6 Quick Tips to Mail Effectively using Email Newsletters

1. NEVER SPAM
2. Keep it interesting
3. Make clear what you’re asking for
4. Offer links of interst
5. Highlight your successes
6. Write copy to fit the medium you’re using

“What can I say about Dundee Internet Services list hosting, I’ve been with Dundee for over 5 years…no problems, no issues, Just Good Results” Art, Magazine Publisher

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Discussion Lists – Talk About An Inexpensive Yet Priceless Solution

Discussion Lists / Pat

Discussion Lists – Talk About An Inexpensive Yet Priceless Solution

As the old joke goes, the fastest communication channels in the world were once said to be telegraph, telephone or tell a women. As a woman, two-way communication is a major part of my daily life, be it by email, text, social networking, mobile phone or face-to-face conversation. I find all these methods interactive and allow an exchange of ideas, opinions and information: quickly. When communicating with larger groups over any distance, near or far, I like the email Discussion list for its versatility.

A Discussion List allows the widespread distribution of information, ideas and opinions to many Internet users at once. Organizations who use discussion lists find they can foster community involvement by giving everyone on the list an opportunity to share knowledge and contribute to the conversation. In addition, the best part about a discussion list; the participates do not have to be in one place at a certain time, they can be anywhere in the country or in the world. They can research what was said and answer any post as desired, when they desire too.

The mechanics of a discussion list are easy to understand. Discussion lists are segregated by topics or groups. Generally, potential members subscribe to a discussion list online. Some may join using email while others are placed on the list manually. (With their permission of course!) Once a subscriber, list members can post to the list via a web interface or email. If using a moderated list, the moderator approves the sent message before it appears on the list. If non-moderated, the message is delivered to the other members when posted.

Members can select the format to receive and respond to posted messages. They can receive an email of each post as it is made to the list, in an email digest of all posts made that day or that week, or read and respond to messages in a forum setting on the internet, searchable by topic or author.

Discussion lists using advanced email features such as offered by Dundee Internet, have numerous options that complement many communication arenas that are in use today. Dundee internet hosted Discussion lists created in ListManager™ has the flexibility to:

Create a Customize landing page
Brand your list(s)
Integrate into existing databases and websites
Share photos
Share files
Run numerous discussion lists under one domain URL and brand, with one or many list administrators or resell services to others with all discussion list benefits.

Benefits of Discussion Lists

It’s been shown that most of us would rather receive information than go find it. Internet users are no exception. Discussion list subscribers seem to prefer receiving email than regularly visiting a Web site to search for new conversations, or information. In fact numerically speaking, research supports the fact that world wide, list subscribers, in comparison to the biggest online communities such as FaceBook far out number all social network users.

Discussion lists can be used by everyone. They support the exchange of ideas and cooperation among people who can be:

Young or old
Savvy or not
Dial up user or broadband consumer.
Mobile or Touch Screen
Reading Online or reading off line
Traveling or sitting at home

Discussion lists are regularly used to foster community-building efforts, share information within an organization and facilitate conversation with customers. They are an inexpensive yet priceless marketing tool. They are an excellent way of meeting goals because they easily handle:

Everyday tasks
Scheduling
Notifications
Group participation
Feedback

Discussion List Features allow them to be:

Straight forward, simple
Complex running sophisticated applications
Private with expiration dates on membership
Administrated by one, many or no one.
Public or not, set up as a private online community forum
Searchable by archives using the subject, date or author
Flexible, where the list administrator can allow users to set their own preferences
Customized and branded
An easy way to integrate subscriber information with other platforms

What’s out there?

There’s free discussion list hosting using ad supported platforms. However free usually means you’ll be advertising for their vendors and partners. Running banner ads regardless of where they are placed on the web page or in the email you’re reading, distract from messages, are unprofessional and in most cases appear as if your group is recommending the advertiser. Free means you cannot customize the look of your forums, nor have total list control over your members, and there is virtually no support for substantial integration with other platforms.

Then there are paid hosting plans. Before deciding which to use, consider the features and benefits you need, and will need for future growth. Consider all your requirements; do you need a branded discussion list, more than one list, several or one administrator, training for your staff, custom html skins, survey capabilities, searchable archives, moderated, secure from hackers, 24/7 support and total control of your members? If so, try a no cost no obligation evaluation list with Dundee Internet Services, and start talking.

