E-mail bounce rate is the percentage of e-mails that could not be delivered to your e-mail subscribers. Industry benchmarks for e-mail bounces are 0,5% – 2%, but it is recommendable to get the bounce rate as low as possible. This metric indicates how well your e-mail subscriber list is managed/organized. Since not all bounces have the same reason, it is essential to differ between hard bounces and soft bounces.

Hard bounces:
Hard bounces are severe errors since they represent not a temporary failure but a permanent one. The most common reasons for hard bounces are invalid addresses or if the domain exists no longer. It is important to remove any e-mail addresses from your list that result in hard bounces to keep an organized e-mail list. Otherwise, you might damage your e-mail reputation. A bad e-mail reputation will increase the chances of being flagged as spam or even being blocked completely.

Soft bounces:
Soft bounces show a temporary delivery failure due to an issue with the receiving server or the subscriber’s mailbox being full or inactive. These issues don’t require any further action from your side. Most of the time, soft bounces will be delivered after multiple attempts. But also remember to monitor your soft bounces to keep a clean e-mail list.

Calculate your e-mail bounce rate by dividing the amount of bounced e-mails by the amount of sent e-mails.

For example, if you sent 200 e-mails and 20 e-mails were not delivered, your e-mail bounce rate is 10%

Email bounce rate = 20 / 200 = 10%

• Use a double opt-in
• Be clear about the content you are sending your subscribers
• Engage consistently with your subscribers
• Give subscribers a chance to opt-out
• Use a known e-mail service provider with an excellent sending reputation
• Don’t use words that indicate spam
• Verify your e-mail list
• Remove inactive subscribers