Summary
Approaching peak sending seasons like Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) with a high email bounce rate can be concerning, as it directly impacts your sender reputation and can lead to emails landing in spam folders. A sudden surge in email volume on a list with existing bounce issues will likely exacerbate deliverability problems, potentially leading to blocklisting or throttling by internet service providers (ISPs). Understanding the root cause of your bounces and taking proactive steps to clean your list and maintain good sending hygiene is crucial before ramping up your email volume.
Key findings
- Diagnosis is key: Before anything else, identify the specific reasons for your bounces. Classification as 'unclassified' by your email service provider (ESP) means you need to dig deeper into the raw bounce messages to understand the underlying issues.
- Bounce types matter: Distinguish between hard bounces (permanent failures, like invalid addresses) and soft bounces (temporary issues, like full inboxes). Hard bounces must be removed immediately to protect your sender reputation.
- List hygiene is paramount: High bounce rates often indicate a poor quality email list, possibly containing old, inactive, or invalid addresses, including spam traps. Regularly cleaning your list is non-negotiable.
- Relationship to spam: While high bounce rates don't directly cause emails to go to spam, they are often symptoms of underlying issues (like poor list quality or a damaged sender reputation) that also lead to spam folder placement. Addressing bounces helps improve overall deliverability.
- Proactive measures: Implement a double opt-in process for new subscribers to ensure consent and email validity. This helps prevent future bounce issues.
Key considerations
- Immediate action needed: Do not proceed with ramped-up BFCM campaigns until the bounce issues are understood and addressed. Sending to a problematic list will severely compound your deliverability problems. For help diagnosing common issues, see our guide on how to diagnose email deliverability issues.
- Data analysis: Beyond bounce rates, analyze deliveries by recipient domain and open rates over time. Sudden drops in opens can signal messages going to bulk folders. For more on best practices, consult this guide on email bounce rates.
- Address underlying problems: High bounce rates indicate issues with audience selection or spam blockades. Resolving these foundational problems is essential.
- Preventive measures: Regularly verify email addresses on your list to remove invalid ones. For more, see our article on email verification best practices.
What email marketers say
Email marketers often face the challenge of managing sender reputation, especially when preparing for high-volume sending periods like BFCM. A common concern revolves around how existing high bounce rates, particularly unclassified ones, will impact future campaign performance and inbox placement. Marketers highlight the importance of understanding the data provided by ESPs and taking practical steps to address list quality issues before escalating email volume.
Key opinions
- Unclassified bounces: Many marketers report encountering 'unclassified' bounces in their ESP dashboards, which makes it difficult to pinpoint the exact problem. This necessitates deeper investigation into campaign-level data.
- Flows are often culprits: Automated flows (like welcome or thank you emails) can contribute to high bounce rates if the initial list acquisition methods are flawed or if the list isn't regularly cleaned.
- Consequence of inaction: Marketers universally agree that sending to a list with known high bounce rates, especially before a major sending event, will significantly worsen deliverability and likely lead to emails going to spam or even complete blocklisting.
- Pre-emptive cleaning: Cleaning email lists to remove inactive or invalid addresses, especially hard bounces, is seen as a critical step to take before increasing sending volume.
Key considerations
- Accessing raw bounce data: If your ESP's deliverability dashboard provides 'unclassified' bounces, marketers suggest digging into specific campaigns or contacting support to get the raw bounce messages, which offer more detailed reasons. This is key for determining if marketing emails are going to spam.
- List quality review: Review your list collection methods to ensure you're acquiring real and engaged subscribers. As Klaviyo notes, making sure email addresses are real and consented is crucial.
- Addressing unengaged contacts: A high bounce rate can be a sign of an unengaged or outdated list. It's essential to implement strategies for improving deliverability with large, unengaged lists.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks notes that their company has not sent many emails recently, except for active flows. They are seeing a high bounce rate on Klaviyo and are concerned about upcoming BFCM campaigns, fearing emails will go to spam due to the sudden increase in volume and the existing bounce issues.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that Klaviyo’s UI should provide a breakdown of bounce types. They suspect that if mostly flows have been sent, some email addresses might no longer be active. They also mention that Klaviyo automatically suppresses hard bounces (invalid emails).
What the experts say
Experts in email deliverability consistently emphasize the critical need to understand the underlying causes of high bounce rates. They point out that while bounces don't directly cause emails to go to spam, they often indicate fundamental issues with list quality or sender reputation that also contribute to spam placement. Their advice centers on forensic data analysis and strict adherence to deliverability best practices before initiating large-scale campaigns.