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Are My Email Open Rates Worth My Time To Analyze?

Non Profit and Personal Hosting / Pat

Are My Email Open Rates Worth My Time To Analyze?

How do you measure success as an email marketer? Do you savor the click-through-rates of your subscribers, the one metric frequently used as a performance benchmark? Or, on the other hand, do you value the open rates of your emails to gauge your success? Are there other reports that are more significant; reports that will consider all the important statistics needed by the email marketer? Or, are your limited by a few choices between one analytical reporting tool or another? With email marketing, someone always seems to have a better tool to analyze email-marketing campaigns and then another tool comes along. How many reporting tools should you use and what are the results really telling you?

Two popular reporting tools, both easy to use and interpret are The Click-Through-Rate and Open-Rate reports. Both are readily available and both actually limit the amount of information you can really track. The Click-Through-Rate is often used to measure your email relevance as it relates to the message content, including the format, colors and links. This long standard report is simple to use as it compares the number of unique clicks to the number of delivered emails. It does not measure the percentage of email messages opened by your subscribers, but the Open Rate reporting tool does.

The Open Rate is calculated as a percentage of unique opens of the email messages delivered in your campaign. It does not directly measure the success or failure of a campaign, and the results may not be immediate. (As you probably know, many people just don’t open their email on your schedule.) Open rates are simple to get, not very useful for deep analysis, but they can be used to compare your open rate with industry averages, numbers for advertisers, evaluate an A/B test and test recipient engagement.

If you combine Open Rate measurements with Click-Through-Rates measurements, you can generate a more useful reporting tool by creating a simple ratio: the Click-to-Open-Rate. This ratio will produce the percentage of, not only unique opens, but the effectiveness of your email message when received by the number of subscribers motivated to open your message and click on a link.

The Click-to-Open rate can be expressed as:

ClickToOpenRate = ClickThroughRate /Opens; unique clicks as a percentage of unique opens. Essentially you are calculating success of your campaign by measuring the percentage of your opened email messages and then those opens who clicked on a link, instead, for example of measuring success based on number of unique opens in a given campaign.

The Click-to-Open rate value:

To begin with, it is suggested that you remove your unopened messages from your calculations before you do any serious analyzing . (Note that formulas below make allowances for bounce message removal). Plug the results of these first two formulas: OpenRate (OR) and ClickThroughRate(CTR) into the third formula ClickToOpenRate (CTOR).

Calculate your Open Rate:
OR=UniqueOpens /EmailSent (-EmailSent-Bounces)
Calculate your Click-Through-Rate:
CTR=UniqueClicks/EmailsSent (-EmailSent-Bounces)
Calculate the Click to Open:
CTOR = ClickThroughRate /Opens

Using the Click-To-Open rate as a analytic tool :

As you chart your results and compare your analysis with your OR and CTR results you should discover that the CTOR is without doubt a superior measurement tool as it redefines the success rate of you email based on:

Message content
Effectiveness of the offers presented
Content
Layout or theme used Links and location
Image use
User engagement

You can use the CTOR percentage as a comparison tool between customer segments. Compare mailings across different domains. With the CTOR reporting tool you will be able to discover which messages motivated recipients segments to open and click on links, instead of analyzing and trying to interpret why a mailing has wide variances in OR and CTR.

Remember, email reporting tools are not 100% accurate and for that reason you should always look at the bigger picture. There’s a lot of analyzing going on, from the right time of day to mail, best days to email, message size, color preferences, subject lines, which from address to use and so forth. Even within the same industry releasing a similar email campaign, there are many variations and factors beyond control: i.e. when a major ISP goes off line.

The bottom line: if you find a reporting tool that makes you feel good about your mailings with supported facts (increased sales or web site visits) continue using it, but never discount trying something new, it can only help you in the long run. Visit Dundee Internet list hosting services for report options. Why not Demo us today?

