Return rate in mailings (bounce rate)

How do you feel about wasting valuable time and resources on high return rates in email campaigns? I encountered this problem in my project and decided to figure out where these “returns” come from and how to reduce them. In this article, I'll share a discovery that will change the way you approach email marketing forever.

Glossary

• 📬 Bounce Rate - the percentage of email campaigns that were not delivered to recipients due to various reasons. It is important to monitor this indicator to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign.

• 🛑 Hard Bounce - return type when the email address is invalid or does not exist. This indicates that the message cannot be delivered and such addresses should be removed from the mailing list.

• 🔄 Soft Bounce - temporary return when mail cannot be delivered due to, for example, a full mailbox or technical problems on the recipient's side. These addresses may be reprocessed in the future.

• 📊 Open Rate - percentage of recipients who opened the email campaign. A low open rate may indicate problems with the header or mailing list.

• 📨 Click-Through Rate (CTR) - percentage of recipients who clicked on links in the body of the message. This gives an idea of audience engagement.

• 🚫 Spam filters - software settings, which automatically detect and block unwanted emails. If emails end up in spam, this could be the reason for your high bounce rate.

• 🌐 IP reputation - assessment of the level of trust in The IP address from which letters are sent. A bad reputation can lead to decreased deliverability and increased returns.

• 🔍 Clean email list - process maintaining the relevance, accuracy and legitimacy of email addresses on the mailing list. Regular cleaning helps reduce returns.

• ⏳ Verification process - method of checking email validity -addresses before adding them to your mailing list, which helps reduce the number of hard bounces.

• 📧 DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) - an email authentication method that allows recipients to verify that a message was actually sent from a specified domain, thereby reducing the risk of being classified as spam.

• ✅ SPF (Sender Policy Framework) - a system that helps prevent email address spoofing by allowing mail servers to check whether the sender has permission to send messages from a specified domain.

What is Bounce Rate rate) and why is it important?

In a previous internship, I was faced with a challenge that tested all my email marketing skills. We had one campaign that had an alarmingly high return rate of up to 12%. Imagine: so much effort was put into creating content, design, strategy, and all of this could be undone by a simple undeliverable rate of emails. It was a shock and I knew for sure that something needed to be done about it.

Often, when I talk about a high bounce rate, I am asked the question: " How does this happen? Why don’t the letters reach the recipients?” At the beginning of my journey, I also thought so. However, with experience came the understanding that there could be many reasons:

• Incorrect addresses: often clients change their emails and the old addresses remain in your databases .
• Overcrowded mailboxes: recipients simply do not have time to clear their mail of unnecessary letters and your message is simply lost among them.
• Technical glitches: Failed sending attempts may be the result of incorrect settings in your email service.

So, what to do? During my research, I found several approaches that significantly improved the situation:

1. Regular cleaning databases 📧

   • Every couple of months I audited my database. Removing inactive addresses and duplicate entries helped get rid of the “garbage” that was dragging down the indicators.

2. Using double subscription 🔐

   • I have implemented a double opt-in process for new users. This allows you to receive confirmation that the address was entered correctly and the subscriber himself is really interested in the mailings.

3. Monitoring and analysis of results 📊

   • I started paying attention to analytical reports on the platform where the newsletters were sent. Now I check delivery indicators every week so that I can immediately respond to any deviations.

4. Content optimization ✍️

   • I made sure that the content was really interesting for subscribers. Often, low interest in emails leads to users ignoring them or even marking them as spam.

5. Strategy testing and correction 🧪

   • Each new campaign requires testing. Using A/B testing for various email objects allowed us to understand which headers and content generate the most response.

After applying these methods, the understanding came: despite the fact that achieving zero in return rate is impossible, reducing it to an acceptable level turned out to be not such a difficult matter. Gradually I managed to reduce this figure to 1%. Now, when I launch a new newsletter, I am confident that the letters will reach every subscriber.

"Success in email marketing does not come on its own. It is a job that requires careful care and constant monitoring." – Anne Handley, content director at MarketingProfs (an educational platform for marketers), a columnist for Entrepreneur magazine, one of Forbes' top female bloggers, and a sales writing goddess. Ann is sure: you can’t be a good marketer if you don’t know how to write and decided to teach everyone this business.

Understanding your audience, optimizing processes and constantly working with databases became the basis for my success. By learning from past mistakes and actively working on improvements, I was able to achieve what many consider impossible.

Steps to reduce your return rate:

Having completed the task, I felt significant relief and this experience taught me to appreciate every detail in our business. I hope my path will be useful to you in managing your return rate in email campaigns.

Types of returns in mailings

While I was working on In my projects in the field of email marketing, I came across various situations that made me think about bounce rates in email campaigns. One day when I launched one of my campaigns, I was amazed to find a high return rate. Have all my efforts gone down the drain? At that moment it became obvious to me that I needed to understand the reasons.

Types of returns

At that time I learned that there are two main types of returns:

• Hard hard bounce: This is when the recipient's address does not exist. I remember during one of the webinars one of the experts said: “Never miss a chance to clean up your subscriber list.” These words really stuck with me. It turned out that if the address does not exist, it should be removed from the database, otherwise it will drag down all the campaign statistics.

• Soft bounce: This The problem occurs temporarily, for example, if the mailbox is full or if the letter is too large. The podcast I listened to talked about the importance of keeping an eye on these addresses as they can become hard bounces later on.

