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A bounce occurs when an email fails to reach the recipient's inbox and is returned to the sender. Email servers generate bounce messages containing error codes that explain why delivery failed, such as invalid addresses, full mailboxes, or server rejections. Understanding and managing bounces is essential for maintaining sender reputation and email deliverability.
High bounce rates directly damage your sender reputation, which determines whether your emails reach inboxes or spam folders. Internet service providers monitor bounce rates as a key indicator of list quality and sender trustworthiness. A bounce rate above 2% signals poor list hygiene and can trigger spam filtering or account suspension. Each bounced email also wastes your sending costs and skews campaign metrics. By proactively verifying email addresses before sending, you can reduce bounce rates below 1% and protect your domain reputation.
When you send an email, it travels through multiple servers before reaching the recipient. If delivery fails at any point, the receiving server sends a bounce notification back to the sender. This notification includes an error code and message explaining the failure reason. Bounces are categorized into two main types: hard bounces (permanent failures like invalid addresses) and soft bounces (temporary issues like full mailboxes). Email service providers track your bounce rate and may throttle or block your sending if it exceeds acceptable thresholds, typically 2% or higher.
A hard bounce is a permanent delivery failure caused by issues like invalid email addresses, non-existent domains, or blocked recipients. A soft bounce is a temporary failure due to reasons like a full inbox, server downtime, or message size limits. Hard bounces should be removed immediately, while soft bounces may resolve and can be retried a few times before removal.
Industry standards consider a bounce rate under 2% as healthy. Rates between 2-5% indicate list quality issues that need attention. Anything above 5% is considered dangerous and may trigger spam filtering or account suspension from your email service provider.
The most effective way to reduce bounces is to verify email addresses before sending. Use an email verification service to check addresses at the point of collection and regularly clean your existing lists. Implement double opt-in for new subscribers, remove hard bounces immediately, and monitor soft bounces for patterns.
Email verification services can check addresses before you send by validating syntax, verifying the domain has valid mail servers, and checking if the specific mailbox exists. This pre-send validation catches most invalid addresses that would otherwise bounce, protecting your sender reputation.
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