Bounce Rate Cheat Sheet

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

1. Check SPF and DKIM status

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

2. Optimize campaign content

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

3. 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

4. Use email validation

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

General best practices

1. 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

2. Use proper segmentation

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

3. Implement double opt-in

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

4. Use verified business domains

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

5. Create engaging content

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

6. Monitor sender reputation

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