Est. reading time: 3 minutes
In email marketing, maintaining a high deliverability rate is crucial to the success of your campaigns. One of the biggest obstacles marketers face is the dreaded “bounce”—when an email fails to reach its intended recipient. To improve email performance and protect your sender reputation, it’s essential to understand the difference between hard bounces and soft bounces, and how to deal with them effectively.
What Is a Hard Bounce?
A hard bounce means your email is permanently undeliverable. This could be due to an invalid recipient address, a non-existent domain, or the recipient server blocking your emails.
Common Causes of Hard Bounces
- Invalid or Non-Existent Email Addresses – Often the result of typos or deactivated accounts.
- Domain Issues – The domain part of the email (after the “@”) no longer exists.
- Blocked Emails – Your emails are blocked by the recipient’s mail server, possibly due to spam filtering or blacklisting.
How to Fix Hard Bounces
- Clean Your Email List Regularly – Use reliable email verification tools to scrub invalid addresses before each campaign.
- Implement a Double Opt-in Process – Require users to confirm their subscription to verify they entered a valid address.
- Monitor Bounce Reports – Track and immediately remove hard bounces using your email marketing platform.
- Check for Typos During Signup – Ensure email fields are properly validated at the point of collection.
What Is a Soft Bounce?
A soft bounce is a temporary delivery failure. It means the recipient’s email address is valid, but the message couldn’t be delivered at that time.
Common Causes of Soft Bounces
- Mailbox Is Full – The recipient has exceeded their storage limit.
- Temporary Server Issues – The recipient’s mail server is down or overloaded.
- Large Message Size – Emails with heavy attachments may be rejected.
- Spam Filter Triggers – Content or formatting triggered a spam filter rejection.
How to Fix Soft Bounces
- Resend the Email Later – Especially if it’s a temporary server issue, retry delivery after a short period.
- Optimize Email Content – Avoid overuse of links or spammy language to bypass spam filters.
- Reduce Email Size – Compress images and limit attachments to stay within size limits.
- Watch for Bounce Patterns – If a contact repeatedly soft bounces, consider removing them to protect your deliverability rate.
Why Ignoring Bounces Hurts Your Campaigns
Both types of bounces—if left unchecked—can severely damage your sender reputation. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) monitor your bounce rates, and a high rate could lead to your future emails being classified as spam or blocked altogether.
A clean email list, regular performance monitoring, and well-crafted content are essential to maintaining strong deliverability metrics and reaching your target audience effectively.
Maximize Deliverability with Expert Help
Email bounce management can be time-consuming and complex—but it doesn’t have to be.
At Tailored Edge Marketing, we specialize in email deliverability, campaign optimization, and list hygiene best practices to ensure your messages consistently reach the right inboxes.
👉 Contact our team today and take the guesswork out of your email marketing strategy. Let’s make sure your next campaign hits the mark.