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Find cost savings with the right Non-profit communication medium

Non Profit and Personal Hosting / Pat

Find cost savings with the right Non-profit communication medium

It’s important for your non-profit organization to have its own means of communicating with the world. Corresponding with members, supporters, sponsors and everyone else is important for growth, balance and goals. The ideal medium to use, of course is the newsletter. The newsletter is your means for explaining why you exist, who you are and what you need. As a non-profit agency, by publishing your own newsletter, you have total control on content, regularity and circulation.

Every non-profit agency that has been around for a while should have first hand experience on every phase of the newsletter publishing process. There are budgets to consider, a competent staff to hire, a reasonable agenda to follow, writing articles, designing the layout, photographs and graphic choices, reproduction methods and distribution options. And if you plan to create a PDF version, place the newsletter on your website or incorporate it in email, there’s more time and resources to use.

By publishing your own newsletter, your organization avoids using mass media and the mass media regulations, limitations and fees that come with it. Most non-profits have modest budgets to work with and only dedicate one person as newsletter chief, cook, and bottle washer. The writer, often times is a director, because he or she places importance on publishing an organizational newsletter. The writer needs to have the time to create articles and possess the skill needed to produce a finish product. Smaller organizations without an in-house writer may turn to a freelance writer or public relations agency.

Your newsletter, whoever writes it, needs a thorough understanding of your organization’s missions, goals and programs while maintaining some editorial sense and is articulate and knowledgeable with your agency events and news. The writer, after completion of the newsletter will generally send it out to a list of addresses or email addresses or both. Considering email list distribution only for the rest of this discussion; your agency newsletter list should be the most valuable item in it’s possession or the most worthless taxing bit of information you have.

For your list to be valuable, it must:

Be Accurate
Up to Date
Segmented by interest
Segmented by members
Opt –in
Complete

How do you complete your list? Do you include everyone on your list(s)? The entire member organization? Is there an absolute number? Should you include board members, past and present, committee members, past committee members, all donors, friends of the agency? The compilation can be overwhelming. Consider what you’re using your newsletter for; a way to keep people involved and interested in your organization. Wouldn’t that include everyone? Keep the news coming on schedule, share information, report events, and elicit contributions.

If the list is valuable and the content worth reading, the next step is email management, distribution and costs. So the question, after considering all the work involved, is email “marketing” for your non-profit agency cost effective? Besides the obvious saving from the conventional printed newsletter: paper, ink, stamps, printing costs, driving to the post office, etc. email distribution requires software, computers, bandwidth, a writer, someone to create the newsletter, manage the addresses, address sending issues and other “hidden costs” if running this in-house like software updates, hard drive maintenance, electricity, spam and virus filters and don’t forget an affordable IT person.

The good news is you do not have to run your own email server in-house. You can eliminate those upfront costs and headaches by using an Email Service Provider (ESP) at fee far less than paper, ink and stamps, computers and software. A good ESP will manage all the email marketing, newsletters and discussions you need using one email solution for your entire organization. List management will be less time consuming, easy to administer and more organized. You’ll save on time, resources, cost and paperwork. A company like Dundee Internet offers non-profit list hosting, with a 30 day free trial with unlimited support and free newsletter skin template matching (to your website) to get you started.

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Tarpitting and other sticky email issues.

Email Lists / Pat

Tarpitting and other sticky email issues.

This morning you mailed to 750,000 subscribers, a simple newsletter and you cannot understand why the delivery rate is beyond slow, in fact, it is crawling. Your list members are all opted-in, you’re not black listed anywhere and this is a scheduled mailing, people are expecting it. What’s going on? You check with your list administrator who informs you your mail is being tarpitted. Huh? – With a little research and reading, you discover:

Tar Pitted or Tarpitting is closely related to the notion of the teergrube (German for tar pit): a server that is intentionally configured to be sluggish as a common means of trapping address harvester programs. Can that really be the reason for your delayed mailing?

