List C: 0% Bad email off, let's say we send list A.īefore delivering the messages, the receiving email client checks to see if has historically sent good or bad emails. An email might soft bounce if a sender's accuracy over the last month is below 75%, or below 90% over the last week.Ĭonsider the following 3 lists (in the example below the accuracy rating is set to 75%): List A: 20% Bad email addresses Too many hard bounces lowers overall accuracy, and a soft bounce is the email client's way of asking a sender to improve quality of their list.Īn additional wrinkle is that each email client sets their own standard for calculating a given sender's accuracy, and that is generally a measure of accuracy over time, rather than for a specific list. Rejecting valid email addresses and adding the note that "we'll deliver future messages if your accuracy improves" is a way of rewarding folks with good lists, and encouraging folks with outdated lists to improve.
Because our system retries soft bounces this status is temporary so you won't very often encounter it.Įmail providers want to encourage the use of clean lists as this indicates that the person sending the email has permission and a genuine relationship with all the members of their list. Please check your Email Service Provider (ESP) for bounce information.īounces will display on the Delivery Statistics section of your email campaigns and will populate in the message status fields of the status log. Important: If you have set up an SMTP Integration and are sending your campaign emails via your own (or third party) mail server, bounce information will not be available in Alchemer. Servers can sometimes interpret bounces differently, meaning a soft bounce on one server may be classified as a hard bounce on another. Soft bounces should eventually change to Bounce (which is a hard bounce) or Sent. Soft bounces can also include things like auto-replies to your email. A soft bounce might occur because the recipient's mailbox is full, the server is down or swamped with messages, or the message is too large. This can be caused by invalid addresses (domain name doesn't exist, typos, changed address, etc.).Ī soft bounce is an email that gets as far as the recipient's mail server (it recognizes the address) but is bounced back undelivered before it gets to the recipient. Soft Bounce v Hard BounceĪ hard bounce is an email that has been returned by the recipient's mail server as permanently undeliverable. When sending out your survey invitations through your Alchemer Email Campaign, it's good to keep in mind two terms: Hard and Soft Bounces.
#Email bounce back message how to#
Want to see how to take projects from good to great? Check out our Leading Practice & FAQ Home Page!ĭetermining the reason why an email you've sent does not get delivered can be difficult.