Hard Bounce vs Soft Bounce

Hard Bounce

We all know this frustrating situation when a few minutes after sending an email to a new address, we see a failed mail delivery notification. This is called a hard bounce and it happens for a variety of reasons. One of the most common ones, by far, is an incorrect recipient address due to a typo. An email address can also be deactivated, which, for instance, often happens with corporate addresses after an employee leaves a company.

Soft Bounce

Soft bounces, on the other hand, represent a temporary deliverability issue. If this is the case, then the reason is not irreversible. Most likely the email message you’ve been trying to send was too “heavy”, or the recipient has a full mailbox or experiences server problems. Soft bounces are usually automatically resolved and do not require any action from your side (although you might need to resize your heavy attachment).

Why It Matters

Neither hard nor soft bounces are critical when it comes to sending one single email (unless it is your one and only way to connect with an important recipient). However, when you plan an email campaign and have an email list with a high rate of bounces (especially hard ones) your emails might be marked as SPAM, and your reputation may be damaged. The best thing you can do to prevent bouncing from happening is to regularly clean up your email list and make sure it contains only valid emails.

How Sendigram Can Help

While email bouncing is unpleasant, you can always use email verification tools like Sendigram that can help you identify and remove invalid email addresses from your list. While the process of identifying an email address that can bounce is very simple with Sendigram, the advantages a sender can get from it are quite substantial.

Sendigram Advantages:

  • It allows you to keep bounce and spam rates under control
  • It maintains the reputation of your IP address by preventing a substantial number of your emails from bouncing or being marked as spam.
  • If you use a paid email marketing platform where you pay based on the number of your contacts, keeping your email list clean of invalid addresses saves you money.

Get Started Today: Ready to improve your email deliverability? Visit Sendigram's page to learn more about our email verification service and start cleaning your email list today. Your emails deserve to be delivered - let Sendigram help you make that happen.

Go to Sendigram Now

With Sendigram's email verification service, you can say goodbye to hard bounces and soft bounces, and hello to improved deliverability rates and better email marketing results.

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