Introduction
Not every email you send will land neatly in the inbox. Sometimes an email is returned — this is called a bounce. Understanding and managing bounces is important to keep your email list healthy and ensure your emails are delivered successfully.
What are email bounces?
An email bounce means that an email was not delivered. This can be temporary (soft bounce) or permanent (hard bounce).
- Soft bounce: a temporary issue, such as a full inbox or a server that is temporarily offline.
- Hard bounce: a permanent issue, such as an invalid address or a non-existent domain.
How does Xendy handle this?
Bounces are inconvenient, but you don’t have to take any action yourself. Xendy automatically detects whether the issue is temporary or permanent and takes the appropriate steps to keep your list clean and reliable.
- Soft bounces: these are temporary issues, such as a full inbox or a server not responding. Xendy automatically retries sending the email up to three times. In many cases, the email is delivered eventually. If an address keeps soft bouncing, the contact is automatically marked as ‘Inactive’.
- Hard bounces: these are permanent errors, for example, because the address does not exist or is misspelled. These addresses are automatically marked as ‘Inactive’ by Xendy.
- Spam complaints: if someone marks your email as spam, Xendy immediately treats this as a hard bounce. The address is instantly marked as ‘Inactive’.
Why is this important?
A low bounce rate increases the trust email providers like Gmail and Outlook have in your emails. This means a higher chance that your emails land in the inbox instead of the spam folder.
Frequently Asked Questions
An email bounce means that an email was not delivered. This can be temporary (soft bounce) or permanent (hard bounce).
- Soft bounce: a temporary issue, such as a full inbox or a server that is temporarily offline.
- Hard bounce: a permanent issue, such as an invalid address or a non-existent domain.
Bounces are inconvenient, but no manual action is required. Xendy automatically detects whether the issue is temporary or permanent and immediately takes the appropriate steps to keep your list clean and healthy.
- Soft bounces: these are temporary issues. Xendy retries delivery up to three times. If delivery is still not possible, the contact is marked as ‘Inactive’.
- Hard bounces: these are permanent issues. Xendy automatically marks these contacts as ‘Inactive’.
- Spam complaints: if someone marks your email as spam, Xendy treats this as a hard bounce, and the address is immediately deactivated.
A low bounce rate ensures that your emails are seen as more trustworthy by providers like Gmail and Outlook. This greatly increases your chances of landing in the inbox rather than being filtered as spam.
