Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience and drive conversions. But what if your emails never reach their intended recipients? What if they bounce back to you, either because the email address is invalid, the inbox is full, or the server rejects them?
This is what email bounce rate measures: the percentage of emails that are returned to you as undeliverable. A high bounce rate can hurt your reputation as a sender, lower your deliverability rates, and waste your resources. That's why you need to take steps to reduce your email bounce rate and ensure that your messages reach their destination. In this blog post, we will explain what causes email bounces, how to measure your email bounce rate, and how to reduce it with some best practices. Let's get started.
What Causes Email Bounces?
Email bounces can be classified into two categories: hard bounces and soft bounces.
Hard bounces occur when the email address is invalid or does not exist. This could be because the recipient has changed their email address, made a typo when entering it, or used a fake one. Hard bounces are permanent and cannot be resolved.
Soft bounces occur when the email address is valid but there is a temporary issue that prevents delivery. This could be because the recipient's inbox is full, their server is down or busy, or their spam filter blocks your email. Soft bounces are temporary and can be resolved by retrying later.