How to Manage Soft vs Hard Bounce Emails for Better Campaign Results

When an email campaign fails, the content, design, or audience is often blamed. However, poor email deliverability may be the real culprit. If you’re struggling to improve your email open rates, look closer at your bounce rates. High bounce rates can wreak havoc on your sender’s reputation and inbox delivery, causing your emails to land in the dreaded spam folder. Reducing bounce rates and understanding the differences between soft and hard bounces can help marketers achieve their goals and improve the overall success of their email campaigns.

In this article, we’ll explore soft bounce vs hard bounce email, uncover the differences between the two, and review how to reduce each type of bounce. We’ll also show you how Inframail’s email infrastructure can help you get there.

What is a Bounced Email?

man checking his mail - Soft Bounce vs Hard Bounce Email

Bounced emails are the digital equivalent of a returned letter in the postal world. They occur when your email cannot be delivered to the recipient’s inbox for various reasons, like an incorrect email address, a full inbox, or server issues.

There are primarily two types:

A soft bounce
A hard bounce

Soft bounces are temporary email delivery failures, often due to issues like a full inbox or a server problem. In contrast, hard bounces are permanent failures, usually caused by invalid email addresses or blocked domains.

Soft bounces may resolve themselves and allow the email to be delivered later. On the other hand, for hard bounces, invalid or blocked email addresses should be removed from email lists to maintain the sender’s reputation.

Why Is It Critical to Understand the Different Types of Bounced Emails?

Bounced emails can significantly impact business applications, influencing customer relationships and revenue.

Here are a few examples:

Customer Engagement and Retention

Businesses miss critical opportunities to engage with their customers when emails bounce. Undelivered emails lose customer touchpoints, whether it’s:

A promotional offer
A follow-up
A newsletter

This lack of communication can lead to decreased customer engagement and customer attrition. Maintaining consistent and reliable email delivery is crucial for keeping customers informed, interested, and loyal to the brand.

Revenue Loss

Email marketing and sales communications via email drive revenue. Bounced emails, however, signify missed opportunities in converting prospects into customers or upselling to existing clients. Each undelivered email could have been the one that clinched a sale, so a high bounce rate can directly correlate to lost revenue.

Reputation and Deliverability Impact

Frequent email bounces can damage a business’s sender reputation, making future emails more difficult. Email service providers often use sender reputation to determine whether an email should land in the inbox or the spam folder. A tarnished reputation due to high bounce rates can lead to even legitimate emails being marked as spam, further reducing the effectiveness of email communication and impacting the business’s ability to reach its audience.

The Ultimate Guide to Soft Bounce vs Hard Bounce Emails

a complete guide - Soft Bounce vs Hard Bounce Email

Hard Bounces: The Email Graveyard

A hard bounce is a permanent delivery failure. It occurs when the recipient’s email address is invalid, or the destination domain is nonexistent. Common examples include typos like:

Gmial
Hitmail
Outlok
Yaho
Expired business domains.

Internet service providers (ISPs) monitor hard bounces and send an error message stating the reason for the failed email delivery. Different ISPs and mail servers use other response codes to distinguish between delivery failures.

Common Types of Hard Bounces: Causes, Fixes, and Impact on Email Deliverability

Here are the common types of hard bounces and their fixes.

Recipient Doesn’t Exist

Invalid email addresses cause this hard bounce. You should check the user and domain names and contact the user through a different channel to find out if they have a new email address. If the address still bounces after fixing the errors, we recommend removing it from your subscriber list.

Mailbox Full

Email service providers send this error message when the recipient’s inbox exceeds the maximum storage capacity. When this happens, you can contact the subscriber through a different channel and request that they clean their inbox. You must update all your mailing lists if they use a different email address.

Blocked Email Address

Mail servers employ several security protocols to check the sender’s reputation before accepting an email message. Failing to pass one of these triggers a hard bounce. If you receive a blocked bounce message from a smaller domain, contacting the ISP could help resolve the issue. For more extensive domains like Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo, consult our experts for help.

Blocked by Spam Filters

Specific conditions might trigger spam filters on the receiver’s email servers. For instance, if a subscriber never opens your email, files spam complaints, or your messages contain spam trigger words. Launch a re-engagement campaign to generate interest if a subscriber hardly opens your emails. You should avoid spam trigger words in the subject line and body copy.

