Reducing your email bounce rate is critical to improving deliverability and ensuring that your email campaigns are successful. Bounces can occur for various reasons, typically categorized as hard bounces (permanent issues like invalid email addresses) and soft bounces. By implementing the following strategies, you can reduce your bounce rate and achieve greater success in email marketing.
1. Start with a High-Quality Sign-Up Form
A well-designed sign-up form is the foundation of a good quality email list. Ensure that your form is easy to use and includes a CAPTCHA system to prevent fake sign-ups from spambots. Using double opt-in method ensures that every email on your list is valid - this simple but smart procedure requires a user to confirm their email by responding to a confirmation message, which helps filter out fake or faulty addresses. This step also improves your list quality and ensures that you are sending emails to engaged recipients - which is the basis for raising the reputation of the account.
If you're not sure what the difference between double opt-in and single opt-in contacts are, you can gather more information here.
2. Regularly Clean and Validate Your Contact List
An outdated/not verified contact list is a major cause of hard bounces. If you haven't emailed your list in over six months, it is likely that many addresses have become inactive or invalid. Make sure to periodically clean your list, removing addresses that are no longer valid or inactive. In addition, please follow these simple steps:
Find and correct common spelling mistakes in email addresses (e.g., gmial.com to gmail.com).
Remove generic and non-personal addresses like “info@domain.com” or “noreply@something.com,” as they often result in bounces.
TIP(!): Elastic Email offers an efficient Email Verification Service. You can verify either a single contact or a whole CSV contact list. Eliminating invalid or otherwise undesirable contacts from your contact lists will significantly improve your email deliverability and decrease bounce rates. You can learn more about our Email Verification Service here. .
3. Avoid Using Your Campaign to Clean Your List
Your email service provider (ESP) is not designed to be a list-cleaning tool, and using it that way can damage your sender reputation very quickly! Sending emails to a poor-quality list can result in high bounce rates and risking your account's suspension! The account should be optimized for maximum efficiency and deliverability. Reckless testing uncertain/risky addresses/lists may significantly reduce account's reputation - and, as a result - the deliverability of your emails.
4. Maintain a Good Sender Reputation
Your sender reputation directly affects your email deliverability. If your reputation is damaged, you risk having future campaigns blocked by recipient servers. To maintain a strong sender reputation, you should:
Ensure that your contact list is clean and up-to-date before sending.
Monitor bounce rates closely and take immediate action when you notice any issues.
Remove inactive or invalid contacts regularly to avoid hard bounces
Take care of the reputation and appropriate verification of your sending domain and (if applicable) private IP(s) -These are key factors, along with the quality of your contact list and content, in determining deliverability!
5. Verify Your Sender Domain
Domain verification is a critical step in reducing bounce rates. This process ensures that your emails are being sent from a trusted and authenticated domain, which enhances your email deliverability and reduces the chances of your emails being rejected by recipient servers. By setting up domain verification, your emails will be sent using your domain as the “From” address, strengthening both your credibility and deliverability. Please note that we highly recommend verifying all domain records described in the above linked article!
6. Ensure Your Email Doesn't Look Like Spam
Many emails bounce because they are flagged as spam by recipient servers. Spam filters evolve constantly, making it essential to regularly review your email templates to ensure they don’t contain elements that might trigger spam detection. Use tools like Mail-tester.com or the spam check features provided by external providers, to test your emails and make necessary adjustments to your formatting, wording, links, and content. Avoid excessive use of promotional language or misleading subject lines or links - and always include a clear unsubscribe option to build trust.
7. Send Emails on a Consistent Schedule
Consistency in your email schedule helps build expectations with both your recipients and email servers. By sending emails at regular intervals, you remind your subscribers of their decision to opt-in, reducing the likelihood of them marking your emails as spam or ignoring them altogether. Analyze engagement patterns to determine the optimal frequency for your campaigns, ensuring you're neither overwhelming your subscribers nor letting them forget about you.
8. Use Engagement Metrics to Refine Your List
Pay attention to engagement metrics such as open rates and click-through rates. Segment your list based on these metrics, removing or re-engaging inactive subscribers. Targeting more engaged users will lead to higher deliverability rates and lower the risk of bounces, as you are focusing on contacts who are genuinely interested in your content.
Need more information? No worries - you're kindly invited to contact our Customer Support Team! Our experienced specialists are ready to assist with any issues and answer all your questions. We're always happy to help!