Differences in email marketing between "Hard Bounce" and "Soft Bounce"

First of all, to understand the difference between "Hard Bounce" and "Soft Sounce", you need to know exactly what email marketing is, as it is one of the most effective marketing techniques to get leads .

what is email marketing?

Also known as emailing or e-mailing, email marketing is a technique that consists of sending mass emails to a list of contacts. It is reliable and effective, so it is still the order of the day.

Some examples of email marketing are:

• As the name suggests, they are used to attract and attract new customers to our brand.
• Newsletter or informative bulletins, which serve to maintain user contact with the brand and communicate information or news.
• Administrative emails, for example, to send the user downloadable content or to thank them for subscribing.
• Loyalty emails are used to generate repeat purchases.

But what happens if the emailing technique doesn't work, or if our emails don't reach the recipients, or if they take longer to arrive than usual? This is where the terms "Hard Bounce" and "Soft Bounce" come into play.

what is the main difference between "Hard Bounce" and "Soft Bounce" ?

A "Hard Bounce" occurs when an ISP (Internet Service Provider) does not deliver an email to a recipient because the email address is invalid. Therefore, this problem is permanent. On the other hand, a "Soft Bounce" occurs when an email is not delivered to the recipient because of a temporary problem. In other words, the main difference between these two terms is the temporality, since the soft bounce will be solved, while the hard bounce will not.

Reasons why a "Soft Bounce " can occur

There are several reasons why the email may not be delivered to the recipient temporarily, i.e. a "soft bounce" may occur. Among the most common, we find the following:

• The recipient 'sinbox isfull and therefore cannot receive your email.
• The size of the email exceeds what the recipient's inbox allows.
• The server is unavailable at the time of sending for reasons beyond our control.
• The server has had some problem in the delivery, but will continue trying.
• Problems with the server 's DNS.

Reasons why a "Hard Bounce " can occur

The hard bounce is the delivery failure that should be of most concern to your company, and of course to you, because the mail will never reach its destination. But what are the two main reasons ?

• The email address does not exist or is invalid- you may have mistyped it or it may be a fake, among other reasons.
• The address is blocked or you have been blocked. This reason becomes a big problem because finding out the reason for the blocking is not easy. Maybe you have been blocked because of excessive email marketing, maybe because they are no longer interested in your company or maybe it was unintentional. The point is to try to analyse the reason from the inside in order to improve and avoid the same thing happening to other contacts.

Importance of bounce rate in email marketing

The bounce rate is the perfect indicator to let us know if there is a problem with the reception of emails. It also helps us to determine the effectiveness of a particular inbound marketing campaign, email marketing, and to prevent problems of soft bounce and hard bounce.

A high bounce rate can mean that the recipient does not like what they receive and has decided to filter the brand's emails. This rate should be approximately below 2%, but if it is above that, don't worry, today we give you a series of tips to reduce your bounce rate.

How to reduce the bounce rate

1. Frequency of messages: Establishing a good frequency of messages prevents "Soft Bounce" and "Hard Bounce" from occurring. However, it is not advisable to send several campaigns in a row or even on the same day.
2. Unsubscribe: It is important that you incorporate in your emails the possibility to click on the unsubscribe option. In this way,subscribers will have more freedom to act, without having to give explanations. And precisely this freedom to stop receiving emails means that they do not have to block the brand.
3. Contact list: Keeping the contact list clean is also one of the most important recommendations. Controlling email marketing campaigns involves reviewing the results. In the case of hard bounces, it is recommended to delete these contacts directly .
4. Recognisable user name: It is essential that when our contact receives the email, he/she recognises the company. Brands that are correctly identified and that always use the same sender reduce the bounce rate by almost 100%.
5. Email length: Long emails cause rejection and repetitive emails cause the same. Therefore, you must be concrete, brief, concise and original when sending a newsletter or email.

In conclusion, email marketing is a fabulous technique that must be maintained and cared for to be effective. To do this, it is essential to avoid the terms "Soft Bounce" and "Hard Bounce", especially, as we have already explained, the hard bounce; and also to achieve a bounce rate of less than 2%. Following the five tips we have given you for this, it will surely be much easier for your company to prosper and achieve its goals.