Handling Bounced Emails

Dealing with bounced emails correctly enables us to reduce the likelihood that emails sent by us will be defined as Spam by our recipients. 

What is the connection between bounced Emails and the fact that you may be wrongly identified as spammers and therefore your Emails will be blocked?

Those of us who have experienced email marketing (mainly through untargeted programs such as Outlook) will most probably have experienced the phenomenon of our emails "bouncing".

What are bounced emails?

When an email is sent and for whatever reason doesn't get through, the server or proxy server which was meant to receive the message sends a message to the sender saying that for reason "x" the message hasn't been delivered.

There are a several reasons why the email hasn't been delivered which can be divided into three categories:

1. Soft Bounce: an email that has been returned to the sender without being delivered due to a temporary reason/malfunction. E.g. the inbox if full, server temporarily unavailable etc.
2. Hard Bounce: an email that has been returned to the sender without being delivered due to a consistent problem. E.g. non-existent domain name or incorrect address.
3. Spam Notification: an email that has been returned to the sender without being delivered due to being identified (correctly or not) as spam.

Unfortunately, there are also emails filtered as spam and the sender isn't even aware that his emails was transferred straight to the Junk/Bulk or wasn't received at all.

Why handle bounced emails?

Dealing with bounced emails correctly enables us to reduce the likelihood that emails sent by us will be defined as Spam by our recipients.

How so?

Different email services monitor one's ability to handle bounced email, given the belief that spammers don't deal with emails that have bounced.

How to deal with "bouncing" emails?

One of the main problems in handling and processing bounced emails is the inconsistency in the notifications sent by different mail servers for the same bounce reason. Therefore, it is recommended to:

• Focus on emails that return due to "Hard Bouncing".
• Watch emails that have returned from the same address.
• wait a few weeks before designating a certain email address as incorrect.

Conclusion

Dealing with bounced emails correctly will increase the level of deliverability of emails that are sent by you. In order to automatically handle bounced emails you should use professional tools that will enable you to assess the reason your emails have bounced. A professional email marketing software will allow you to update your database automatically and designate problematical email addresses without having to go over each email manually.