{"id":4736,"date":"2019-09-27T05:43:30","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T05:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/?p=4736"},"modified":"2025-04-19T11:50:57","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T09:50:57","slug":"what-is-a-hard-bounce-in-e-mail-marketing-and-why-you-should-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/digital-marketing-blog\/what-is-a-hard-bounce-in-e-mail-marketing-and-why-you-should-care\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a hard bounce in e-mail marketing and why you should care?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DSM<\/div><\/div>

In the digital marketing<\/a> industry, if an e-mail is said to have \u2018bounced\u2019 there\u2019s a problem with it being delivered. Bounces are categorised as \u2018soft\u2019 and \u2018hard\u2019 bounces. In this article, we\u2019ll tell you exactly what each of these means and what the implications of a hard bounce are.<\/p>\n

What is a \u2018soft bounce\u2019?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you see that you have an exceptionally high soft bounce rate for a particular e-mail campaign, this means that the e-mail client which you use (for example MailChimp, Constant Contact or something similar) is not able to deliver a certain number of the e-mails.<\/p>\n

This can be due to:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • The recipient\u2019s mailbox being full,<\/li>\n
  • The e-mail message that you\u2019re trying to send the recipient being too big for their e-mail servers to accept, and\/or<\/li>\n
  • The recipient\u2019s e-mail server being down so that it can\u2019t receive the message that you\u2019re trying to send it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Although a soft bounce is not something that you need to be too worried about, you need to keep an eye on this rate in addition to which e-mail addresses are soft bouncing. This is because if a particular e-mail address soft bounces seven times, the e-mail client will re-classify this as a hard bounce. This means that you need to correct the temporary inability to deliver mail before this problem becomes more serious.<\/p>\n

    What is a \u2018hard bounce?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    A hard bounce refers to a permanent inability to deliver mail to a specific address. Reasons for such a bounce include:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • The recipient\u2019s e-mail address no longer is no longer in existence. This most commonly happens when a person leaves the company.<\/li>\n
    • If the domain name is no longer in existence the e-mail will be classified as a hard bounce. The most common cause of this is if a company closes down which means that the domain name becomes defunct or if the domain holder no longer wishes to keep the domain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A hard bounce can also occur if the recipient e-mail server blocks the sending e-mail server entirely. This will happen if the e-mail is constantly flagged as spam<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>