What and whys:

Tarpitting is the practice of purposely slowing down email transmissions from reaching the mail server, typically by delaying incoming connections for as long as possible. This practice is noted to have been developed as a defensive measure against a computer worm.
Tarpitting can be created by adding specific delays between a set numbers of messages. For example, the mail server can insert a 5-second delay between email messages after the first 50 messages are sent: which essentially can add days to your delivery rate (depending on how many list members you have). Additionally the mail server can create a delay if the release time is extended with each invalid email address submitted. If your valid email is caught up in a tarpit, your mail will eventually be delivered because the connection is never broken, just slowed down
Tarpitting continues to be utilized because there is a belief that usual network abuses such bulk email spamming loses its effectiveness if delivery takes too long.
Tarpitting employed by a mail server is done with the intention of discouraging bulk spammers, by offering low response rates because the slowed connections. This in turn creates the inability to send volumes of messages quickly (and cheaply).
The practice of tarpitting normally does not affect the integrity of legitimate email senders because the actual delay time is inconsequential for the typical recipient lists. (Mail server administrators can also make exceptions for legitimate mail.) ]

However, you’re not a spammer and you’ve been sending email newsletters for years! If you find yourself with an unusual slow mail delivery, check with your ESP. (Email Service Provider). An ESP can usually research and discover if your mail delay is related to a tarpitting issue. An ESP might tell you that bigger ISPs may tarpit mail on occasion for a variety of reasons, from internal issues to a perceived spammy subject line. We’ve seen tarpitting occur without rhythm or reason other than the ISP decided that not enough people were clicking on the received mail, so therefore if might be spam.

If tarpitting becomes a concern, one option you may have is to get yourself whitelisted. In some cases when your mailings are clearly whitelisted, tarpitting will not have an adverse effect on your email. However not all ISP’s use or accept whitelisting which doesn’t help you if your dealing with such an ISP.

To be whitelisted is a good thing, as a whitelisted email may escape the tarpit slow down. However, as mentioned this is not available to do with all ISPs. Moreover, while being whitelisted is good, other classes may not be. There is mail that can be greylisted or blacklisted. Greylisting occurs when the sever rejects the connection causing the need for your email to be resent later. Greylisting is based on the premise that spammers only want to connect to a mail server quickly, ideally on the first attempt with little hassle, while legitimate mailers will retry to connect to the mail server over longer periods. If you’re sending from an unfamiliar IP address for example, you may be greylisted.

If you’re blacklisted simply put you are considered a Spammer. Become blacklisted and you compromise your sender reputation and the IP address being used. There are volumes of information written about Blacklists, a good topic for a future blog.

In conclusion, the necessity of tarpitting, and classifying email as greylisted, whitelisted or blacklisted is the direct result of the steady progression of spammers and other malicious coders of which there is no end in sight. These proactive measures aren’t perfect, as you may well be aware of, but may be the best available for now.

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Wimpy Landing Pages Can Make or Break Your Email Campaign

Email Lists / Pat

Wimpy Landing Pages Can Make or Break Your Email Campaign

You just finished your email project and it took weeks of planning, hours of testing and selecting just the right mix of photos, fonts and colors for your marketing campaign. You’re excited. This email campaign is the one everyone has been waiting for and you are expecting big results.

All your effort and time has been focused on the job at hand. Your emails will be sent out with a perfect, tested, attention grabbing subject line and content. Because you send with consistent formatted headers, your recipients will easily recognize you as the source of the communication. All your messages will be personalized and segmented, relevant to the specific subscriber. You have everything ready and you’re about to send. BUT WAIT! Did you forget something? – Something so important that it can make or break your entire email campaign. Where are all these subscribers being directed to once they open your email? Will they follow a link to a wimpy landing page with iffy information on a poorly crafted website eliciting distrust and apprehension because the landing page message they read is confusing, unrelated to your initial email that lead them in the first place,? Or, will they “land” on a relevant landing page highlighted with a strong call to action statement with content applicable to your recent email campaign?

Yes it’s true, a landing page can make or break your well planned out, executed, email campaign. Why spend all that time and energy on email marketing only to fall short by failing to deliver a landing page that begs to be read and used, designed to work with your campaign with a strong call to action message and useful relevant content for all your list subscribers.

