Prevent high bounce rates

The bounce rate is the percentage of email addresses where you campaign could not be delivered. Email providers and anti-spam networks monitor this information and decide on the basis thereof whether they will continue to accept email from you in the future. It is obvious, therefore, that you must keep your bounce rates as low as possible.

The cause of high bounce rates

Often, bounce rates are related to the quality of your mailing list. Are your bounce rates low? That is a good indication of a healthy, permission-based list of active and involved subscribers. High bounce rates indicate potential problems with the way the addresses in the list have been obtained, or how they are managed.

Prevent bounces

It is better to prevent than to cure, so always observe the guidelines below to keep the bounce rate of your campaign at a minimum.

Avoid out-dated lists

Information about email addresses can become obsolete in a flash. Employees come and go, companies are taken over or reorganised and accounts are cancelled. If you fail to clean up and update your data, you will have soon a database of “dead” addresses.

Do not send your campaign to lists you have not sent emails to in the last six months.

Do not buy, hire or borrow lists

With lists supplied by third parties you never know how old the email addresses are (as you have already read above) and whether you have permission to email them.

Remove invalid email addresses

Adding invalid email addresses to your mailing list is easier than you think. For example, when someone accidentally (or deliberately) enters erroneous data on a registration form.

Use a double opt-in, therefore. This way you can be sure that the email address is correct and that this person wants to receive your emails.

Avoid spamlike content

Spam filters are very clever these days. Therefore, your email letters may be marked as spam for various reasons. Spam filters are not unreasonable, however. Their purpose is to prevent people from receiving unwanted messages and they look at common factors in inappropriate emails.

It is a myth that you will be instantly marked as SPAM by using specific words. A spam filter can be triggered by various things, but rarely by the use of specific words (such as free, last chance, the use of capital letters and exclamation marks).

A spam filter assigns points to spam words in the subject line and the body of the mailing. If the number of points exceeds a certain limit, the email will be treated as SPAM. But the use of 1 or 2 of these words or characters will not result in your ending up in the spam folder.

Provide a clear unsubscribe process

If someone is no longer interested in your mailings, it is better to offer them a clear unsubscribe button than having them repeatedly pressing the delete button or marking your message as spam. Both have a negative impact on the delivery.

Therefore, make it easy for your subscribers to unsubscribe. Do not hide the unsubscribe button and do not make it an obstacle course, so people do not need to login again before they can unsubscribe.

What to do if you still have high bounce rates

Is the bounce rate of your campaign still above ..%? Please do not hesitate to contact us, we will help you with this.