Top 10 Reasons Why Emails Bounce & the Solution

by Supriya Sarkar, Guest Contributor

Email Marketing is a very important digital activity which generates a large revenue percentage for many of the businesses. In such cases, a high bounce rate can prove to be fatal. Therefore it is important to understand the reasons that lead to high email bounces and what can companies do in order to preserve their revenue source in a healthy state. Some of the factors that result in a high number of bounces are given below:

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1.       Spam Filters- According to the stats presented by The Radicati Group, 84% of the emails are spams. The industry, therefore, especially corporate spam filters are on high alerts to remove anything that is unidentified and filtered out as junk.

2.       Database Decay- Database tend to diminish over a period of time due to various reasons like a user discontinues to use a certain mail id or joins a new job, etc. All these reasons lead to decay in the database in a given time period due to which the number of bounce rate increases.

3.       Invalid Email Addresses- If the recipient email address is invalid the message returns to the sender. Such bounce back is called hard bounce. A hard bounce can occur due to one the reasons like domain does not exist, spelling mistake, typo error or database bought from a 3rd party is of bad quality. If these databases are used without being filtered there is a high probability of you getting higher bounce rates.

4.       Poor Sender Reputation- Good sender reputation is the key to ensure your email lands in the inbox of the user. Sender reputation is a very important factor which determines whether an ISP will accept or reject your email. Domain or the IP addresses from which the emails are sent are considered to monitor the Sender Reputation. You can check your domain reputation by using free tools like SenderScore.
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5.       Blacklisted IP- Spam filters scrutinize the IP to identify the sending IP to be blacklisted. This exposes your valid messages to fall into the spam trap due to someone else who is doing spamming within the same shared IP.

The changing standards of the industry have also lead the usage of a lot of advanced tools to decrease email abuse. A certain percentage of email bounces are normal and acceptable. But when the bounce rate crosses the acceptable standards it is then the problem should be addressed immediately. There are few practices that would ensure that your deliverability improves by reducing the bounce rate.

1.       Improve Sender Reputation- Do frequent checks of your domain health. Ensure that your domain reputation is not affected due to the spamming activity of some other sender within the same IP.

2.       Use the verified email list- Verify your email list bought by a third party. This will ensure that you are sending emails to valid and genuine users which will reduce the bounce rates. Here are a few extremely useful tools that are widely used for email verification.

3.       Use permission-based email list- If you are able to build your own list of subscribers or users then it would be of great help. This will make your cross-selling and future selling much easier. Also, such a list of emails is more authentic. Make sure that such list is also verified to ensure any email address with typo error or spelling error is eliminated from the list using any of the tools shared in the list above.

4.       A/B Test- Try to do multiple A/B testing to figure out which one works better. A/B testing can be done on various levels like email content, Landing Pages, CTA's, etc. This will tell you which draft or landing page is more appealing to which segment of the audience.

5.       Personalize the Content- Personalized content works better since it seems the email is personally written for the user. A generalized email is often marked as spam and automatically is moved to the spam folder over a period of time. Use a good automation tool that helps you in optimizing the email content by personalizing it as per the user.
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6.       Stay in touch with your Subscribers- Make sure that you are able to send the newsletter, product update or any new & update related to your business to your subscribers. This will create a brand identity and will help them recall your business. Also, as a subscriber who has shared their personal information, will find value when you update them or share valuable content. Such periodical communication will also reduce the high bounce rate.

The above-given practices will ensure that your emails reach the inbox of the user. Small changes often reduce the bounce rate and impact your deliverability. Use email verification tool like Clearout to remove unwanted and junk email ids from your list. Following these above best practices have resulted in improvement in email inbox delivery.
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About the author:

Supriya Sarkar is a digital marketing consultant with a digital experience of over 6 years. The dynamic characteristics of the marketing industry due to technological advancement have always kept her amazed. She likes to be a lifelong student observing the world with awe and continuous zest to learn. She has worked on portfolio companies helping them in various digital activities. 

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