In this article we tell you how emails that cannot be delivered are classified and why it is important to measure their quantity.
The email marketing statistics are some of the most important aspects of an email marketing strategy. You should develop a command over some of these metrics, of which one of the most interesting is the Badmail or bounce rate. You may find yourself asking, since it is so important, what is the percentage that is considered advisable and how do you maintain it at a good level? We will explain this to you next.
Let's start by remembering what a Bounce is?
This is a parameter that will indicate the amount of emails that have not been received by your contacts. It occurs every time an email is rejected by the email server of one of your recipients. This action will be known as bounce or return.
The Badmail or Bounce rate is divided into two categories:
- Hard Bounce: This tells you that there is a permanent reason why the email could not be delivered. This can be caused by:
- An email recipient that does not exist
- A non-existent domain
- The recipient's mail server has blocked the delivery
- There is an error in the spelling of the email address
- A deleted mailbox
To make a more accurate classification in Mailpro we have separated the Hard Bounces into three categories: Bad Domain, Bad-Mailbox, Inactive Mailbox. This categorization allows us to cover all the emails that are rejected in the hard bounce process.
- Soft bounce: Refers to emails that can’t be delivered temporarily, for example:
- A full mailbox, mail can’t be sent and will be classified as a "quota error" that will be attempted to be delivered again and it is likely that it can’t be delivered and falls into a Soft Bounce.
- The email server of the recipient dropped or is temporarily out of service, which will result in a "host not accessible" error. We will attempt to deliver your mail three times a day.
- Also classified as Soft Bounce are all the emails that are filtered and do not pass the antispam barriers.
You should know that emails considered as Soft Bounce will not be removed from your contact lists. There are other reasons why valid email addresses can be considered as soft bounce, and you can consult this article regarding each of these definitions.
Where do I find the badmail or bounced mail in Mailpro?
Access our application and look for statistics by campaign and you’ll be able to select Badmail. Click on it and you will see a detailed and classified list which shows emails per campaign that have been categorized as Hard or Soft Bounce.
Why knowing the amount of bounced emails is important?
Know the bounce rate of your email marketing campaigns, in addition to indicating a possible problem with the reception of your messages. It tells you if your audience likes the information that you are delivering. For this reason it is important that you constantly review these and other basic metrics.
A high percentage of bounced mail may be due to email delivery problems or that the recipient does not like what they’ve received and have decided to filter your company's emails and direct them to the unwanted folder.
Soft or hard bounces are seen as warning signs, just as a traditional mail service would warn about the absence of a contact or the inactivity of an email address. That is why it is important that we are sure of the reliability of our contact list.
Is there a recommended bounce rate?
Bounced emails can be damaging to reputation, which is why it is important to apply the necessary parameters to keep the percentage of bounced mail as low as possible. 2% is a general average to define a stable bounce rate.
Having a high bounce rate can tell internet providers that the emails you send are SPAM and may block future delivers, as your emails may be sent directly to the unwanted folder.
It’s true that there are many uncontrollable factors that classify the bounce rate as Hard or Soft, but there are some solutions that can help reduce this rate.
To prevent your emails from being classified as hard bounces, keep these tips in mind:
- Constant maintenance of the database
Check your database every so often to be sure that all addresses are correctly validated. A clean database in which contacts have been previously verified should not reflect percentages of hard bounces. If you have many contacts. It is recommended that you check your contact lists at least once a month and keep the subscribers that you are really sure receive your emails.
- Includes double validation in your campaigns
Including a double validation to your email marketing campaign will afford you a test that assures your subscribers consent, as well as helping you keep a clean contact book. If you look too many bounce rates, it's usually due to temporary problems with your client's inbox, if you notice that some subscribers have bounces, the best thing you can do is eliminate them completely from your contacts list. Make sure that your email does not look like spam, verify that the content doesn´t have spam words, that there are not too many links, personalize your message, try to send segmented content according to the behavior of your subscriber, you can read more about this topic in our article "How to pass Anti-Spam Filters"
Understanding what is a bounce and recognizing the differences between hard bounce and soft bounce, is the key to helping you make decisions to improve the bounce or badmail rate when you perform your next statistical analysis.