Custom design a landing page for your email subscribers so they have a clear idea of what you expect from them. Check your work and work your page. Make sure you:

Test your links both in your email messages and on the landing pages.
Create a landing page that matches the tone and theme of your email. Your subscribers are there because they found something of value in your initial message. Link to a landing page that communicates with the same look and feel as your email. Don’t confused the subscriber by introducing an entire new theme and message.
Landing pages work best by being concise and direct with a call to action that is easy for your subscribers to follow. Clear direction will motivate your subscribers to sign up for a survey, click on link, download a PDF or sign up for a Webinar.
Build on the trust you have cultivated with your list subscribers. The landing page is a place for you to follow through the promises made in your initial email.
Take advantage of your landing page white space; there is nothing wrong with advertising other services while you hold true to your original offer.
Customize your landing page message for a specific audience. Create as many landing pages as needed to cover the offers in your email: remember the goal of a landing page is to provide your subscribers specific targeted information that is relevant while increasing your conversions rates. (measured by the number of subscribers performing a desired action such as downloading a PDF).
Use the A/B split testing concept and try different web elements within your landing pages. Are your list subscribers most likely to buy a CD if there is a sample of the song on the landing page or more likely to take action if there is only a picture of the artist

And the benefits of creating a good landing page are invaluable as they:

Increase open and click-through rates
Create more selling/marketing opportunities
Define and set choices and expectations
Offer helpful relevant content
Create a positive brand experience
Allows self evaluation of your campaign.

Remember, you want your email campaigns to work for you and be a good experience for your subscribers. Always use landing pages and create a positive atmosphere for your visitors by providing content that is relevant to your email campaign and offer them useful information so they can’t wait to receive your next email. Need help creating a landing page. Contact info@dundee.net for assistance.

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Does your Subscriber List have Abandonment Issues?

Email Lists / Pat

Does your Subscriber List have Abandonment Issues?

It happens to the best of us, we have an active email list, we keep it clean and healthy, apply all the right practices, we don’t over mail and we engage our subscribers. We take suggestions and listen to all comments. Our subscribers can always update their information as we have an easy to find landing page link on each email we send out, and still, we lose a percentage of our subscriber base. AND over time, this number translates into real concern. How concerned should you be with subscriber list churn?

Mathematically subscriber list churn is calculated as a fraction or ratio, usually stated as a percentage of list members unsubscribing from your list compared to those who remain over a set period of time: i.e. A year. Of course there are other list abandonment issues factoring into this equation other than an unsubscribed address, these include those subscribers who permanently mark your email as spam or change their email address thereby avoiding any action on their part. .

Losing opted-in subscribers can affect your web experience whether you’re a marketer or a nonprofit organization, because as you know, everything is relative. Essentially your membership list is proportional to the volume of your sales and/or the size of your donations. List membership is dynamic; the actual number of lost members compared to list newbie’s may be difficult to ascertain especially if your website draws a large amount of daily activity. So how do you minimize list churn: consider the following 12-Steps.

Engage your readers with well-written free content.
Offer discounts and specials.
Be informative, appeal to the individual using personalization and triggered mailings. Don’t just mail to mail.
Email within the guidelines of email Best Practices.
Provide an easy to find link on the bottom of each message to your subscribers’ profile page.
Maintain your website by removing outdated materials and photos. Fix broken links.
Do not over mail and do not under mail. – setup a schedule and let your readers know when to expect to hear from you.
Always send a welcome letter when someone subscribers.
Send a goodbye letter with a place for comments.
Consider the source of your list, are your members all opted-in or obtained by other means, such as using a list broker (bought or rented), from co-registration or an email append service.
Keep your word, if they unsubscribe, remove them from your membership base.
Link to your privacy policy or include a statement about privacy in your welcome letter.

In summary list churn can affect results of any email campaign. It can interfere with your deliverability because of the tendency of not wanting to remove the unsubscribed addresses. ISP’s will block your mail if you continue to send and resend to inactive or closed email accounts, or if your email is delivered and never opened. List churn costs money because it hinders growth and takes up resources. So follow the 12-steps and reduce the list churn concern.

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You Are Welcome!

Announcement Lists / Pat

You Are Welcome!

How do you welcome your new subscriber and thank them for joining your mailing list?

After someone subscribes to your email newsletter or announcement list, there are three reasons to acknowledge their new membership with a timely, well thought out welcome letter; to thank your new member for joining, set their future expectations by explaining the purpose of your email list and most importantly – to start a subscriber relationship with them.

