Common Causes of Email Bounces

Written by eTargetMedia.

When your business sends out an email campaign, you want to make sure that it gets to the intended recipients. Unfortunately, some emails will get “bounced” back to the sender as undeliverable. Some of these instances are simply because the email address is no longer valid — in this case, it makes sense to make sure you are using a validated email list from a direct marketing company such as eTarget Media. In other instances, the bounces will happen because of correctable errors.

Here’s a look at a few common reason why emails get bounced back and never reach their intended recipient:

Bad Domains: Because of a typo, the recipient’s domain in their email address is not entered in properly; for example, an email address of “youraddress@gmail.com” might accidentally be “youraddress@gmial.com.” Make sure you check domain names as much as possible before sending an email.

Spam Content: Email servers can automatically reject incoming email messages if they detect content patterns consistent with spam emails. These triggers can include overuse of phrases such as “free” or “guarantee,” the use of multiple colors of text or multiple fonts within the same email, overuse of exclamation points and the aggressive use of calls to action.

Mailbox Issues: A person might want to receive your email but be unable to get it in their mailbox because of a problem on their end. This could be for several reasons including that their mailbox is full or that their email server is crashed. When you receive these types of bounces, you’ll want to resend the email in a few days to see if the user has resolved their email problems.

eTargetMedia has 20 years of experience in direct and Internet marketing. The company’s dedicated and experienced team helps businesses of all sizes create and execute a range of marketing campaigns.