Your bounce rate shows how many of your emails could not be delivered, and keeping it low is one of the most effective ways to protect your sender reputation and your deliverability. This article covers the practices that keep bounces down, from building a good contact list to authenticating your sending domain.
Bounces fall into two categories: hard bounces, which are permanent failures such as an address that does not exist, and soft bounces, which are temporary. You can read more about them in the article What are the bounce error categories and filters.
Start with a high-quality sign-up form
A well designed sign-up form is the foundation of a good quality email list. Make sure that your form is easy to use and includes a CAPTCHA system to prevent fake sign-ups from spambots.
Using the double opt-in method helps ensure that every email on your list is valid. This simple procedure asks the user to confirm their address by responding to a confirmation message, which filters out fake or faulty addresses. It also improves your list quality and means you are sending to engaged recipients, which is the basis for building the reputation of your account.
You can read more about our double opt-in webform in the article How to create a Subscription Form
Keep your contact list clean and current
An outdated or unverified contact list is a major cause of hard bounces. If you have not emailed your list in over six months, many of those addresses are likely to be stale or undeliverable by now. Clean your list periodically and remove addresses that are no longer in use. In addition, follow these simple steps:
Find and correct common spelling mistakes in email addresses, for example gmial.com instead of gmail.com.
Remove generic and non-personal addresses such as "info@domain.com" or "noreply@something.com", as they often result in bounces.
Elastic Email also offers an Email Verification Service. You can verify either a single contact or a whole CSV contact list. Eliminating undeliverable or otherwise undesirable contacts from your lists will improve your deliverability and decrease your bounce rate. The article Email Verification Service describes it in more detail.
Do not use a campaign to clean your list
Your email service provider is not designed to be a list-cleaning tool, and using it that way can damage your sender reputation very quickly. Sending to a poor-quality list results in high bounce rates and can put your account at risk of suspension. Your account should be optimized for maximum efficiency and deliverability, so avoid testing uncertain or risky addresses and lists through live campaigns.
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.
Regularly remove addresses you have not emailed in a long time and addresses that never engage, since sending to stale addresses is what produces hard bounces.
Take care of the reputation and the verification of your sending domain and, where applicable, your Private IPs. Together with the quality of your contact list and your content, these are key factors in determining deliverability.
Verify your sender domain
Domain verification is a critical step in reducing bounce rates. It confirms that your emails are sent from a trusted and authenticated domain, which improves your deliverability and reduces the chances of your emails being rejected by recipient servers. With domain verification in place, your emails are sent using your own domain in the "From" address, which strengthens both your credibility and your deliverability.
We recommend verifying all of the domain DNS records described in the article How to verify your domain.
Make sure your email does not look like spam
Many emails bounce because they are flagged as spam by recipient servers. Spam filters evolve constantly, so it is worth reviewing your templates regularly to make sure they do not contain elements that trigger spam detection.
Use a tool such as https://www.mail-tester.com, or the spam check features provided by external providers, to test your emails and adjust your formatting, wording, links, and content. Avoid excessive promotional language and misleading subject lines or links, and always include a clear unsubscribe option to build trust.
Send emails on a consistent schedule
Consistency in your sending schedule helps build expectations with both your recipients and the recipient servers. Sending at regular intervals reminds your subscribers of their decision to opt in, which reduces the likelihood of them marking your emails as spam or ignoring them altogether. Analyze engagement patterns to find the optimal frequency for your campaigns, so that you are neither overwhelming your subscribers nor letting them forget about you.
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, and remove or re-engage subscribers who no longer respond. Targeting engaged users leads to higher deliverability and a lower risk of bounces, because you are focusing on contacts who are genuinely interested in your content.
If you need any further assistance, feel free to reach out to our Customer Support Team, available 24/7. We're always happy to help!