Email marketing is one of the fastest-growing types of online businesses being started by entrepreneurs all over the country. One of the biggest reasons is the small initial investment to get started, and it is pretty easy to be successful.
However, there are some pitfalls that you need to be aware of in order not to make terrible mistakes. One of those pitfalls is when the emails you send out get bounced before reaching the target inbox. This is known as soft bouncing, and it can be devastating to your online business.
What is meant by a soft bounce?
A soft bounce regarding email marketing is when one or more of your emails in a campaign does not reach the inbox of one of the target subscribers. It is super easy to check whether it was a soft bounce.
You can look at the dashboard of your email service provider account to know whether the emails you sent got delivered to the recipient’s mail server.
Unfortunately, you cannot know exactly what caused the email not to get to their inbox. Several things can cause a soft bounce, and the number one reason is that the recipient’s inbox is full. Another reason could be that they placed an Out of Office notice on their account, and it triggered the mail server not to deliver the email.
However, several causes of a soft bounce on one or more of your emails from a campaign.
So, we came up with a list of four things you might do to reduce the risk of a soft bounce affecting your open rate for a campaign. These four things will really help you understand more about the business itself.
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4 Important ways to avoid soft bouncing emails
- Use a double opt-in form
One of the top causes of soft bounces is sending one or more of your emails to a subscriber with an invalid email. To make it much more likely that you will receive a good email address, implement a double opt-in form that forces them to confirm the email address before the subscription process is completed. This takes away much of the worry about your emails not being received by your subscriber’s mail server.
- Avoid things that trigger spam filters
When creating email subject lines, keep in mind to avoid using spammy words to trigger a mail server to bounce your emails. But, of course, the same idea also applies to your email content.
The messaging has to be on point and use a strong call to action at the end to convince your subscribers to click your link and convert them into buyers of your latest digital product or service that you are promoting.
- Always send out high-quality email content
It’s important to run A/B split tests to ensure that your content will attract the attention of your subscribers before you are ready to go live with an email campaign.
The more testing, the better. Testing enables you to preview the quality of your content before it goes live in your subscriber’s inbox. Pay close attention to all the current trends in online marketing so that you can tailor all of your content to deliver the most bang for your buck.
- Build and maintain a good online reputation
Last not certainly not least, your online reputation will probably precede you. So, in finding new subscribers to your email list, you need to be sure that you are very mindful of how people perceive you as a marketer.
Word of mouth is significant in the email marketing world, so don’t make a mistake that will only end up hurting your business for weeks, months, and possibly years down the line.
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Does managing and minimizing soft bouncing make a difference?
The quick answer would be, it absolutely does matter. And, the long answer would also be yes, but its effect will depend greatly on whether you use the information. Fortunately, most email service providers include many reports generated by the data that their systems gather. These reports are available inside the dashboard for every member of the email service provider’s system.
Always pay close attention to the number of soft bounces that you receive after sending each email campaign. There are many reasons for soft bouncing emails, but no matter the reason, it’s recommended to resolve it before sending another campaign. You will not be able to reduce the open rate and conversion rate of your email campaigns. This will also have a dramatic impact on your sales and the bottom line.
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Where do you go from here?
By now, we hope that you have figured out that you don’t want to overlook the significance of soft bouncing emails. While it is easy to take them for granted or think they really don’t amount to a whole lot, but the truth is, it can help you in the long run.
By paying attention to the reports that your email service provider is generating, you can fine-tune your messaging. You can also evaluate the quality of your email list by identifying possible wrong email addresses or other potential issues that need to be addressed.
Bottom Line
We hope that we provided you with a whole look of insight into the significance of email bouncing in this article. Now, you can fix any potential issues to avoid the pitfalls of email soft bouncing during one or more of your email marketing campaigns. Remember, the quicker you can identify the problems, the quicker you can recover from them and avoid them in future campaigns.