Emails Bouncing Back? Why It Happens and How to Handle Bounces
If you’ve sent an email campaign and noticed that some emails bounced or weren’t delivered at all, you’re not alone. Email bounces are a common issue that can impact your campaign’s success—and even your sender reputation. But don’t worry! inwise system’s automatically manages these issues for you, filtering out invalid addresses and helping maintain your sender domain’s reputation, ensuring your emails reach their destination.
In this article, we’ll explore why emails bounce, how to handle it properly, and how inwise helps you maintain high deliverability rates while protecting your domain.
What is a bounce?
When an email is sent but doesn’t reach its recipient for some reason, the recipient’s mail server sends a bounce message explaining why the delivery failed. These bounces fall into three main categories:
- Soft Bounce – Temporary issue. A soft bounce occurs when an email cannot be delivered due to a temporary issue, such as:
– The recipient’s mailbox is full.
– The recipient’s mail server is temporarily unavailable.
– The recipient has an “Out of Office” auto-reply enabled.
In these cases, the system will attempt to resend the email up to three times. If delivery fails after these attempts, the address will be marked as a hard bounce for 90 days. After this period, the system will check again if the address is active. - Hard Bounce – Permanent issue. A hard bounce occurs when delivery fails due to a permanent issue, such as:
– The email address is invalid or misspelled.
– The recipient’s mailbox no longer exists.
– The domain is inactive.
Addresses marked as hard bounces are automatically classified as inactive, and no further emails will be sent to them.
You can review your bounce list, correct any errors, and attempt to resend emails if necessary. - Spam – Blocked due to spam filtering. If an email is flagged as spam (whether accurately or mistakenly), the recipient’s server may block it from delivery.
Why is it important to manage bounced emails?
Email providers monitor your bounce rate. If a high percentage of your emails fail to reach recipients, you may be flagged as an unreliable sender—or even a spammer—which can severely impact your future deliverability. Properly managing bounces helps maintain your sender reputation and increases the likelihood of your emails reaching recipients’ inboxes instead of their spam folders.
How does inwise protect your sender reputation?
- Automatic Filtering: inwise automatically filters out invalid addresses and maintains an intelligent bounce management system.
- Hard Bounce Handling: Email addresses marked as hard bounces are labeled inactive to prevent further delivery attempts.
- Soft Bounce Monitoring: If an address consistently soft bounces over a set period, it will be temporarily removed from your list.
How to improve your email deliverability?
Remove Hard Bounces: Addresses that repeatedly bounce due to permanent issues should be removed from your list to prevent harm to your sender reputation.
Monitor Soft Bounces: If an address soft bounces multiple times, consider removing it after a certain period.
Managing bounces isn’t just a technical fix—it’s a strategic move to boost your deliverability and prevent your emails from being flagged as spam. Keeping your contact lists up to date and using a professional email marketing system will ensure your messages reach their intended recipients efficiently while maintaining your sender reputation.
