One of the most important tasks of an effective email marketing strategy is keeping your list well maintained. As Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other email gatekeepers shift their focus from content to delivery and reputation issues, it becomes more important than ever before.
Resolving bounced messages is one of the important elements of good list management. But for those who don’t understand Enhanced Mail System Status Codes, this can be a daunting task. Understanding why messages are returned is critical.
There are basically two types of bounced emails:
- A Hard Bounce is returned when there is a permanent problem with the address or server that the message is being sent to. For example, if you send a message to @messagingtimes.cim, it will be returned as a hard bounce because the domain doesn’t exist.
- A Soft Bounce is returned for a variety of reasons when there is a temporary problem with the delivery of a message. For example, a recipient’s mailbox might be full at the moment of delivery.
Deliverability.com shares some insights into how bounces work. Toward the bottom of the article, they provide a link that explains what the different codes that you will see associated with bounced messages.
If senders simply ignore bounced messages and keep bad addresses on their list, then over time they risk having their IP or domain blocked.
GroupMail users can configure their Subscriber Add-on to automatically remove invalid or troublesome email addresses from their list. For more information about this feature, read Managing Bounces with GroupMail.
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