Knowing how you will manage email bounces is one of the most important parts of planning your email campaign. You’re likely thinking about what to include in your email pitch and how to best identify your target audience. However, all of that might not matter if you don’t consider how you'll manage email bounce backs.

No matter how well executed your email campaign is, it could still fall prey to spam filters and over-quota mailboxes, which is why managing bounced email is critical to getting your message to the right people. ISPs usually include the reason for the bounce back, but it's the sender's responsibility to fix those errors, and that’s how bounce management software can help.
Using bounce back software:

1. Reduces the cost and time spent on managing bounce back emails.
2. Allows you to focus your energy on reaching customers instead of on technical problems.
3. Helps prevent your company being blacklisted or blocked as a spammer.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Choose bounce management tool that handles multiple tasks

You want to concentrate on getting your message to potential customers, and the more time you spend on technical issues, the less time you have to focus on reaching people. If you're adding bounce back software anyway, why not find one that can handle other email tasks as well?

I recommend: StrongMail simplifies multiple email tasks, with its real-time reporting, inbound and outbound message tracking, and customer heading tracking. This bounce software also features flexible analysis, and you can analyze results based on recipient, domain, mailing, or system.

Use bounce management software that lets you customize

Email bounce management is more difficult now than in the early days of the Internet. The standard bounce back definitions were established in the early 1980s, when the use of email was much more limited. Now, emails bounce for reasons they didn't back then, and because of this, many systems administrators and software authors have developed their own definitions, and the multiple definitions create confusion and make it more difficult to catch every bounced email. That's why personalizing your email bounce software is critical.

I recommend: MaxProg's eMail Bounce Handler comes with 60 pre-defined rules, which cover an estimated 99.9 percent of bounce backs, but this email bounce software also lets you customize the filtering specifications.

Ask other email professionals for advice on email bounce management.

Email practices evolve rapidly, the list of both email problems, and their solutions, grows every day. Whether you're new to email marketing, or have used it for years, you can benefit from the experiences of others who, like you, count on email to reach out to potential customers. They can tell you what's worked for them and what hasn't, recommend bounce software, and also help you stay informed of developments within the email marketing field.

I recommend: Email Roundtable is an online community of email marketing professional. Membership is free to email marketers, and includes offline events and a members-only resource center. The Email Marketers Club is also free to join, and includes forums, job listings and a chatroom.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Know the difference between 'soft bounces' and 'hard bounces.'A soft bounce is usually a temporary condition, such as 'mailbox full.' You can resend these -- many experts recommend three to five times over at least 15 days -- and then remove the address from your list. A hard bounce is a permanent error, such as 'user not known.' Experts usually recommend removing hard bounces immediately.