Article
Why Hard Bounces Occur and What to Do About Them
act.com
Quoted on this wiki
Every place a page here uses this source, in the order the words come in it.
“When you send an email that your recipient’s email server can’t deliver, it sends back a failure response called a bounce message that usually includes a code and description of the cause of the failure.” Essentially, a hard bounce is the recipient server’s way of saying that the address is permanently undeliverable: “I can’t deliver this, and please don’t ask again”. Continued and repeated attempts to send to that address can negatively impact yoursender reputation, or get you blocked from sending to that server completely, depending on the severity and the scale of your attempts (read: spam). To avoid that issue, hard bounces should always be immediately added to your suppression list. The good news is most reputable email service or marketing automation providers will automatically suppress hard bounces on your behalf. All set then, right? Not quite. We have to get to the root cause first.
“For example, soft bounces may be caused by full mailboxes, DNS issues, server outages, etc, while the most common cause of a hard bounce is that the email address doesn’t exist or has expired – so it won’t be delivered today, tomorrow, or ever (foreseeably).” Essentially, a hard bounce is the recipient server’s way of saying that the address is permanently undeliverable: “I can’t deliver this, and please don’t ask again”. Continued and repeated attempts to send to that address can negatively impact yoursender reputation, or get you blocked from sending to that server completely, depending on the severity and the scale of your attempts (read: spam). To avoid that issue, hard bounces should always be immediately added to your suppression list. The good news is most reputable email service or marketing automation providers will automatically suppress hard bounces on your behalf. All set then, right? Not quite. We have to get to the root cause first.
Why Does My List Contain Email Addresses That Hard Bounce? “If you have excessive (1-5%) or very excessive (>5%) amounts of hard bounces, this indicates you have a problem with your list that needs to be addressed.” Your list is old: People have been changing jobs or email addresses as usual, but you haven’t been sending emails to them (or have never sent marketing to them) so the hard bounces occur all at once.
When you send an email that your recipient’s email server can’t deliver, it sends back a failure response called a bounce message that usually includes a code and description of the cause of the failure. Based on the codes and descriptions used, bounces messages can be classified as temporary “soft” bounces or permanent “hard” bounces. For example, soft bounces may be caused by full mailboxes, DNS issues, server outages, etc, while the most common cause of a hard bounce is that the email address doesn’t exist or has expired – so it won’t be delivered today, tomorrow, or ever (foreseeably). “Essentially, a hard bounce is the recipient server’s way of saying that the address is permanently undeliverable: “I can’t deliver this, and please don’t ask again”.” Why Does My List Contain Email Addresses That Hard Bounce?
“When you send an email that your recipient’s email server can’t deliver, it sends back a failure response called a bounce message that usually includes a code and description of the cause of the failure.” Essentially, a hard bounce is the recipient server’s way of saying that the address is permanently undeliverable: “I can’t deliver this, and please don’t ask again”. Continued and repeated attempts to send to that address can negatively impact yoursender reputation, or get you blocked from sending to that server completely, depending on the severity and the scale of your attempts (read: spam). To avoid that issue, hard bounces should always be immediately added to your suppression list. The good news is most reputable email service or marketing automation providers will automatically suppress hard bounces on your behalf. All set then, right? Not quite. We have to get to the root cause first.
When you send an email that your recipient’s email server can’t deliver, it sends back a failure response called a bounce message that usually includes a code and description of the cause of the failure. Based on the codes and descriptions used, bounces messages can be classified as temporary “soft” bounces or permanent “hard” bounces. For example, soft bounces may be caused by full mailboxes, DNS issues, server outages, etc, while the most common cause of a hard bounce is that the email address doesn’t exist or has expired – so it won’t be delivered today, tomorrow, or ever (foreseeably). “To avoid that issue, hard bounces should always be immediately added to your suppression list.” Why Does My List Contain Email Addresses That Hard Bounce?
When you send an email that your recipient’s email server can’t deliver, it sends back a failure response called a bounce message that usually includes a code and description of the cause of the failure. Based on the codes and descriptions used, bounces messages can be classified as temporary “soft” bounces or permanent “hard” bounces. For example, soft bounces may be caused by full mailboxes, DNS issues, server outages, etc, while the most common cause of a hard bounce is that the email address doesn’t exist or has expired – so it won’t be delivered today, tomorrow, or ever (foreseeably). “The good news is most reputable email service or marketing automation providers will automatically suppress hard bounces on your behalf.” Why Does My List Contain Email Addresses That Hard Bounce?
When you send an email that your recipient’s email server can’t deliver, it sends back a failure response called a bounce message that usually includes a code and description of the cause of the failure. Based on the codes and descriptions used, bounces messages can be classified as temporary “soft” bounces or permanent “hard” bounces. For example, soft bounces may be caused by full mailboxes, DNS issues, server outages, etc, while the most common cause of a hard bounce is that the email address doesn’t exist or has expired – so it won’t be delivered today, tomorrow, or ever (foreseeably). “Continued and repeated attempts to send to that address can negatively impact yoursender reputation, or get you blocked from sending to that server completely, depending on the severity and the scale of your attempts (read: spam).” Why Does My List Contain Email Addresses That Hard Bounce?
Your list is old: People have been changing jobs or email addresses as usual, but you haven’t been sending emails to them (or have never sent marketing to them) so the hard bounces occur all at once. “You haven’t been maintaining or didn’t import your suppression list: A common mistake when migrating from one email service provider to another.” Your prospects are providing fake email addresses to bypass some process or form that you’ve set up because they don’t feel comfortable (or aren’t properly incentivized) to provide their real contact info.