Reduce Email Bounce Rates | Cold Email Deliverability

What is email bounce and how does it affect your campaigns?

Email bounce is an error message you receive when your cold email fails to deliver. Your email server or the recipient's mail server sends a Non-Delivery Report (NDR) explaining why the email couldn't be delivered. In Smartreach.io, you can view bounced emails and their reasons by navigating to your campaign reports.

How it works

Understanding bounce rate

Bounce rate shows the percentage of emails that failed to deliver compared to your total emails sent. Lower bounce rates indicate better cold email deliverability and campaign health.

Types of email bounces

Soft bounce - Temporary delivery failures that may succeed if retried:

Full inbox or mail server
Server temporarily down or overloaded
Email size too large
Server blocking due to poor reputation
Sender's server being blacklisted
Recipient using auto-responder

Hard bounce - Permanent delivery failures that won't succeed:

Incorrect email address
Failed email validation
Suspended email account
Blocked email address
Organization blocking external emails
Recipient's policy filtering
Server doesn't exist

Strategies to reduce bounce rates

Within Smartreach.io

Check SPF and DKIM status

Run spam test reports regularly
Set up SPF for Office365 accounts
Configure SPF/DKIM/DMARC for Google Workspace

Optimize campaign content

Avoid spam trigger keywords
Keep content relevant and professional
Use proper email formatting

Control sending volume

Send maximum 50 emails per day per email address
Maintain time gaps between consecutive emails
Use campaign soft-start feature for gradual ramp-up

Use email validation

Enable automatic email validation
Don't force-send blocked email addresses
Remove invalid emails from your lists

General best practices

Clean your email lists

Remove inactive and hard bounced addresses regularly
Eliminate emails from domains with high bounce rates
Keep your prospect lists active and healthy

Use proper segmentation

Send relevant content to appropriate audiences
Avoid sending irrelevant offers to wrong prospects
Target specific roles with tailored messages

Implement double opt-in

Prevent invalid email addresses from entering your lists
Ensure recipients want to receive your emails
Reduce spam complaints and bounces

Use verified business domains

Send from company-owned email domains
Avoid free email service providers
Maintain consistent sender reputation

Create engaging content

Send regular, valuable emails to subscribers
Avoid overly promotional or spammy content
Optimize images and formatting

Monitor sender reputation

Track your domain's reputation score
Address deliverability issues quickly
Avoid purchasing email lists