Emails bounces are quite simple, it's when an email can't be delivered for one reason or another - almost like throwing a ball to a someone, only to hit a wall and the ball bounces back at you.
There are two different types of bounces when it comes to email marketing: -
- A Soft Bounce
- A Hard Bounce
So whats the difference?
In a nutshell, one is temporary and the other is permanent.
A Soft bounce happens when the person who your are emailing has simply run out of space in their mailbox, the address exists but it simply can't fit in another email until they clean it up. If this continues, then the system will change to a Hard Bounce as it begins to affect your sending reputation if these emails keep getting bounced back.
Hard Bounce means that there was a fundamental issue delivering your email which one of the following categories: -
Bounce Category: bad-domain
Explanation: The message bounced due to an invalid or non-existing domain, 5.X.X error.
Resolution: Check the spelling and format of the domain, and edit the contact's details with the corrected domain. Once the contact has been updated, their bounce status will be reset and you can send to them again.
Bounce Category: bad-mailbox
Explanation: The message bounced due to a bad, invalid, or non-existent recipient address, 5.X.X error.
Resolution: Check the spelling and format of the contact's email address, and edit with the corrected information. Once the contact has been updated, their bounce status will be reset and you can send to them again.
Bounce Category: inactive-mailbox
Explanation: The message bounced due to an expired, inactive, or disabled recipient address, 5.X.X error.
Resolution: Confirm with the contact if their email address is still active. Check the spelling and format of the contact's email address, and edit with the corrected information. Once the contact has been updated, their bounce status will be reset and you can send to them again.
Bounce Category: message-expired
Explanation: The message bounced due to not being delivered before the two day window in which the system continues to attempt delivery, 4.X.X error.
Resolution: Confirm with the contact if their email address is still valid, and edit the contact's email address with any updated information. If the email address has not changed, ask the contact to whitelist. Once that has been done, reset the contact's delivery status and you will be able to send to them again.
Bounce Category: no-answer-from-host
Explanation: The message bounced due to receiving no response from the recipient's server after connecting, 4.X.X or 5.X.X error.
Resolution: The recipient's mail server is offline or has an issue in its configuration. Ask the recipient to investigate if there is an issue with their mail server. Once that has been done, reset the contact's delivery status and you will be able to send to them again.
Bounce Category: other messages
Explanation: The message bounced due to other reasons, 4.X.X or 5.X.X error.
Resolution: The system did not receive any detailed message back from the recipient's mail server. Ask the contact to whitelist. Once that has been done, reset the contact's delivery status and you will be able to send to them again.
Bounce Category: policy-related
Explanation: The message bounced due to a policy reason on a recipient address or domain, 5.X.X error.
Resolution: This is usually due to a message being classified as spam by a recipient's mail server or due to some type of limit restriction in place on the recipient's side. Ask the contact to whitelist. Once that has been done, reset the contact's delivery status and you will be able to send to them again.
Bounce Category: quota-issues
Explanation: The message bounced due to the recipient's mailbox being over its limit, 4.X.X or 5.X.X error.
Resolution: Confirm with the contact if they are able to receive email. Once that issue has been resolved on their side, reset the contact's delivery status and you will be able to send to them again.
Bounce Category: routing-errors
Explanation: The message bounced due to mail routing issues for a recipient domain, 5.X.X error.
Resolution: This is usually due to an invalid configuration in the DNS records on the recipient's mail server. Ask the recipient to investigate if there is an issue with their mail server. Once that has been done, reset the contact's delivery status and you will be able to send to them again.
Bounce Category: spam-related
Explanation: The message bounced due to spam related reasons, 5.X.X error.
Resolution: This is usually due to a message being classified as spam by a recipient's mail server. Ask the contact to whitelist. Once that has been done, reset the contact's delivery status and you will be able to send to them again.