Follow the Bouncing Email…
Friday, April 13th, 2007 at 10:35 am by Matt Van Atta
Your content masterpiece is ready to send to your email opt-in list. Perhaps it’s that first newsletter issue, information about a new product, or a special limited-time offer. Whatever it is, you know in your heart that this content will lead to increased interest and, hopefully, sales.
You hit the “Send” button, and within minutes, replies start coming in. At that point, you might enjoy one more brief moment of euphoria. More likely, however, you think to yourself, “Oh, no, my email’s not being delivered.” (You might say something more emphatic, but I’ll leave that to you.) In other words, your email has bounced.
A bounce, or bounceback, occurs when an email is returned to the sender undelivered.
An email that bounces back because an existing Inbox is full is called a “soft bounce.” In this case, you can at least hope that your email will eventually reach that destination. No such luck with the hard bounce, in which the destination email address does not exist.
How can this happen, when the recipient opted into your mailing list?
Mailing lists can be somewhat fluid. People often change email providers, and thus email addresses. And some intentionally enter a bad email address in a registration form. That way, they obtain what they want without having to give any personal information in return. (We live in a world of increasing suspicion, after all.)
Spam filters can also lead to bouncebacks. Even if they opted into your mailing list, some max out their spam filter settings to avoid spam. If one proverbial hair is out of place in your email – the wrong word in a subject line, or the omission of an opt-out link – the spam alarms can go off. The consequences of that can go well beyond the bounceback.
The following suggestions will minimize bouncebacks and make them easier to manage:
- Regularly clean your lists of email addresses that consistently bounce back your emails. It sounds mundane, but it’s necessary. And an autoresponder service (such as AWeber.com) can handle it for you.
- Maintain high-quality content in your emails, and avoid items that could label your email as spam.
- Limit email deliveries to those who opted in to your mailing list.
Bouncebacks are a bummer. But if you maintain an opt-in list, it’s a daily fact of life. And the financial rewards of an opt-in list will always outweigh the bounces.
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