Why Emails Bounce

During an email marketing campaign (with EDMs and such), tons of complicated-looking reports tend to get churned out. And among the things normally asked by salespersons, one stands out as the most frequent of all.

"What's the difference between a hard bounce and a soft bounce?"

I'm tempted to troll that question with a pic like this one:

*snicker*

OK I'm sorry. That was udderly juvenile of me. Just wanted to get this off my chest. I'll be on my breast behavior from now on. Impeccable, even.

Ahem.

Well, to answer that question, we would first have to examine the similarities before we can understand the differences. I will endeavor to keep this simple.

Similarities - Hard Bounce and Soft Bounce both mean that your email was not delivered.

Differences - where they differ is the reason behind the email not being delivered.

Basically the terms Hard Bounce and Soft Bounce are meant to categorize the reasons why your email to this address is not being delivered. That said, we'll now delve into what constitutes a Hard or Soft Bounce.

Hard Bounce

A Hard Bounce occurs when you have an undeliverable email address. Take, for example, the address <info@teochew.thunder.com>. Perhaps the domain teochew.thunder.com does not exist at all. The other possibility is - teochew.thunder.com does exist - but there is no mailbox info in that domain! This means, the address info@teochew.thunder.com, in either of these cases, is undeliverable.

Think of yourself as the mailman, delivering a package. The package is addressed to, for example, Mr Info. He lives at Teochew Avenue, Thunder District. You make your way merrily to Thunder District and find, to your consternation, that there is a Canto Avenue, a Hakka Avenue and a Hainan Avenue. But no Teochew Avenue!

OK, now let's assume there is a Teochew Avenue in Thunder District. But there is no Mr Info along Teochew Avenue!

OK, where exactly does this
guy live, again?

Your package cannot be delivered because there's something wrong with the address. There's a possibility your address was spelled incorrectly. Or perhaps that person simply no longer lives there. That's a Hard Bounce.

In these cases, your best bet is to permanently remove those email addresses from your mailing list.

Soft Bounce

A Soft Bounce occurs when the email address does exist. But some temporary situation is preventing the email from being delivered. Perhaps the email server is undergoing some lag at the moment. Perhaps it's temporarily down for some maintenance. Perhaps the mailbox is full. Or perhaps the email you are sending happens to be too big for the mailbox, full or not full.

Again, think of yourself as the mailman. You know Mr Info lives along Teochew Avenue in Thunder District. But Teochew Avenue is experiencing heavy traffic at the moment, and your delivery van hasn't moved for the past hour. Perhaps there was a traffic accident, and Teochew Avenue is temporarily closed.

Sometimes this is why your
package doesn't reach you.

Or maybe it's neither. You get to Mr Info's house along Teochew Avenue just fine. But his mailbox is full and there's no way you can squeeze your package in there. (OK, no filthy jokes about squeezing your package in anywhere, please!) Or, you're delivering a refrigerator instead of a letter. and there's no way that sucker is going in the mailbox.

So in the event of a Soft Bounce, monitor those email addresses carefully. If they crop up too often, remove them. Either temporarily or permanently. Your call!

That's all from me today. Certainly hope I delivered!
T___T