Consequences of Hard Bounces

Most mailbox providers monitor deliverability rates and sender reputation. Domains with higher deliverability rates are more trustworthy than those with higher hard and soft bounces. This matters since the sender’s reputation significantly impacts email deliverability. Hence, you must always try to avoid hard bounces.

Soft Bounces: The Email Speed Bump

Soft bounces can cause a temporary email delivery failure. They occur when the recipient’s email server approves your IP and domain, but your message doesn’t reach their inbox. This happens when the message size is too large, the recipient’s inbox doesn’t allow emails from the sender, or suspicious and spammy content is detected.

Understanding Soft Bounces: Types, Resolutions, and Their Long-Term Impact on Email Campaigns

Here are some common types of soft bounces and their fixes.

Mailbox Full

While a full mailbox is typically categorized as a hard bounce, it starts with a soft bounce. For example, you send emails to a subscriber who has interacted with your business before but isn’t responding to your current email campaigns. In that case, the ISP monitors the frequency of the emails that fail for up to 3 days. Once the time limit is up, the ISP marks your emails as hard bounces. You can contact the subscriber and inform them about the exceeding inbox capacity or find out if they use a different address.

Challenge-response Error

A challenge-response error message appears when the user installs a filter to block spam emails. The filter automatically sends a challenge, usually an activity or a question. Your message is only delivered if you complete the challenge within the specified time—double opt-in sign-up forms filter subscribers before adding them to your subscriber list. Run spam tests before broadcasting your email campaigns.

DNS Failure

A domain name system (DNS) fails when the recipient’s email server can’t direct your mail to their inbox due to a technical issue. DNS issues may happen because of server downtime, typos, or a void destination domain. You can send your email after a few days. If the problem persists, contact the customer through a different channel and verify their email address.

Auto Reply Emails

Auto replies like out-of-office or vacation notices indicate that your subscriber is temporarily unavailable. These notifications are crucial when sending time-sensitive emails, informing the sender of the receiver’s unavailability. When this happens, you can contact the subscriber again after a few days.

Other Errors

Sometimes, ISPs don’t classify error codes when sending bounce messages. These are treated as soft bounces, as the exact reason for the bounce is unknown. You can contact the subscriber to determine if they have acquired a new email address.

Consequences of Soft Bounces

Soft bounces don’t impact your sender’s reputation immediately. Repeated soft bounces will still affect deliverability rates. Most mail service providers enforce protocols to remove soft bounces after a while. For instance, some automatically remove email addresses that bounce more than 15 times.

How to Improve Your Email Bounce Rate

team making ideas - Soft Bounce vs Hard Bounce Email

Double Opt-In: The Path to Higher Quality Email Lists

To improve email delivery rates, start at the source: your email list. A double opt-in system helps ensure that the subscribers on your list genuinely want to receive your emails. With a single opt-in system, a new subscriber is added to your list immediately after they enter their email address on an online sign-up form.

With a double opt-in, a subscriber enters their email address and receives an email with a link. Once they click the link, their email address is verified, and they are added to your list. Some businesses resist implementing a double opt-in because it takes longer to build a contact list. But if your subscribers verify their email addresses, you’ll have a higher deliverability rate and a more engaged audience.

Regularly Cleaning Your Email List

High bounce rates typically happen because your list is too cluttered. You may have started building your list years ago. In that time, many of your subscribers may have moved on or gotten new email addresses. That’s why it’s essential to update and manage your email marketing list regularly. A simple data check will help you weed out email addresses with typos or misspellings.

It’s also a good idea to check your feedback loops periodically and remove any subscribers who complain about you or report you as spam. Every so often, go through your list and remove inactive subscribers. This can feel counterintuitive, but removing recipients who don’t engage with your emails can be beneficial. This ongoing process ensures that your list stays healthy and that you send emails only to people who want to receive them.

Watch Your Sender Reputation: Stop Using Free Email Services

Never send marketing emails from a free email service, such as Gmail. Sending business emails from a free account looks unprofessional and can hurt your brand. The other issue is that free email domains often don’t pass the DMARC policy, so you’ll likely experience more hard bounces. Send emails from a custom email address instead.