It was clear that each return affected the sender's reputation. The higher the return, the lower the deliverability rating. No one wants to risk this!

Returns from personal experience

Answering the question of how to reduce this figure, I recall my personal story. After one unsuccessful mailing, I decided that it was enough to study methods for cleaning the database. And I started implementing address verification. Every time I launched a new campaign, I made sure that the email addresses were verified to exist. It took time, but the result was worth it.

Why is this important to you?

If you're just getting started with email marketing, you should realize that a low return rate leads to a high deliverability rate. As the wise say: “You should not try to harvest when the field has not yet been sown.” Make sure your databases are ready for buyers.

Recommendations

• Cleaning the database: Conduct regular audits of addresses.

• Verification before sending: Use services for verification correctness of addresses.

• Analyze the reasons for returns: If you received hard returns, it is better to delete these addresses immediately.

• Keep in touch with subscribers: Remind them regularly yourself to minimize the likelihood of soft returns.

"It is very important not only to look at the numbers, but also to understand what the it's worth it." — Pierre Morad Omidyar, programmer, entrepreneur, manager and philanthropist; Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of eBay; billionaire since eBay's 1998 IPO; since 2004, together with his wife Pamela, he is the founder and owner of the philanthropic investment company Omidyar Network.

Important Steps Overview

With these simple steps you can significantly improve your campaigns and reduce your return rate, making email marketing more effective!

High return rate: Why this happens and how to fix the situation

At one time I was faced with an annoying situation that led me to deep thoughts about the bounce rate in email campaigns. One day I launched a newsletter for my online store. The content was carefully selected and I was confident that it would attract the attention of my subscribers. But when it came time to collect the results, I was overtaken by disappointment: a high return rate! Have I really wasted so much time and effort?

The problem is in the address database. How many times have you wondered where these addresses come from? While working on the project, I learned that sometimes non-existent addresses are included in the database. For example, can you imagine if someone made an oversight and entered “loign@gmail.com” instead of “login@gmail.com”? This is not just a typo. Moreover, many business addresses may no longer be valid after an employee leaves the company or if the company itself closes.

Every time I analyzed the mailing reports, it seemed important to me to get serious about cleaning up the database. I decided to implement a two-step subscription by improving the registration process. This meant that potential subscribers had to confirm their email address before being added to the mailing list. At that time, this bore fruit: the bounce rate gradually began to decrease, and trust in my messages increased.

When the sending process was carried out, I also took care of validating the email addresses. Working with the developers, I made sure that the subscription form had the necessary prompts and checks to avoid common mistakes. The system automatically notified subscribers about incorrect addresses: this little invention changed the rules of the game.

Finally, I wasn't just deleting inactive addresses, I was looking for ways to get people back into the process. And although I would like to have many new subscribers there, I was convinced that by increasing the quality of the database, I ultimately improved the content of the newsletters itself.

How to avoid emails being blocked by spam filters

When I was working on one of my newsletters, I ran into another problem. Spam filters started blocking my emails and I immediately realized that this was not just an accident. According to research, about 70% of emails do not reach their recipients due to strict spam filters. It's like a blind man's diary: your best ideas and suggestions are simply not visible to your recipient!

Spam filters work based on analysis of the content of letters and responses from subscribers. Imagine that every letter you send is icing on the cake. If the cake is overloaded with unnecessary additives, no one will like even the best cherry. In fact, content matters tremendously.

To remedy the situation, I changed the approach to content. He paid attention not only to the design, but also to the meaning. High quality images and smart wording have become the main components of successful letters. Moreover, I talked to some subscribers to find out what kind of letters they would like to receive and what they are interested in. And based on their responses, I made changes to the content.

Checking the letter itself to see if the filter is blocked becomes a mandatory step. I began to avoid using excessive fonts and color accents, which are often associated with spam. Agree, no one likes to be “yelled at”!

Recommendations for improving email delivery

To ensure that your emails reach their recipients, do the following:

List of actions:

Domain reputation: How to restore it

One day, I was faced with a terrible situation: my domain was blacklisted. There was a feeling as if all the work had been done in vain. The process of restoring one's reputation is no easier than rising from the bottom of the ocean.

At that time, it was important to understand that the reputation of a domain or IP address is very depends on previous interactions. If even one email from your pool has resulted in spam complaints, there will be many obstacles ahead.

Analyzing my past shipments, I found out that some recipient addresses were problematic. The need to check whether a domain is on blacklists has become a priority for me. Using services like MXToolBox, I was able to monitor the status of my IP addresses on the Internet.

The next step was to implement DKIM and SPF records, which confirmed the reliability of my emails. The sent letter began to look more respected and legitimate in the eyes of the filters. While these changes don't produce immediate results, deliverability has improved over time.

Simple Steps to Maintain Domain Reputation

Follow these guidelines to maintain and improve your domain reputation:

List of actions:

Managing return rates is a complex process, but with the right actions it can be significantly corrected. Remember that every letter you write is a chance to connect with the reader, so everything should be at the highest level.

Often asked questions on the topic: Bounce rate in email campaigns

Thank you for reading and for becoming much more experienced! 🎉

Now you are a master at reducing the return rate! Your new knowledge of how to handle email campaigns will have an impact on your business. Remember, I've shared my stories of how implementing personalized strategies will lead to increased engagement and decreased returns. My opinion: the key to success is constant analysis and adaptation. This will not only improve your results, but also build trust with your audience. I look forward to your comments!