Understanding the 4 Different Types of Email Marketing Bounces

What is an Email Bounce? An Email Bounces when the email sent is rejected by the recipient’s mail server. This is a part of email deliverability, which is the measurement and understanding of how successful a sender is at getting their marketing message into people’s inboxes. 

So, to learn more about the reasons your email isn’t getting through, read our list of the 4 types of email bounces: 

1) Temporary Failures

Three-digit bounce codes help to inform the sender of the error. Usually, a bounce code starting with a 4 means that it is a temporary issue and you can send it again later. This temporary failure, or a ‘soft bounce’, usually means that either the mailbox is protected, or full. You can try again later but if it keeps getting rejected then you might have to consider removing that contact from your database. 

2) Recipient Bounce

These next three bounce codes all start with a 5, which means that your email will never be sent successfully. If it’s a recipient bounce, or a code starting with 500 or 550, it means that the address was not valid or was never valid. Double-check your email address to ensure that there were no errors with the recipient email.

3) Content Bounce

When you see a code with 571 or 554, it means that it was a content bounce. The server detected that your content was similar to spam, in that the text copy was full of spelling errors or linked to suspicious sites. Do modifications to your email content to ensure that it looks like a regular mail, sent from one friend to another.

4) Reputation Bounce

The worst code to receive is a reputation bounce. Seen in terms of 574, 551 or 471, this means that the server made a judgement call based on your email’s reputation. This could be due to the fact that you sent too many, hence landing on the email blacklist. If this is the case, you might have to use email blasting services instead.

{{cta(’96fd5058-7e6b-41db-a7f4-298cce67617f’,’justifycenter’)}}