Key opinions
- Diagnose the bounces: The absolute first step is to look at the bounce messages and understand why the emails are bouncing. Without this specific information, any fixes are speculative.
- Don't send yet: Experts strongly advise against ramping up email campaigns, especially for events like BFCM, until bounce issues are resolved. Doing so will only worsen the problem significantly.
- Bounce messages are key: Disregard general bounce classifications and instead focus on obtaining and analyzing the actual bounce messages, as they provide the precise reason for the delivery failure.
- Symptoms of a larger issue: High bounce rates and emails going to spam are often related because they stem from the same underlying problems, such as poor audience selection or being blocklisted by mailbox providers.
- Monitor broader metrics: In addition to bounces, experts recommend looking at deliveries by recipient domain and open rates over time, as a rapid, dramatic change in open rates can signal that mail has started going to the bulk (spam) folder.
Key considerations
- Identify the cause: The immediate priority is to understand why your emails are bouncing, whether it's invalid addresses, server issues, or content problems.
- Impact on deliverability: High bounce rates, especially hard bounces, negatively impact your sender reputation. For more detail, read our article on how bounces impact email deliverability.
- List accuracy and consent: Ensure your audience selection methods are robust and that your list is permission-based. Business.com suggests reducing bounces by using verified lists and authenticating domain records.
- Spam blockade: If bounces are due to being spam blocklisted, address the underlying issues that led to the blocklisting (e.g., poor sending practices, spam complaints) before attempting to send more volume.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks asserts that the first crucial step is to examine the bounces to understand precisely why they are occurring. Once the underlying cause is identified, the next step is to implement a solution to fix that specific issue.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks strongly advises against starting ramped-up email campaigns, especially if the bounces are due to non-existent email addresses. They warn that proceeding with sending before fixing this issue will significantly compound the problem, making deliverability much worse.
What the documentation says
Official documentation and authoritative guides on email deliverability consistently highlight key technical and list management practices to prevent high bounce rates and ensure emails reach the inbox. These resources underscore the importance of proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), maintaining a clean, consented list, and adhering to volume sending best practices, particularly around peak periods.
Key findings
- Authentication is fundamental: Properly configured SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are essential for proving sender legitimacy and preventing mail from being marked as spam or bouncing due to authentication failures.
- List quality assurance: Implementing double opt-in is a widely recommended practice to ensure subscriber consent and the validity of email addresses, thereby reducing hard bounces and avoiding spam traps.
- Regular list cleaning: Documentation advises routinely removing invalid or unengaged addresses from your mailing list to maintain a healthy sender reputation and minimize bounce rates.
- Volume management: Sudden spikes in email volume, especially after periods of low activity, can trigger spam filters and lead to increased bounces or throttling. Gradual warming of IPs and domains is often suggested.
Key considerations
- Pre-send checklist: Before major campaigns, ensure your domain records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are correctly set up and aligned. Our guide provides a simple guide to DMARC, SPF, and DKIM.
- Compliance and best practices: Adhere to privacy laws like GDPR and CAN-SPAM. The CMO's tips for avoiding emails going to spam underscore the importance of clean lists and compliance.
- Technical solutions: Leverage technical solutions beyond authentication, such as proper IP warm-up and monitoring email deliverability rates. For more on this, see our technical solutions for boosting email deliverability.
Technical article
Documentation from Klaviyo advises enabling double opt-in to ensure new subscribers truly want to receive emails. This practice ensures that email addresses are real and consented, which is fundamental for maintaining low bounce rates and good sender reputation.
Technical article
The CMO's documentation emphasizes that regularly cleaning your email list is crucial to avoid spam traps and hard bounces. They also suggest staying compliant with privacy laws such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM, which are essential for long-term deliverability success.
Related resources
15 resources
Related pages
How to diagnose email deliverability issues and prevent emails from going to spam?
What are the best practices for email verification and reducing bounces?
How do bounces impact email deliverability and how can I minimize them?
How to troubleshoot high soft bounce rates and poor inbox placement?
What steps should I take to improve email deliverability with a large, unengaged contact list and high bounce rates?
Why your emails are going to spam in 2024 and how to fix it
Boost email deliverability rates: technical solutions from top performing senders
What happens when your domain is on an email blacklist?
A simple guide to DMARC, SPF, and DKIM
What causes high bounce rates on cyber monday and how to prevent them?
