Reducing and
managing the number of email bounces has never been so critical for an email
marketer. Frequent managing of email bounces reduces the email delivery costs
and boosts the conversions and transactions. This is a sign of a good email
program.
The list needs
to be cleansed on a timely basis. The cleansing process can be done manually or
through list hygiene service by which incorrectly formatted addresses, and
invalid typos and domains can be checked for. Most of the companies experience
an email address churn of two to three percent per month. Here the Email Change
of Address service or ECOA service can be employed to deal with this problem.
According to reports, many of the ECOA companies receive at least one million
email address changes every month.
Email addresses
need to be confirmed regularly. This can be done by sending auto-reply
confirmation to customers when they register, subscribe or make a purchase. If
the message bounces, attempt can be made to correct the email address. The
problem can be tackled by including a second email address line in the opt-in
form which can confirm whether the email address entered was correct or not.
One of the
basic steps to be taken is to make the update process easier by including the
website account and subscription management link in the emails. The customers
must be prompted to update information. They can be asked to verify or to
update information at the time of completion of transaction in the shopping
cart. If any transaction has not been made in a while, phone or direct mail can
be used for information update. People who have bad email addresses and whose
phone numbers or postal addresses are stored with the company can be contacted
for email address correction.
Major domains
such as Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.
can be used to track bounces and open rates. If one is different from the
others or if there is a sudden change, this can be attributed to blacklisting
or filtering. Therefore, it is also a good idea to check major blacklists and
spam databases for your company’s or email provider’s name. If the name has
been blacklisted, no bounce message will be received even if the message wasn’t
delivered. Monitoring and understanding of spam filters helps in dealing with
spam complaints more efficiently. The terms and conditions of the spam filters
must be reviewed carefully. Quite often
the spam flag addresses are added maliciously. These flags must be removed.
Email providers also process bounces. Only understanding them can solve the
problem. The basis on which soft and hard bounces are to be pronounced should
be studied and later on, managed accordingly.