Summary
Troubleshooting soft bounce issues with Yahoo/VZG involves a multi-faceted approach. Experts and marketers emphasize list hygiene (removing inactive addresses, segmenting based on engagement), content optimization (avoiding spam triggers), infrastructure setup (proper authentication, reverse DNS), reputation monitoring (IP and domain), understanding Yahoo/VZG's specific policies (throttling, greylisting), server configuration (retries), and infrastructure review (CDNs). Documentation highlights analyzing SMTP codes, monitoring bounce rates, and leveraging 'mailbox full' indicators for list cleaning. A combination of these strategies helps pinpoint and resolve the reasons Yahoo/VZ temporarily rejects mail.
Key findings
- List Quality: A common cause is a problematic sender list containing stale, invalid, or unengaged email addresses.
- Content Triggers: Email content can trigger soft bounces due to spam-like characteristics, inappropriate keywords, or broken links.
- Authentication Issues: Improperly configured email authentication protocols, such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, can lead to deliverability problems.
- Reputation Concerns: Poor sender reputation (IP and domain) increases the likelihood of soft bounces from Yahoo/VZG.
- Infrastructure Problems: Issues with the sending infrastructure, including CDNs and reverse DNS lookups, can contribute to soft bounces.
- VZ-Specific Rules: Yahoo/VZ might enforce unique policies related to throttling, content inspection, and greylisting.
- Greylisting: Temporary rejections due to greylisting are common. Retrying the email is necessary for successful delivery.
- Monitoring and analysis: Monitoring soft bounce rates, SMTP codes, and bounce patterns is crucial for effective troubleshooting.
Key considerations
- Implement Regular List Cleaning: Remove inactive and invalid addresses to improve engagement and lower bounce rates.
- Conduct Content Audits: Review email content for elements that could trigger spam filters and cause temporary rejections.
- Verify Authentication Setup: Ensure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are correctly configured for proper email authentication.
- Monitor Sender Reputation: Regularly check sender reputation using available tools and take corrective actions as needed.
- Review Infrastructure Configuration: Confirm that the sending infrastructure is properly set up, including reverse DNS lookups and CDN configurations.
- Investigate VZ-Specific Throttling: Be aware of and adhere to Yahoo/VZ's sending limits and reputation thresholds.
- Configure Retries for Greylisting: Set up the sending server to automatically retry sending emails after a soft bounce.
- Analyze SMTP Reply Codes: Implement a system for capturing and analyzing SMTP reply codes associated with bounces to pinpoint specific issues.
- Proactive Compliance: Establish a process for proactive compliance and investigations as part of your email program.
What email marketers say
12 marketer opinions
Troubleshooting soft bounce issues with Yahoo/VZG email delivery involves several key areas: list hygiene (cleaning inactive/invalid addresses, segmenting based on engagement), content optimization (avoiding spam triggers), infrastructure setup (proper authentication, reverse DNS), reputation monitoring (IP and domain), understanding Yahoo/VZG's specific policies (throttling, greylisting), and server configuration (retries for temporary failures). A combination of these strategies can help improve deliverability.
Key opinions
- List Hygiene: Maintaining a clean and engaged email list is crucial. Remove inactive addresses, segment based on engagement, and regularly verify email addresses.
- Content Optimization: Avoid spam triggers in email content. Certain keywords, links, or image ratios can lead to temporary blocking.
- Infrastructure Setup: Ensure proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and correctly configured reverse DNS lookups.
- Reputation Monitoring: Monitor IP and domain reputation using tools like SenderScore, Talos, Google Postmaster Tools, and Microsoft SNDS.
- VZ Specific Policies: Be aware of Yahoo/VZ's specific sending limits, reputation thresholds, and greylisting practices. Gradual warm-up is important.
- Server Configuration: Configure sending server to retry emails after temporary failures, as greylisting servers will often accept subsequent attempts.
Key considerations
- List Maintenance: Implement a regular list cleaning process to remove unengaged recipients.
- Content Audits: Review email content for potential spam triggers and adjust accordingly.
- Authentication Protocols: Prioritize the correct setup of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to improve trust and deliverability.
- Reputation Monitoring Tools: Use monitoring tools to proactively identify and address reputation issues.
- Engagement Tracking: Monitor open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribes to gauge recipient engagement.
- Server Retries: Configure sending server to automatically retry sending emails after a soft bounce event.
