bounces
DELIVTERMS: The Monday series here on Spam Resource that defines deliverability terminology. Today, I’m going to talk about VERP: Variable Envelope Return Path.VERP (Variable Envelope Return Path) is where you encode the return-path address (remember that from last week) on a per-recipient basis, uniquely changing it for each recipient. If somebody sends an email to two people, you and me, your copy of the email message will have a return-path header with a one code in it, and my return-path header will have a different code in it. (You can find examples over on the VERP Wikpedia page.)Why? VERP helps email sending platforms (ESPs, CRMs, etc.) more easily track which email messages weren’t delivered — which ones bounced back to the sender.To understand how VERP helps with bounce tracking, we need to understand how bounces are communicated between senders and receivers. There are basically two ways bounces can be communicated…
What is a Bounce? An automated message from an email system, informing the sender of a previous message that the message has not been delivered. NOTE: the Bounce message usually contains a 3 digit code and the reason why the email «bounced» (Diagnostic Code). Soft Bounce Vs. Hard Bounce Hard Bounce: permanent errors = address is […]
This is a bit of a random post, with a bit of a random data point, but it surprised me and I thought those who send via SES might want to know. Because I am not entirely sure that it’s well known.On the Amazon SES FAQ page, they answer the question, “Can my email deliverability affected by bounces or complaints that are caused by other Amazon SES users?”The answer is basically, “mumble mumble, no not really, but.” (They don’t really address the potential for shared IP reputation issues; and I’m not sure I want to pick at that scab here. Maybe in a followup post.)The interesting bit is this, though:An exception to this rule occurs when a recipient’s email address generates a hard bounce. When a recipient’s email address generates a hard bounce, Amazon SES adds that address to a global suppression list. If you try to send an email…
Lesley Higgins (a Marketing Solutions Consultant at NuAge Experts but prefers to refer to herself as a Marketing Cloud Developer) posting over at SFMC Geeks recently shared a valuable tip for Salesforce Marketing Cloud users who might want to override the default bounce processing logic to more quickly suppress certain types of addresses. It’s a good thing to do; getting rid of bad addresses more quickly means subsequent sends are likely to deliver faster and a higher bounce rate can negatively impact your deliverability success (meaning that more quick suppression of bouncing addresses can have a positive impact). Read all about it here.
Help! I’m getting mail from MAILER-DAEMON@(various domains) with subject lines like: Delivery Status Notification (Failure), failure notice, Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender, Message Delivery Failure – Mail Delivery System, **Message you sent was blocked by our bulk email filter**, Recapito fallito, Returned mail: see transcript for details, Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender. These all seem to be bounces back from mail I didn’t send. What is happening and how do I make it stop?