How to get rid of bounced email

During your work you will definitely run into bounced emails problem. In a lighter case you’ll have to get through a soft bounce, when the message is being returned because of temporary inability to deliver your email. But it is even worse if you get the notice that the message is permanently undeliverable. To avoid such problem you should not forget about the main rule of email list building, that this process is a permanent one. Here are some advices to help you manage and reduce bounces:

• Try to check your list for incorrect addressed or invalid domain names. It is better to be more attentive, it also saves your time and money.
• Pay attention, that your subscribers can change their email addresses. So you have to let them re-subscribe every time you send them an email. The procedure of updating information should be easy to do for your customers and subscribers. The best way is to place a special page on your website.
• It is better to use email address confirmation while users undertake some actions, such as purchasing or just simply applying for your email newsletter. Using auto-reply confirmation can localize the mistake in a very beginning and help correct it. Make subscribers or customers verify the information provided.
• Contact users from the bounces via mail or telephone. Make them feel needed, and say you miss them for example by sending them a postcard.
• Exclude the possibility of being added to a blacklist or a filter. You can do it by comparing different statistics and ratios by major domains. Sufficient differences in measurements should alarm you.
• Regularly check the major spam databases and blacklists to ensure you or your email provider has not been added. Keep in mind that you will not receive a bounce message as a result of a blacklist, even though the email has not been delivered.
• Try to monitor spam filters. Don’t make your emails “attractive” to them. Use special programs to make your emails not to look like spam.
• Remove “Spam Flag” Addresses: These are often added maliciously. Examples include: abuse@somedomain.com. postmaster@somedomain.com and nospam@antispam.net.
• If you’ve already tried every ways to reduce the bounces but still have this problem, than you have to cull your list. It is better to have a shorter list but to be sure that all emails in it are workable. List culling also reduces the costs and time spent on emailing.

Don’t let email “demons” interfere you business.

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 : Email Marketing : No Comments