Send Emails Consistently

One of the best ways to maintain a low bounce rate is to email your list consistently. If new subscribers sign up and then don’t hear from you for months, they may forget they subscribed and mark your emails as spam. To avoid this, email your subscribers at least once a month and, at most, twice weekly. Consistent contact will keep them engaged and ensure you continue building relationships with them.

Verify Your Domain to Improve Email Deliverability

DMARC, SPF, and DKIM are the three primary ways to authenticate your domain. Authenticating your domain will lower your email bounce rate and improve your deliverability rate. It will also prevent security alerts from popping up when subscribers open your emails.

Avoid Spammy Language to Ensure Emails Get Delivered

Spammy language could be another reason for a high email bounce rate. Email providers look for specific words, images and phrases to label emails as spam. For instance, if you regularly include the following phrases, your emails may go straight to the junk folder:

50% off
Act now!
Free offer
Make money
Drastically reduced

Segment Your List for Better Personalization

Building an email list is not enough; you must get to know your audience and send personalized, relevant content. Personalized emails open 82 percent more than generic emails, and 28 percent of users don’t care about email length as long as the content is personalized. The easiest way to deliver personalized content is to segment your subscriber list. Group subscribers based on factors such as their locations, interests, and preferences, and then send relevant emails to each segment.

Monitor Email Deliverability Over Time

Just because something works well for you now doesn’t mean it will continue to work. That’s why continually monitoring your email campaigns and deliverability rate is essential. Continue A/B testing your emails to know the content that resonates with your subscribers. Keep an eye on your bounce rates, open rates, and the number of subscribers who have complained or marked your emails as spam. By tracking these metrics, you can spot and address issues before they become significant problems.

Use a Preference Center to Keep Your List Clean

As your email list grows, managing your subscribers and ensuring their information is current will be harder. You should then add a preference center link to your emails. A preference center is where your subscribers can add new information and update their email preferences. This ensures that your data is accurate and gives subscribers more control over the emails they receive and the information they share with you. An essential preference center allows subscribers to update their email addresses, choose how often they want to receive your emails, and opt out of receiving emails.

Regularly Monitor Email Bounce Rate

Monitor your email delivery and bounce rates closely. Analyze patterns over time to identify when your campaigns are experiencing deliverability issues.

Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today

Inframail revolutionizes cold email infrastructure with unlimited inboxes at a single flat rate. With Microsoft-backed deliverability and dedicated IP addresses, we help scale their outreach efficiently:

Agencies
Recruiters
SDRs

Main benefits of using our service:

Automated SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup
Dedicated email servers for each user
16-hour priority support daily

Unlike traditional providers that charge per inbox and leave you wrestling with technical configurations, Inframail streamlines the entire process. We handle the complex infrastructure setup while you focus on reaching more prospects. InfraMail provides a robust email infrastructure without the usual technical headaches and per-inbox costs, whether you're:

An agency looking to scale outreach
A recruiter connecting with candidates
An SDR driving sales

Start buying domains now and set up your email infrastructure today with our email infrastructure tool.

When an email campaign fails, the content, design, or audience is often blamed. However, poor email deliverability may be the real culprit. If you’re struggling to improve your email open rates, look closer at your bounce rates. High bounce rates can wreak havoc on your sender’s reputation and inbox delivery, causing your emails to land in the dreaded spam folder. Reducing bounce rates and understanding the differences between soft and hard bounces can help marketers achieve their goals and improve the overall success of their email campaigns.

In this article, we’ll explore soft bounce vs hard bounce email, uncover the differences between the two, and review how to reduce each type of bounce. We’ll also show you how Inframail’s email infrastructure can help you get there.

What is a Bounced Email?

Bounced emails are the digital equivalent of a returned letter in the postal world. They occur when your email cannot be delivered to the recipient’s inbox for various reasons, like an incorrect email address, a full inbox, or server issues.

There are primarily two types:

A soft bounce
A hard bounce

Soft bounces are temporary email delivery failures, often due to issues like a full inbox or a server problem. In contrast, hard bounces are permanent failures, usually caused by invalid email addresses or blocked domains.

Soft bounces may resolve themselves and allow the email to be delivered later. On the other hand, for hard bounces, invalid or blocked email addresses should be removed from email lists to maintain the sender’s reputation.