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In email marketing, a “transient bounce,” also known as a “soft bounce,” refers to a temporary failure to deliver an email to a recipient. Unlike permanent bounces, transient bounces suggest a temporary issue that may be resolved in the future. Common reasons for transient bounces include:

1. Mailbox Full: The recipient’s mailbox may be full, preventing it from accepting new emails. Once the recipient frees up space in their mailbox, future emails may be delivered successfully.
2. Temporary Server Issues: The email server at the recipient’s end might be experiencing temporary problems, such as being temporarily unreachable or undergoing maintenance.
3. Message Size Exceeded: Some email servers have restrictions on the size of incoming emails. If the email exceeds the maximum allowed size, it may result in a transient bounce.
4. Greylisting: Some mail servers use greylisting as an anti-spam technique. When an email is initially sent, the recipient’s server may respond with a temporary failure, expecting the sending server to retry after a specific period. Legitimate email servers typically attempt redelivery, while many spam senders do not.
5. DNS Issues: Transient bounces can occur if there are temporary issues with the Domain Name System (DNS), making it challenging for the sending server to locate the recipient’s mail server.

It’s important for email marketers to distinguish between transient bounces and permanent bounces. While permanent bounces warrant removing the email address from the mailing list, transient bounces may resolve themselves over time.

In email marketing, a “permanent bounce” refers to the situation where an email cannot be delivered to a particular recipient, and the failure is considered permanent. This typically happens when the email address is invalid, no longer exists, or is consistently rejecting the messages. Permanent bounces are also known as “hard bounces.”

There are various reasons why an email might permanently bounce:

1. Invalid Email Address: The email address provided is not correctly formatted or does not exist.
2. Domain Does Not Exist: The domain part of the email address (after the “@” symbol) does not correspond to a valid domain on the internet.
3. Mailbox Does Not Exist: The email server cannot find a mailbox associated with the given email address.
4. Mailbox Is Full: The recipient’s mailbox has reached its storage limit, and no more emails can be accepted.
5. Blocked by Server: The email server or spam filter at the recipient’s end has blocked the email.

It’s important for email marketers to regularly clean their email lists by removing addresses that result in permanent bounces. This helps improve email deliverability rates and ensures that future email campaigns reach the intended audience.

In your campaign Report section, you will find a metric called Bounce Rate. It shows the percentage of emails that failed to be delivered to the recipients, indicating issues with email list quality and delivery effectiveness. By clicking on Activity > Bounced, you will be able to see the detailed bounced report.

Here, we have clicked on Activity > Bounced.

Then, click on View: All. Both hard-bounced and soft-bounced listed here. Using this filter, you can view hard-bounced and soft-bounced leads from your sent campaign.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), which offers a reliable bulk email service called AWS SES. It had a hard bounce rate of 10%. A hard bounce occurs when an email can’t be delivered for permanent reasons, like if the email address is fake, the domain isn’t valid, or the recipient’s server won’t accept emails. So, if out of 1000 emails sent, 100 were fake or invalid and bounced, AWS SES would block your SES service by temporarily suspending sending privileges.

Here’s how AWS SES works whenever a Email is bounced:

Learn how to remove all the bounced leads / email addresses from your campaigns by creating a Standard Segment using the bounced leads activity condition. When the segment is created, you need to select all the leads of that segment and then delete them.

The following steps will guide you to remove the bounced leads or email addresses from your Brand completely:

1. Go to Brand > Segments then create a Standard Segment name Bounced Leads. Set the bounced leads activity condition as shown below. Select Leads match: “Any“, Campaign activity to “was bounced“, and “any of the selected campaigns“. Then, select those campaigns which whose leads were bounced. Click Create segment.

2. A Standard Segment with Bounced Leads will be created as shown below. Then click on the segment named Bounced Leads.

3. You will see a list of Bounced Leads (email addresses) which will appear under that segment. Now click on the check box where it has been highlighted by red marker.

4. After clicking the highlighted checkbox, all the Bounced Leads will be selected. If you have more than hundred leads then click Select all leads – this will select all the bounced leads under that segment.

5. Click on Bulk action and then select Delete leads.

6. A confirmation dialogue box will appear. Click Delete. All the bounced leads will now be permanently deleted from the entire segment.

7. Now click on the highlighted check box and then Delete segment to remove the segment name Bounced Leads from MailBluster.

