types to maintain a healthy sender reputation.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that bounce processing involves identifying and handling bounced email messages. Hard bounces signify permanent delivery failures and should be immediately removed from your list. Soft bounces, indicating temporary issues, may be retried but require monitoring. Setting up automated bounce processing mechanisms is crucial for maintaining list hygiene and improving deliverability.
Expert from Spam Resource states that hard bounces, indicating permanent delivery failures, necessitate immediate removal from your mailing list to maintain sender reputation. Soft bounces, suggesting temporary delivery issues, may warrant retries, but persistent soft bounces should prompt suppression to avoid deliverability problems.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that bounce codes are essential for understanding delivery problems. Hard bounces (5xx errors) signify permanent failures, requiring immediate suppression. Soft bounces (4xx errors) are temporary and may warrant retries, but sustained soft bounces indicate issues needing resolution. Analyzing these codes aids in identifying and rectifying deliverability concerns.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Mailjet outlines bounce management best practices, emphasizing the importance of differentiating between hard and soft bounces. Hard bounces indicate permanent problems like a non-existent email address and should be immediately removed. Soft bounces can be retried a few times, but persistent soft bounces suggest deliverability issues and should lead to suppression. They also suggest implementing a feedback loop to handle complaints and automatically unsubscribe users.
Documentation from Oracle Responsys explains bounce mail management and defines hard and soft bounces as permanent and temporary failures respectively. It describes how to set up automated bounce processing rules to manage invalid email addresses and maintain a clean email list. You should use feedback loops and make sure the email is authenticated correctly.
Documentation from Amazon Web Services details the different bounce types in Amazon SES, including hard bounces (permanent delivery failures) and soft bounces (temporary delivery failures). Hard bounces should be removed from your mailing list immediately. Soft bounces may be retried, but repeated soft bounces should also be removed. They also distinguish between 'Complaint' feedback loops and general bounces. Addresses that result in a complaint should also be reviewed and potentially suppressed.
Documentation from Microsoft Learn explains that Exchange Online uses enhanced status codes to report non-delivery information. These codes are grouped into different categories, such as permanent failures (5.X.X) indicating an invalid email address or domain, and temporary failures (4.X.X) suggesting transient issues like mailbox full or temporary server problems. They recommend analyzing these codes to understand the cause of the bounce and take appropriate action, such as removing invalid addresses from the mailing list.