The number of emails that bounce back to you or do not get delivered to an inbox is referred to as your email bounce rate. The lower the bounce rate, the better, as this indicates that more emails are arriving where they are supposed to.
The acceptable bounce rate for emails is between 2% and 5%. However, if your bounce rate is greater than 5% it is a matter of concern.
Below are several ways to reduce this rate if you have a higher-than-average bounce rate or just want to lower your percentage for better results.
1. Clean your list on a regular basis.
If you don’t clean your email list, it will fill up with inactive accounts. A fast clean-up every now and then will keep your list safe and active. You can start by removing inactive users and people who haven’t opened your emails in a while, or run a retargeting campaign to find accounts that aren’t responding to your emails.
2. List segmentation
Subscribers that are segmented receive only the information they want and need. As a result, they are less likely to put your email on a blacklist or send it to spam.
One of the most successful segmentation methods is focused on engagement: group your most active subscribers together and send them more emails than your less active ones. By segmenting your subscribers based on their engagement, you can run retargeting campaigns to re-engage inactive subscribers, lowering your bounce rate.
3. Remove bounced email addresses from your contact list
You should delete hard bounced email addresses from your list as part of your daily list cleaning. It is pointless to keep them because they’re either wrong or inactive, meaning your emails can never reach them. Keep your email bounce rate low by deleting hard bounced emails as soon as they appear.
4. Make your opt-ins meaningful
Subscribers join the email list mostly by signing up for an opt-in, such as eBooks or webinars, that brings them closer to making a purchase. Develop opt-ins that are hyper-focused on your target audience to ensure that the subscribers you have on your list are there for a reason and are engaged.
5. Try A/B testing your emails
Some emails are more effective than others. To find out the phrases and features your subscribers respond best to, test out key elements like your subject lines, email copy, and CTAs. Before sending your email to your list, test it on all of the main email servers to see if it is too large or if it gets automatically filtered as spam.
6. Check to see if your emails are spammy
Research conducted shows that spam accounts contribute to 53% of all emails sent worldwide. While your emails are unlikely to fall into this category, there are some primary qualifiers that email providers use to classify spam, and you could unknowingly be a part of them.
To stop soft email bounces, follow these steps:
a) Keep your emails to a minimum.
b) Unnecessary exclamation points and all caps should be avoided. In the footer of the email provide your contact information.
c) Have a link to unsubscribe.
Accepting the small percentages of bounces that will inevitably occur and doing your part to keep them as low as possible is critical to reaching more inboxes. Ignoring your email bounce rate can negatively affect the deliverability of your emails. This in turn can hurt your whole email marketing campaign, and you will have a harder time getting results.