8. Finally confirm it by clicking Delete to remove the segment from MailBluster.

If you want to remove all the complaint mail addresses from your campaigns, you need to create a Standard Segment using the complaint leads activity condition. When the segment is created, you need to select all the leads of that segment and then delete them.

The following steps will guide you to remove the complaint leads or email addresses from your Brand completely:

1. Go to Brand > Segments then create a Standard Segment name Complaint LEADS. Set the complaint leads activity condition as shown below. Select Leads match: “Any“, Campaign activity to “complained“, and “any of the selected campaigns“. Then, select those campaigns which whose leads were bounced. Click Create segment.

2. A Standard Segment with Complaint Leads will be created as shown below. Then click on the segment named Complaint LEADS.

3. You will see a list of Complaint Leads (email addresses) which will appear under that segment. Now click on the check box where it has been highlighted by red marker.

4. After clicking the highlighted checkbox, all the Complaint Leads will be selected. If you have more than hundred leads then click Select all leads – this will select all the complained leads under that segment.

5. Click on Bulk action and then select Delete leads.

6. A confirmation dialogue box will appear. Click Delete. All the complained leads will now be permanently deleted from the segment.

7. Now click on the highlighted check box and then Delete segment to remove the segment name Complaint LEADS from MailBluster.

8. Finally confirm it by clicking Delete to remove the segment from MailBluster.

Cleaning your email list is essential for maintaining high deliverability rates, improving engagement, and reducing bounce rates.

You can use reliable email validating tools to clean up your email/lead lists. Here are some popular choices:

1. JitBit Free Email List Cleaner
2. EmailListVerify
3. MailerCheck
4. NeverBounce
5. ZeroBounce
6. Clearout
7. Email Verifier
8. MailFloss
9. Mailgun

A healthy email list can enhance your email marketing efforts, ensuring that your messages reach interested and engaged recipients.

A list-unsubscribe header is a field in the header of an email, which adds an “Unsubscribe” link or button in the email client’s interface. This provides recipients with an easy and straightforward way to opt out of future emails, without needing to search for an unsubscribe option within the email content itself. The following is an example of list-unsubscribe header.

Domain reputation means emails from your sending domain (SPF and DKIM) are less likely to get filtered to a recipient’s SPAM folder or inbox. The definitions of SPAM below includes mail detected as SPAM by Gmail’s Spam filter, and mail reported by users as SPAM.

Domain reputation is particularly important in email marketing for several key reasons:

1. Deliverability: A good domain reputation ensures that your emails are delivered to recipients’ inboxes rather than being filtered into spam folders. Email service providers (ESPs) like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo! use domain reputation as a critical factor in determining whether to deliver your email or mark it as spam.
2. Open Rates: Emails that land in the inbox are more likely to be opened and read. High open rates are crucial for the success of your email marketing campaigns, as they directly influence engagement and conversion rates.
3. Engagement Metrics: Positive engagement metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, and low bounce rates, help maintain and improve your domain reputation. Conversely, negative metrics like high bounce rates and spam complaints can damage your reputation.
4. Avoiding Blacklists: Sending emails from a domain with a poor reputation can result in your domain being blacklisted by ESPs and anti-spam organizations. Once blacklisted, it becomes extremely challenging to deliver any emails to your audience, significantly hindering your email marketing efforts.
5. Trust and Credibility: A strong domain reputation indicates to ESPs and recipients that your emails are legitimate and trustworthy. This builds trust and credibility, encouraging recipients to engage with your content and take desired actions, such as making a purchase or subscribing to a service.
6. Regulatory Compliance: Maintaining a good domain reputation helps ensure compliance with email marketing regulations, such as the CAN-SPAM Act, GDPR, and other anti-spam laws. Non-compliance can lead to legal penalties and further damage your domain’s reputation.
7. Cost Efficiency: Sending emails that consistently reach the inbox can save costs associated with email marketing. Poor deliverability can lead to wasted resources, as emails that land in spam folders or are blocked outright do not reach the intended audience.
8. Long-Term Success: Email marketing is often a long-term strategy. Maintaining a good domain reputation ensures that your email marketing campaigns remain effective over time, allowing you to build and nurture relationships with your audience.
9. User Experience: Recipients who consistently receive your emails in their inbox are more likely to have a positive experience with your brand. This enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty, which are critical for the success of your email marketing strategy.

In summary, domain reputation is crucial in email marketing because it directly impacts deliverability, engagement, trust, compliance, and the overall effectiveness of your campaigns. Without a good domain reputation, your email marketing efforts may fall short, leading to reduced ROI and potential damage to your brand’s reputation.