Your sending relationship starts by actually sending a Welcome Letter, crafted to capture the attentiveness of your subscriber by reviewing and perhaps using the following suggestions:

Create a good first impression: acknowledge their subscription to your newsletter
Make it personal, address them by their first name or email address.
Thank them; tell your subscriber that their membership is appreciated.
Focus your first contact on your subscriber: share the benefits they will be receiving as a recipient of your newsletter.
Set their expectations correctly; explain the intention of your newsletter along with the delivery agenda.
Remind them to add your email address to their Safe Sender list, as you do not want your newsletter, announcements, articles or coupons to be marked as spam and deleted.
Provide an unsubscribe method.
Encourage a visit to your website with a link and explain why they should visit your site now by offering them an incentive to do so. (white paper download/discount/coupon)
Consider adding references and active links to your past newsletters and articles of interest
Include footer information with a contact email address, a link to update their profile page, your web site address and other useful tidbits that they need to know.
Increase subscriber interaction by working within the lines of your social networking overall strategies by adding links to each of your active networks. Suggest they join your twitter account or facebook page for other opportunities you offer, such as a one-day sale or webinars
Assure your subscribers that their information is secure and held private at all times by linking to your privacy policy.

In summary, a Welcome Letter allows you to begin direct, personal communication with your subscriber. By greeting them by their first name (if you collected it on your sign up sheet), you can begin your email relationship on a friendly basis, authenticate their new membership and set the newsletter venue. Inform them how to change their profile page (if offered), how to provide feedback (with a working link to), remind them to add you to their Safe Sender List and how to unsubscribe. A Welcome Letter should support your brand name, not be too wordy or overbearing, but a welcome and a thank you.

If you need help with Welcome Letters or have questions please contact info@dundee.net for assistance.

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Spring back from the Big Bounce; actively manage your bounces

Email Lists / Pat

Spring back from the Big Bounce; actively manage your bounces

Tips to actively manage your bounces so you can Spring back from the Big Bounce.

1) Use sanity checks, take a moment to confirm submitted email addresses, are in fact, correct. Verify they are technically right and are valid email addresses. Do not assume that people will enter their correct address every time on a website subscription form. i.e. alice@enter.aol

2) Maintain a good engagement record by identifying inactive addresses and remove them from your active mailing lists. Inactive subscribers cannot engage your email message: if you have a habit of keeping and mailing to inactive subscriber addresses – your engagement score will be low, and consequentially a lower sender reputation will follow.

3) Make it simple for your customers to update their information (i.e. replace an email address) by including a link in your mailings to their customer profile record.

4) Confirm your list members, stay away from rented or purchased lists to avoid SPAM Traps.

5) Identify potential issues by reviewing the sender reports. By using Lyris ListManager™ customers with Dundee Internet email list services, receive extensive reports on their mailings and memberships. Customers can create custom reports or view the eight built in reports categories, Mailings, Members, Server Performance, Web site, Purchases, Interest and Surveys to analyze their campaigns.

6) Are you on a blacklist? Regularly check your reputation status and the status of your ESP with the major SPAM databases by reviewing the websites of the reporting agencies such as DNSBL.com, spamhaus.org and SpamCop. Consider using a tool such as the Email Advisor™, compatible with most list hosting services, which includes a BlackList Monitor that analyzes all of the domains and IP addresses in the entire email message you are planning to send, including those URLs included in the content of the message. The Email Advisor™ checks more than 300 Internet blacklists so you don’t have to.

7) Check your content for Spammy phrases and use subject lines that relate to your mailings.

8) Always test your messages. Your newsletters represent you, and with opt-in newsletters, the impression you make is delivered to hundreds or hundreds of thousands with a click of a mouse. Make sure the newsletter they see is the one you intended for them to read. Send your completed message to yourself and your staff BEFORE sending it out to your entire subscriber base.

9) AND finally, recognize how your ESP handles bounce messages. For example, Dundee Internet’s hosted list services using Lyris ListManager™ parses the textual message (SMTP response text) returned from mail servers. Response messages are broken down into a number of categories, with each requiring different behavior. Here are some of the basic categories:

Invalid user: When ListManager™ sees a response code that corresponds to this category, the email address is put on hold server-wide immediately.
Filtered Content: Content that trips a spam filter or has other characters that cause it to be rejected (e.g., the message size is too large).
Technical Issues: The destination server is consistently busy or otherwise unavailable.
Banned IP: The IP address sending the email has been banned, typically for excessive complaints or for attempting to email too many invalid users at that domain
Transient Failures: The destination mailbox is temporarily unavailable (usually because it is full)

Thank you for reading, more blogs to follow.