- Deliverability testing: Always test deliverability before sending emails to a large group
Marketer view
Email marketer from Mailjet Blog suggests segmenting email lists based on engagement and sending targeted campaigns to active subscribers to reduce soft bounces related to recipient inactivity. They also advise regularly cleaning email lists to remove invalid or inactive addresses.
17 Jan 2024 - Mailjet Blog
Marketer view
Email marketer from Reddit suggests checking IP reputation and domain reputation using tools like SenderScore or Talos to identify potential blacklisting issues. They also recommend ensuring proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to improve deliverability.
6 Oct 2021 - Reddit
What the experts say
5 expert opinions
Experts suggest that troubleshooting Yahoo/VZG soft bounces requires investigating infrastructure (including CDNs and content analysis), proactive compliance investigations, considering image pattern matching, and understanding greylisting (configuring retries and monitoring error codes). These strategies help pinpoint why Yahoo/VZ is temporarily rejecting mail.
Key opinions
- Infrastructure Analysis: Yahoo/VMG analyzes message content, including links and hosted images (even on CDNs), potentially causing soft bounces.
- Compliance Investigations: Soft bounces from Verizon should trigger a compliance investigation to identify underlying reasons for rejection.
- Greylisting: Greylisting, used by smaller providers and sometimes Yahoo, can cause soft bounces. Configure retries to overcome this.
- Pattern Matching: VMG uses pattern matching to identify identical messages from different sources, potentially impacting deliverability.
Key considerations
- CDN Review: Evaluate the CDN setup and content it hosts for potential issues affecting deliverability.
- Compliance Process: Establish a process for compliance investigations triggered by Verizon soft bounces.
- Retry Configuration: Configure your sending server to automatically retry sending emails after temporary failures due to greylisting.
- Content Uniqueness: Ensure that emails are not being flagged for duplicated content especially relating to images.
- Error code analysis: Monitor and analyze error codes to understand which of these is contributing to a soft bounce
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains that greylisting can cause soft bounces. She recommends configuring your sending server to retry sending emails after a temporary failure, as greylisting servers will typically accept the email on a subsequent attempt. She notes greylisting is often used by smaller providers.
6 Sep 2023 - Word to the Wise
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks notes that VMG is likely pattern matching images, even if they're hosted on a CDN, to identify identical messages from different IPs and domains.
13 Aug 2023 - Email Geeks
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
Troubleshooting soft bounces on Yahoo/VZG involves understanding they are temporary failures (mailbox full, server issues, greylisting). Documentation recommends monitoring bounce rates, analyzing SMTP response codes (4xx range), implementing retry mechanisms, cleaning lists based on 'mailbox full' indicators, and configuring notifications for proactive management.
Key findings
- Temporary Failures: Soft bounces are transient issues like full mailboxes or server outages, often resolving on retry.
- SMTP Codes: SMTP 4xx codes indicate temporary failures. Analyze these codes for client, server, or other temporary errors.
- Bounce Monitoring: Monitor soft bounce rates and bounce patterns to identify underlying issues and adjust sending practices.
- Mailbox Full Indicator: A 'mailbox full' soft bounce suggests the recipient is inactive, making them a potential target for list cleaning.
- Event Destinations: Configure event destinations (like in AWS SES) to track bounces, complaints, and implement notifications for proactive management.
Key considerations
- Rate Monitoring: Continuously monitor and analyze soft bounce rates to identify and address deliverability problems.
- SMTP Analysis: Implement a system to collect and analyze the SMTP reply codes received from bounces.
- Retry Strategy: Implement retry mechanisms for soft bounces to improve the chances of successful delivery.
- List Cleaning: Leverage 'mailbox full' soft bounces to identify recipients for list cleaning.
- Notification System: Implement a notification system to proactively respond to bounce events and delivery issues.
Technical article
Documentation from Microsoft explains that understanding error codes in bounce messages is key. A 'mailbox full' soft bounce can indicate that the recipient is not actively managing their inbox, suggesting a potential target for list cleaning.
12 Mar 2022 - Microsoft Support
Technical article
Documentation from RFC explains that SMTP reply codes in the 4xx range typically indicate transient failures. These temporary errors often resolve themselves upon retry. Analyzing the specific code helps pinpoint if it's a client error, server overload, or some other temporary issue.
16 Aug 2021 - RFC Standard
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