Many mailboxes now use security protocols to protect recipients from spam and malicious messages. One such practice involves email providers automatically opening and checking emails before delivering them. A bot scans the content and clicks every link to ensure it’s safe. Once the email passes this security check, it is delivered to the recipient’s inbox.

Some subscribers, particularly those with strict security settings such as .edu or .gov domains, may trigger automatic opens or clicks when receiving emails. This is due to their security filters, which scan links and images for safety before delivering the email. This process can generate false opens or clicks, and there’s little senders can do to prevent it.

To identify auto-clicking subscribers, you can include a hidden link in the email. If it’s clicked, you’ll know the subscriber’s system is automatically scanning the content.

To reduce automatic clicks and opens, encourage subscribers with strict domains to use personal email addresses. Additionally, use HTTPS links, avoid overly promotional content, maintain a clean email list, and avoid typing full URLs in the email. Instead, embed links in text, buttons, or images.

To set up Google Postmaster for your Sender Domain, you need to follow these steps.

Sign in to https://postmaster.google.com. Then click on Get Started.

Click Get Started

Enter your domain URL and then click Next

Copy TXT record from Google Postmaster and paste it in your DNS Management

In your DNS Management, click Add

Select Type TXT, Name – yourdomain.com and Value – TXT Record from Google Postmaster. Then click Add record

Once the domain record is added, go to Google Postmaster Tools and click Verify

You will see the status as Verified in the Postmaster Tool

Now that the Google Postmaster Tools is configured, use it to measure your spam rate and overall health of your sender domain.

Gmail and Yahoo Mail have introduced a new set of requirements for senders regarding the protection of user inboxes, which has taken effect from February 2024.

The first one is that you must adequately configure DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records for your sender domain instead of verifying the sender’s email address for better email deliverability. For this, you can follow this guide.

The second one is the introduction of easy one-click unsubscribe button on the email header. MailBluster has also implemented an easy one-click unsubscribe header automatically to all outgoing emails to make it easier for recipients to unsubscribe, reducing the spam complaints, as shown below :

The third one is Mailbox providers will require that all senders keep spam complaint rates below 0.3% to avoid having their email treated as spam by the mailbox provider. It is recommended to enroll with Google Postmaster Tools to monitor their spam complaint rates for Gmail recipients.

Kindly be informed that disregarding these requirements could result in Gmail and Yahoo rejecting the delivery of emails to their intended recipients.

When a recipient of your email campaign clicks the spam button (or its equivalent, such as “junk” button) in their email application, their email service provider (such as Gmail, Yahoo, etc) typically sends a message back to Amazon Simple Email Services (Amazon SES).  This is done to let Amazon and you know that this recipient has marked your email as spam.

To notify you of this action, Amazon SES will send an email to the “from” address used in your email from their [email protected] address, providing you any of the technical information that came along with the spam complaint from the recipient’s email service provider.

When you receive such an email, you should verify that the complaining recipient is not included in your future email sends.  This will ensure that you have happy email recipients and fall under the good graces of Amazon SES.

Here is an example of complaint message:

You need to check whether your DNS records (DKIM, SPF, DMARC etc) are configured correctly or not. Sometimes ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and ESPs (Email Service Providers) takes the decision to reject the incoming emails. So emails from MailBluster ends up in Spam, Promotions or get bounced.

To check your email sending reputation, follow this process:

First go to https://www.mail-tester.com/

Copy the email address link provided by https://www.mail-tester.com/ . Do not close the tab of the browser. Leave it open.

Then go to another tab and sign in to MailBluster. Go to Brand > Campaign and click on your desired campaign. Scroll down and click on Send test email.

And paste the email link of mail-tester in the Recipients email address field of the Test email pop up box. Then click Send test email.

Now Click on Then check your score and you will be forwarded to a page with detailed results similar to this:

You can copy the shared link (highlighted) below to share the score with anyone, example tech team or support team

You will get detailed information whether your DNS MX records configured correctly or not by clicking each of the section:

First, please ensure the DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records of your sender domain are set up and working properly. You can refer to this video tutorial for configuring DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records within MailBluster.

Verifying domain ownership helps to increase email deliverability, but there are other steps you need to consider as well.

The second most important step is to use an Action URL. You can set it from Settings > Custom URL tab. Custom URLs can be used to rename the links that MailBluster uses, such as the web version URL and unsubscribe URL. By default, MailBluster uses a shared URL, which may lack a good reputation. Setting up an Action URL will help resolve this issue.

