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Hard Bounce

What is Hard Bounce?

Hard bounce refers to an email being rejected by an email server for a permanent reason, such as the recipient’s email address being incorrect, the domain name not existing, or the email server having completely blocked the delivery.

Why is hard bounce important?

The success of an email campaign depends on the number of recipients who open and click on the links in the email. If a recipient clicks on the link, it's called a "revenue-generating click". To make sure that your email campaign is successful, you need to reach customers who are interested in your product or service and are likely to purchase it.

A hard bounce will hurt your deliverability rate and may cause you to lose subscribers from your list because they might think your emails are spam or they might no longer want anything to do with you.

How to prevent Hard Bounces in your email marketing campaigns

Preventing hard bounces in your email marketing campaigns is not challenging. Here are several things you can do to prevent hard bounces from decreasing your open rate, click-through rate, and revenue:

  • Make sure you have an email address that is monitored, instead of a "catch-all" email address, which receives every email sent to your domain, even if the email address isn’t registered with your domain.
  • Opt for an email server that accepts bounces back to the originating address, so you know which emails were not delivered.
  • Keep your list healthy. You can regularly send regular re-engagement campaigns to those subscribers who are no longer interacting with your emails. In this campaign, you should explain why the subscribers are receiving the email and encourage them to make a choice - either to stay on your list or unsubscribe altogether.

Your re-engagement email should be consistent with your regular sending schedule. For instance, if you send a daily newsletter, you should try to re-engage those who haven’t opened an email in 30 days. But if you send a weekly newsletter, then you may send your re-engagement campaign every six months or so.

Table of contents

1. Why is hard bounce important?
2. How to prevent Hard Bounces in your email marketing campaigns

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