The email bounce rate of an email list represents the percentage of recipients who did not receive promotional messages because their mail servers returned them. The email content is bounced when its message is not sent to the intended email address.
The reputation of the sender is hurt by high bounce rates. Such a problem arises when marketers use out-of-date mailing lists. In addition, errors in importing or entering addresses can also result in higher bounce rates and emails reported as spam.
Unsubscribes, abuse, and bounces are limited by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Marketers may be issued warnings or have their accounts suspended by ISPs when their rates are extremely high.
Email Bounce Rate
In essence, the bounce rate refers to an email that never reaches the inbox. Bounced emails are those that are either not active or are simply fake. Spam emails appear in the spam list; bounced emails are those that are not sent.
The ratio is calculated similarly by dividing bounced emails by emails sent and multiplying that by 100.
Ideally, the bounce rate should be under 2%, but the number varies depending on the industry. Moreover, bounces of two types play a major role in defining the rate:
Soft bounce
There may be a temporary bounce if a server is overwhelmed, which is perfectly normal. There are many ups and downs when it comes to the internet. In most cases, the server tries sending the mail multiple times before marking it a bounce. As a result, soft bounces are not something you need to worry about since the mail generally gets delivered over time.
Hard bounce
A hard bounce means nothing good for your bounce rate because it negatively impacts your business or SEO. A message is returned saying that the domain does not exist or the email address is incorrect. Email addresses like these should not be included in your mailing list.
How to reduce Email Bounce Rate
An average bounce rate of 2% or less is probably nothing to worry about. However, hard bounces are a different story.
How can we improve the Email bounce rate? Let’s get started with a few basic ideas that will go a long way.
#1. Monitor your email list
The first thing to do in order to solve the email bounce rate is to remove no longer active email addresses. You should check the subscriber list and determine if the IDs seem forged or if the domains are no longer active.
Choose a service provider with a good reputation and a healthy IP address. Take extreme caution when dealing with spam bots that send incorrect and fake email IDs your way. It is easy to collect email addresses with free wifi and lead magnets. At times, however, they can give you fake IDs, which could further increase your bounce rate.
Subscribers must confirm their subscription before they can subscribe by allowing a double opt-in option. Filtering potential customers in this way allows you to build an email list of people who are genuinely interested in your products.
#2. A/B test emails
A/B testing is possible through email marketing, by splitting your subscriber list into two groups and sending different versions of the same campaign to each group.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Which variation of the campaign is the most effective
- Does either of the two subscriber sections have any hard bounces
- Do you have hard bounces in any subsection, and if so, why?