Here is a tutorial for setting up an Action URL: How to set Action URL for your brand in MailBluster.

After configuring all the mentioned settings, send a test email to mail-tester.com and check your sending score.

Please note that your emails might still land in the spam folder, but there are opportunities to improve your deliverability. This blog might help you: The Ultimate Guide on How to Prevent Your Email Newsletters from Going to Spam.

Whether your emails are delivered to your customers’ Promotions tab or their Inbox is typically determined by mail services such as Gmail. Given that you’re sending promotional emails, it’s only natural that they’ll be classified as Promotions by the Gmail algorithm.

Gmail has implemented a categorization based on the following criteria:

1. Email Content (whether the content you send appears to be marketing/promotional in nature rather than personal)
2. Personalization (the level of personalization your email offers to each of the customers)
3. User interaction (whether your customer personally marked your email to be categorized into the promotions tab)

If you create personalized content for each subscriber in your email campaign, it’s more likely your email will land in their primary inbox tab.

No one knows the algorithm that Gmail uses to categorize emails. We can suggest some best practices to follow to increase the probability of landing your email to inbox and avoiding this related problem. You can find some here: https://mailbluster.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-on-how-to-prevent-your-email-newsletters-from-going-to-spam.

Using HTTPS links in your email campaign should resolve the “suspicious link” issue.

If the issue still persists, then you need to check for the following:

1. Using the HTTP link instead of HTTPS
2. No DKIM configured
3. No SPF configured
4. No DMARC configured
5. Verifying your domain (click base URL) at postmaster.google.com
6. Using public URL shorteners like http://bit.ly
7. The Amazon SES is using shared IP to send your emails which might have a low reputation

Please contact our Support Center first for reporting any spam, complaint or abusive emails. You need to share the following details with the support team before submitting your spam or complaint email:

1. Sender’s Email Address

2. Recipient’s Email Address

3. Screenshot of the email you received

Our team will assess and investigate the report thoroughly and if we found that the customer is violating MailBluster Terms of use, we will take necessary actions against the sender.

Leads who subscribe with double opt-in enabled will be marked with the waiting status. It means that they received an extra confirmation email to verify their email address but they have not confirmed their subscription yet. When they open the email and click on the button there to confirm their email address, they will be automatically moved to the subscribed lead and the lead’s double opt-in status will be confirmed.

A gradual decrease in open rates in your campaign can be attributed to several factors. Here are some common reasons:

1. List fatigue: Over time, subscribers may become disengaged or less interested in your emails, resulting in lower open rates.
2. Content relevance: If your email content becomes less relevant or engaging to your audience, they may be less inclined to open your emails.
3. Deliverability issues: Technical issues, spam filtering, or changes in email client algorithms could affect your emails’ deliverability, leading to lower open rates.
4. List quality: Your email list may naturally decay over time as subscribers change email addresses, unsubscribe, or mark your emails as spam, impacting your open rates.
5. Subject line effectiveness: If your subject lines are not compelling or enticing, subscribers may be less likely to open your emails.
6. Competition: Increased competition or changes in the competitive landscape could affect open rates as subscribers receive more emails from other sources.
7. Lack of segmentation: If you’re not segmenting your email list effectively, you may be sending irrelevant content to certain segments, leading to lower open rates.
8. Technical issues: Technical issues such as deliverability problems, spam filtering, or changes in email client algorithms can affect open rates. Monitor your email deliverability metrics and address any issues promptly.

By analyzing these potential factors and making adjustments to your email strategy as needed, you can work towards improving and maintaining open rates in your bulk email campaign.

It’s quite difficult to accurately find the actual reason behind the gradual decrease of open rate in your campaign. For example, it might be due to the words you used while composing the email content, or some misconfiguration of your DNS server, or maybe these segments are less responsive compared to the previous segments, or the ISP is categorizing you in such a way that is causing less open rate etc.

You need to assume the reasons, work on them, and monitor the progress. We can guide and share resources on this.

For example,
You need to set the necessary DNS records to increase your email deliverability – This blog post might help you: How To Setup SPF DKIM And DMARC In AWS Account.

Also, you can set the Action URL on MailBluster. You can set it up from the Settings > Custom URL page.

