Managing Bounced Emails

This article discusses Soft and Hard Bounces and how to manage them. To learn more about Email activity, please see this article: Email Activity


 

Types of Bounces

There are two main types of bounces: hard bounces and soft bounces.

Hard Bounces:

  • Invalid Email Address
  • Non-Existent Domain
  • Blocked by Recipient Server

Soft Bounces:

  • Full Inbox
  • Temporary Server Issues 

For the email addresses that resulted in hard bounces:

  • Invalid Email Address: Please remove these from your mailing list. Encourage your users to update their email addresses if they suspect errors.
  • Non-Existent Domain: Remove these as they are permanently undeliverable.
  • Blocked by Recipient Server: Reach out to these recipients through other means (e.g., phone, social media) and request that they whitelist your domain or provide a different email address.
    Whitelist Email Addresses in an Email Client

For email addresses that resulted in soft bounces:

  • Full Inbox: Retry sending the emails after some time. If the issue persists, try contacting the recipient through another channel.
  • Temporary Server Issues: Retry sending the emails after a while as these issues usually resolve themselves.

 

Minimizing Bounces

To minimize future bounces, we recommend the following that you regularly clean your email list by removing addresses that consistently result in bounces. For example, a common reason for bounces is that the email address is no longer valid. For students, you can check with your registrar's office to ensure you have the correct email address. For employers, you can typically verify this information on LinkedIn. Additionally, if the employer has users under the "12twenty Network Contacts" column on the employer profile, you can reach out to those users and invite them to your platform so that you have a current contact with that company.

 


 

Frequently Asked Questions

How can students be removed from the bounce list?
Please reach out to support@12twenty.com with the student email so that we can remove them from the bounce list for you.

Can you filter by status?
Yes! Under email activity, you can select the email, go to the "Recipients" tab, and use the "Status" filter to narrow down the results by status!

What are some ways to prevent bounces?

  • Clean Your Email List Regularly: Ensure that email addresses are up-to-date, especially if you're working with a list that frequently changes. Remove any addresses that previously bounced.
  • Ask Recipients to Whitelist Your Email: Encourage recipients to add your email address to their contact list, which can help prevent messages from being filtered out.
  • Limit Attachments and Message Size: Large attachments or heavy formatting can sometimes cause emails to bounce. Keeping messages simple and concise can improve deliverability.
  • Avoid Spam-Triggering Language: Certain words or excessive punctuation may trigger spam filters, leading to delivery issues. Avoid overly promotional language and excessive capitalization.
  • Send Emails in Small Batches: Sending too many emails at once may trigger server restrictions. If possible, try breaking up large lists into smaller groups.

Emails are showing as "Not Delivered". What does this mean?
The term "Not Delivered" means that the email was dropped.  An email will be dropped when the contact on that email is in one of your suppression (unsubscribed) groups, the recipient's email previously bounced, or the recipient has marked your email as spam.

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