Scenario: My list(s) have numerous email contacts that have bounced emails (both hard and soft). Do I need to remove them from my list(s) to prevent them from receiving future emails?
Answer: No, you should not delete/remove bounced email addresses because Pinpointe manages them for you. They are not counted towards Account level Acitve contact counts, and removing them allows them to be added back and bounce again.
Soft Bounces – Soft bounces result from several situations:
- Over Quota – These soft bounces occur when the recipients email inbox has exceeded its storage or email capacity.
- Blocked Content – These soft bounces occur primarily because your emails spam score is too high and your emails are not delivered. (For tips on how to improve your spam score, See: “Tips to Improve Deliverability”).
- Remote Configuration Error – These soft bounces occur when the recipient’s email server is not configured correctly or is temporarily unreachable.
*Soft Bounces will convert to Hard bounces after soft bouncing five (5) times. No management is necessary for soft bounces. Contacts with soft bounces will continue to receive email. After a contacts email bounces five (5) times, it is converted to a Hard Bounce status.
Hard Bounces – Hard bounces result from several situations:
- Inactive – The recipients email address is not active at this time.
- Email Address Does Not Exist.
- Domain Does Not Exist.
- Relay Error – We were unable to route the email to the recipient. This may include a temporary network issue along the path to the recipient, or the recipient’s email server routes are not configured correctly.
- Invalid Email – The email address is malformed (may have invalid characters)
*Contacts with hard bounces are flagged as such, remain in your contact list, but will no longer receive emails. This includes those contacts that have had more than five (5) soft bounces.