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The Big Bounce

Email Marketing / Pat

The Big Bounce

Planning an email campaign? It can be as easy as 1, 2, 3: write the copy, check the content, test the message and send. With high expectations, you anticipate that the majority, if not all of your campaign emails, will be delivered without a fuss. However, you do expect to see a few bounced back addresses from your sender list, among the clickthroughs, purchases and refer-a-friend links, which are typically reported by the live delivery analysis provided by your ESP.

Most senders will retain bounced back addresses to resend to them in the future, believing these bounces are likely the result of full mailboxes or misspellings. The bounce report, depending on the technological sophistication used by your ESP, may divide these returns into categories. A complete detailed report may allow the sender to distinguish the difference between the real reasons for the bounce from a full mailbox. You might question the necessity of such detail – Just what are bounce categories and how do they affect your email campaigns?

The Bounce Categories

Email bounces can be either synchronous or asynchronous: the difference between them being the measured length of time for the bounce message to return to the sender. Synchronous bounces are instantaneous as the failed delivery attempt is bounced back immediately, where an asynchronous bounce comes in awhile after the message was sent out.

The speed in which an email is returned in a bounced state is the result on how the message is intercepted.

An email sent to an invalid address for example, will be terminated when the receiving server identifies the address as invalid, the connection is cut and the email is returned: a synchronous bounce.
An asynchronous email bounce occurs when the receiving server attempts to process the invalid email, acknowledges the message and continues to attempt to deliver it until the delivery fails.

After the email bounce is determined to be synchronous or asynchronous, it is assigned to one of two categories using standard RFC codes, which can be identified in the return email header.

The Soft Bounce

A soft bounce is email that has bounced back to the sender, undelivered after it has been accepted by the recipient’s mail server. This is usually a short-term condition with an expectation of clearing up in the future. However, it is good practice to monitor soft bounces and remove them from your list when they bounce a certain number of times in a row. Advanced email tools automatically handle this process.

Soft Bounces may occur when

An Email is returned undelivered because the receiver’s mailbox is full at that time.
An Email Message Size is too large to be delivered.
Auto responders, such as a vacation out of the office message may be incorrectly reported as a bounce.

The Hard Bounce

All things not being equal a Soft Bounce on one sever maybe interpreted as a Hard Bounce on another server. A hard bounce normally perceived as a long-term or permanent condition is generally not expected to clear up any time soon. It is good practice to remove hard bounces when they occur however, you might want to develop an internal policy to remove the address after a few consecutive bounces as hard bounces may clear up when temporary condition occurs such as a temporary system fault or a blacklisted domain.

Hard Bounces may occur when

Recipient address is misspelled.
User doesn’t exist
Your domain is blacklisted

Some ESP’s such as Dundee Internet offers a more granular bounce grouping rather than just a “Hard and Soft Bounce” report, accentuated with a uniquely colorful graph for easy evaluation.

The following nomenclature is used by ListManager ™

Technical failures: user specific disk space problems.

Uncategorized failures: A failure that doesn’t easily fit into one of the other categories.

Invalid Users: For some reason, the email addresses are not legitimate ones (this is often caused by spelling errors).

Content Blocks: Content blocks are responses that indicate that the message is ejected for issues detected by a content filter. The filter may conclude that your message contains spam-like content, non-RFC compliant content, blacklisted URLs in the content,etc

MailStream blocks: You can learn more about MailStream blocks here.

End User complaints: Spam complaints made about the mailing.

Recipients remaining: The number of recipients for a mailing that are current pending in the Active Recipients queue. These users may not have been attempted yet, could be in retry due to transient delivery failures, or could be inactive due to a block by the destination IS

Next Up: How to actively manage your bounces.

*** invalid addresses being caused by typos…if the addresses were validated in a closed loop confirmation system, invalid addresses because of typos would virtually disappear.

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