My Email Bounces Are Increasing! 7 Signs Your Email List Is Outdated
The bounce rate in an email is one of the most important metrics when you are looking at deliverability and key performance indicators (KPIs).
If you have an email marketing campaign, you need to assess why your email bounces with your recipients. You need to figure out ways that can reduce the bounce rate so your emails are delivered and read.
You might be wondering, can you do anything about your email bounces? Of course!
It could be that your emails are bouncing because your email list is outdated. Here are seven signs that your emails are outdated.
1. Email Addresses Are Broken
One of the most evident signs your emails are bouncing is because your email list addresses are broken. It could be that the emails that were given to you don’t work.
The emails might be deactivated or are no longer used by the subscriber. You should consider updating your email list if a lot of the emails you are sending continue to bounce with multiple addresses.
2. Blacklisted IP
If your emails were constantly filtered to spam, it could be that your emails have a blacklisted IP address.
Your email could be blacklisted, which would affect the deliverability of your emails because people don’t want to receive your emails anymore.
This could not only be a sign that you need to update your email addresses but you might need a new email address yourself. You need a new email address and a new email strategy.
3. Blocked Email
Another reason your email is bouncing is that a majority of people have blocked your email address.
You might have some people on your list who originally wanted to receive content from you but no is no longer interested in your services.
They may have blocked you because they receive too many emails from you and want something new. Another reason someone might have blocked your email is that they don’t see the value of your product and they don’t know how to unsubscribe from your list.
This is why it’s important to educate your target market on unsubscribing. If they don’t feel the need to be on your list, they should unsubscribe rather than blocking your email address.
4. Fake Email
Every now and then you might get a bot or someone who offers a fake email.
If you were to run ads on Facebook trying to accumulate leads, some of those leads and emails will be fake because they are bots. The key is to catch these emails so you can immediately lower your bounce rate.
You want to see what emails are sending back a bounce rate at a consistent rate. This could mean either that you need to take these fake emails off or that you need to update your email list entirely.
5. It’s Been Years Since You Updated Your Email List
Another reason you have a high bounce rate with your emails is that you have run an email marketing campaign in years. It could be that you haven’t updated your email list in years.
As a result, people might have forgotten that they signed up for your emails, which means they will send your emails to spam. It means you need to figure out how to reintroduce yourself to your list so they remember what they signed up for.
6. Analytics Are Poor
If you are sending out emails and receiving a high bounce rate and other sections of analytics are poor, it could be a sign that you need to update your email list.
In addition to having a high bounce rate, you might also have a low click-through rate and a low open rate. These metrics can be helpful in figuring out if you need a reset in your email marketing strategy.
While you don’t want to toss out your email list after one poor campaign, you do want to assess your metrics after multiple campaigns.
7. No More Space
If you are consistently sending out emails and they are getting bounced, it could be that the recipient has a full inbox.
If your email continues to bounce from this person’s inbox, it could be time to remove them from your email list. It could be that this person doesn’t check out their email too often, which means it’s only hurting your deliverability.
How You Can Reduce Your Bounce Rate
One of the best ways to reduce your bounce rate is to stay on top of your email marketing campaign. You need to look at the metrics and see if your bounce rate is higher than the industry average.
Here are some simple strategies that can help you reduce your bounce rate if you find that it’s higher than average.
Send Consistent Emails and Continue to Update
One of the best ways to reduce your email bounce back rate is to be consistent in your email marketing. That means you should be sending out emails on a weekly basis.
When your target market becomes familiar with your style of email marketing, they become more used to your content and will open it more. They won’t send it to spam and your email won’t become blacklisted.
You should also make people aware of what they are signing up for when they are added to your list. Tell them what to look out for and to double-check the spelling of their email address so it doesn’t bounce.
Ask People to Update Their Email Address
If you already have an email list, you should consider having a footer at the bottom of your emails that allows people to update their email address.
Some people may forget to update their email address, which leads to a higher email bounce rate. You can avoid this from happening by sending out a friendly reminder of updating an email address and telling the subscriber to move their email to their inbox and out of spam.
Teaching people to update their email in order to continue receiving your emails is a great educational way of helping your audience and it can reduce the bounce rate.
Benefits of Updating Your Email List
Now that you know the reasons your emails might be bouncing and why it’s time to update your email list, you should also know the benefits that come with it.
Updating your email list doesn’t mean you have to rest everything and erase all of your subscribers. It simply means that you need to figure out why your emails are bouncing and make the necessary correction.
Here are some of the benefits to consider when you do update your email list.
Stay Engaged With Your Consumers
Updating your email list means more people are receiving your content. Reducing your bounce rate means you know exactly who is receiving your content and who isn’t.
This helps with keeping your customers engaged. It shows what is working with your email strategy. If you know your emails are being delivered, you can then assess if they are being opened and clicked on.
The bounce rate is the initial stage of engagement. The open rate, the click-through rate, the eCPM, and other metrics are also important. But the first step is making sure your emails are delivered.
You Aren’t Wasting Time
Segmentation is a major part of email marketing. It allows you to separate your audience based on their needs and what choices they are making.
If your emails are bouncing, it can be difficult to assess the behavior of your email list. You don’t know how your customers are reacting to your emails if they aren’t receiving them.
When you reduce your bounce rate and update your email list, you are able to reduce the amount of time wasted on crafting an email. When you know who is opening your email and their response to it, you have a better idea of how to craft personalized emails.
Now You Know How to Lower Email Bounces
Figuring out how to lower the bounce rate of your email can be frustrating. You may not have any idea of where to start or any idea of why it’s happening.
However, with this guide, you now know why your email bounces. But more importantly, you know what you need to do to update your email address. You know how to be consistent in your email approach and ask your target market to update their emails.
If you want to improve deliverability by validating your email address, you can see how we do that by visiting our website.
