What is a bounced email?
When we send an email to a user, each one takes a unique path to the inbox. For example, you have an automation that sends a message to Joe at Gmail (joe@gmail.com). This is the technical conversation that happens when we attempt to deliver that message:
Us: Hello, Gmail
Gmail: Hi
Us: We have a message for Joe
Gmail: Okay, great, give us that message, and we'll pass it along to Joe!
That whole conversation only takes a few milliseconds, but it's essential to understand because sometimes things don't go smoothly. This is what the conversation would look like if we try to send a message to an address at Gmail that doesn't exist, say bill@gmail.com:
Us: Hello, Gmail
Gmail: Hi
Us: We have a message for Bill
Gmail: Bill doesn't have a Gmail account. That account doesn't exist. Goodbye.
In this case, Gmail told us the email address didn't exist. Maybe Bill closed his account. Perhaps it never existed in the first place. This is a bounce.
Why do messages bounce?
These are the most common reasons a message might bounce:
The address doesn't exist (Hard Bounce)
Temporary bounce (Soft Bounce) may be due to temporary errors, like a full mailbox or a brief server outage. If we get three temporary bounces in a row for any particular contact, we will mark the contact as "bounced" as if they had hard bounced.
"Auto-bounce" bad email addresses - we "auto-bounce" some contacts that are bad addresses, like 12345678910@12345.com.
I have a member showing as bounced but their details are valid. Why did that happen?
Usually, this happens because the recipient's inbox provider decided to block the message we sent for one reason or another. This temporary error should resolve itself, assuming the contact is valid. If the situation is not rectified, contact our support team at enquiries@appellon.com and we’ll help you fix it.