You should follow these best practices:
1. The Ultimate Guide on How to Prevent Your Email Newsletters from Going to SPAM
2. Best Email Opening Lines to Hook Your Audience
3. Email Images: Complete Guide to Using Images in Email
4. Email Footer: Do Not Forget about the Last Impression

Based on our observations with our customers, seeing an IP address on a spam list is quite common for AWS users. Here are some reasons why this happens:

Shared IP Pool: By default, AWS sends emails from a shared IP pool unless a dedicated IP is used. These IP addresses were previously used by other AWS users, and their activities may have caused the IP to be listed on spam lists. When this IP pool was assigned to you, it was already on a spam list, meaning you might be affected by the activities of other AWS users.

New IP Address: If you used another email sending service before, your emails were sent from a different IP address. Email Service Providers (ESPs) recognize you by that previous IP address. When you start sending emails from AWS, you’re using a new IP address. The ESPs can’t match this new IP address with their records of your sender domain, which can negatively impact deliverability. To mitigate this, it’s better to send a smaller volume of emails initially from the new IP address and gradually increase the amount. This allows ESPs more time to recognize and trust your new IP address.

You can follow these steps:

1. You might have an issue in SPF record, so you need to look into it.

2. Improve your email.  Too many images make your email bulky. Bulky emails are tough to deliver and impact deliverability. We have seen customers getting better output by sending simple text emails. It looks like a personal email.

3. Avoid adding any URLs other than your sending domain to your email content. For example, don’t use URL from sendgrid.com or similar.

4. Set Action URL from the Settings > Custom URL section. Add your own domain/subdomain. It will improve deliverability. It’s part of point 3.

5. Personalize your email campaign. For example, it’s better to write Hi {{first_name}}, instead of Hi Guys,. To ESPs, it means you know who you are sending emails to and each email is different.

6. Create email campaigns using drag and drop editor. It creates better HTML code that supports all types of devices and ESPs.

For more detailed information, you can read this blog: https://mailbluster.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-on-how-to-prevent-your-email-newsletters-from-going-to-spam . If you can follow this correctly, it would definitely help you a lot.

It is not possible to disable the process of stopping emails from being sent to leads who receive an error message due to their inboxes being full, nor is it advisable. If the recipient clears their inbox, it will free up disk space, allowing future emails to be delivered properly. AWS does not penalize or damage the sender’s reputation for such emails. Therefore, retrying is appropriate.

However, if you find these notifications unnecessary or disruptive, you can disable them by following the steps below.

To disable these notifications, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon SES console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ses.
2. In the navigation pane, under Configuration, select Verified identities (Make sure you have chosen the correct AWS region).
3. From the list of verified email addresses or domains, select the email address or domain for which you want to disable notifications.
4. Click the Notifications tab.
5. Choose Edit in the Email feedback forwarding section.
6. Uncheck the Email feedback forwarding – Enabled option.
7. Click Save changes.
8. Repeat these steps for all verified domains/email addresses for which you want to disable notifications.

By following this process, you can stop receiving these notifications while ensuring proper email deliverability.

You can try these steps to remove your IP address from Sorbs Spam Blacklist:

The Sorbs Spam Blacklist allows users to request removal.  Here are the steps to request:

1. Create an account on the Sorbs website.
2. Sign in to your account.
3. Select the “Delist An IP Address” option.
4. Enter your unique IP Address and press “continue”.
5. A list of IP addresses will appear. Find yours and select “proceed” on each row where your IP address is listed.
6. Select the “Get Help/Support” button to create a ticket.
7. Once the ticket is created, you will receive a message indicating that your ticket was opened.

There could be two outcomes after trying these steps:

1. Your IP has been auto-removed
2. Your IP has not auto-removed

If your IP was not auto-removed, you can reply to the ticket and argue your case further. For more information, you can follow this link: Sorbs Support.

Even after registering your domain name and email, you might still encounter this issue. Follow these steps carefully to resolve it:

You need to follow these steps carefully to overcome the above issue:

1. You need to set up a DMARC record.

2. Send emails from an address other than your [email protected]. For example, use [email protected] or [email protected] for marketing emails, and [email protected] for notifications.

3. Consider using a subdomain if desired. For instance, use [email protected] for marketing emails. Using a subdomain helps manage and protect your primary domain’s reputation—if a subdomain is flagged for spam, it won’t affect your main domain.

4. Improve your email content significantly; this is crucial.

Visit Really Good Emails for guidance on email purposes, crafting compelling subject lines, and more. These blog posts can also be helpful:

• Email Marketing Best Practices
• AWS SES Best Sending Practices to Maintain Reputation