Hey there,

Today, let’s talk about bounces.

When your emails can’t be delivered to a recipient, they get sent back to you. That’s what we call a bounce.

Now, there are two types of bounces:

  • Hard bounces are permanent. They happen when the email address is invalid or the domain doesn’t exist.
  • Soft bounces are temporary. They are often due to full mailboxes or temporary server issues.

But why should you care about bounces?

  • First, they waste your time since your emails don’t reach anyone.
  • If you’re using Gmail, each bounce reduces your daily sending quota.
  • More importantly, high bounce rates can damage your reputation, causing servers to block your emails automatically.

So, how can you prevent bounces?

  • Get your subscribers to double opt-in to clear your list of fake email accounts and spam traps.
  • Tidy up your contact list by removing users who haven’t interacted with your emails in a while.
  • Use a verification tool to get rid of invalid email addresses (in Mailmeteor this is done automatically with BounceShield).

Got more questions about bounces or email marketing in general? Feel free to reply to this email and ask away :)

Happy sending, Laura