{"id":20264,"date":"2022-05-23T18:14:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T12:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/email.uplers.com\/blog\/?p=20264"},"modified":"2025-03-25T12:08:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T06:38:47","slug":"the-definitive-guide-to-bounce-mail-management-in-sfmc-email-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/email.uplers.com\/blog\/the-definitive-guide-to-bounce-mail-management-in-sfmc-email-studio\/","title":{"rendered":"The Definitive Guide to Marketing Cloud Bounce Management in SFMC Email Studio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[This post was originally published on 9th June 2020. It has been updated on 21 March 2025.]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Packed with handy templates, forms, buttons, text and a whole plethora of other user-friendly features, Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) Email Studio <\/em>is perfect for brands looking to build automated and engagement-worthy custom email campaigns that delight their audience and at the same time elicit interaction from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, no matter how stunning your 1-to-1 email marketing campaigns with SFMC Email Studio<\/a> turn out to be, it won\u2019t amount to much if at the end of the day very few recipients interact with these emails. If that\u2019s the case, chances are that you probably have a deliverability<\/em> problem on your hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email deliverability<\/em> is the foundation upon which email marketing is built. It is not<\/em> the same as email delivery<\/em>. Email delivery is when an email is successfully delivered to the receiving server. Email deliverability<\/a> on the other hand, is when an email successfully arrives in the recipient\u2019s inbox. It is entirely possible to have good email delivery but poor deliverability, say, because the email landed in the recipient\u2019s spam folder rather than their inbox or because their email address itself is invalid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deliverability is often impacted by a number of factors, including Internet Service Providers (ISP), Mail Transfer Agents (MTA), bulking, spam, throttling and bounces. In this guide, we touch on email deliverability in the specific context of bounces.<\/em> We will cover marketing cloud bounce management in Email Studio, some ways to analyze the root cause of bounces, as well as some best practices to set up SFMC for good email deliverability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But first, let\u2019s start with the basics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unpacking The Meaning Of \u2018Bounce\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In simplest terms, an email that can\u2019t be successfully delivered and is sent back to SFMC by the ISP is said to have bounced<\/em>. A subscriber or recipient is also marked as \u2018bounced\u2019 when their receiving email server rejects an email sent from SFMC. ISPs send messages back to SFMC explaining why the email bounced. Analyzing these responses can help the email marketer understand root causes so they can find ways to fix the underlying problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bounce rate<\/em> is a metric that refers to the percentage of total emails sent that could not be delivered to the intended recipients\u2019 inboxes. If a recipient\u2019s email server accepts the email, their status remains Active<\/em> in SFMC, but if it rejects the email, their status changes to Bounced<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are mainly 4 types of bounces that email marketers should be aware of:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1. Soft bounce<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a temporary occurrence and can be re-tried every 15 minutes for 72 hours (288 tries maximum). When the system stops further retry attempts, the subscriber appears as Bounced<\/em>. If the email is delivered during one of these 288 attempts and the subscriber opens it, their status is set to Active<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A soft bounce can be caused by a full mailbox, an inactive account or a temporary domain failure. Usually, soft bounces begin with a 4xx<\/em> <\/strong>explanation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Block bounce<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a type of soft bounce that occurs when the email server rejects the email due to reasons like a blacklisted IP address, lack of proper authentication, URL blocks or content filtering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Technical bounce<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also a type of soft bounce that occurs due to technical issues like a busy server, network error or data format error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Hard bounce<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This results from permanent conditions like invalid, non-existent or closed email addresses, or a bad or non-existent domain. Since emails will never<\/em> be successfully delivered, no further attempts are made to send them to this subscriber. If the subscriber’s status was Active<\/em>, their status now changes to Bounced<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hard bounces generally begin with a 5xx<\/em><\/strong> code.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/td>Soft Bounce<\/strong><\/td>Block Bounce<\/strong><\/td>Technical Bounce<\/strong><\/td>Hard Bounce<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Nature<\/strong><\/td>Temporary<\/td>Temporary (specific type of soft bounce)<\/td>Temporary (specific type of soft bounce)<\/td>Permanent<\/td><\/tr>
Retry Attempts<\/strong><\/td>Yes (288 attempts over 72 hours)<\/td>Yes (within the general soft bounce retry window)<\/td>Yes (within the general soft bounce retry window)<\/td>No<\/td><\/tr>
Status Change (if Active)<\/strong><\/td>May remain Active if delivered during retries; eventually Bounced if not delivered<\/td>May remain Active if delivered during retries; eventually Bounced if not delivered<\/td>May remain Active if delivered during retries; eventually Bounced if not delivered<\/td>Changes to Bounced immediately<\/td><\/tr>
Common Causes<\/strong><\/td>Full mailbox, inactive account, temporary domain failure<\/td>Blacklisted IP, authentication issues, URL\/content filtering<\/td>Busy server, network errors, data format errors<\/td>Invalid\/non-existent email, bad\/non-existent domain<\/td><\/tr>
Error Code Prefix<\/strong><\/td>4xx<\/td>4xx<\/td>4xx<\/td>4xx<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s get on to SFMC bounce mail management now.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How To Set Up Bounce Mail Management in SFMC<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To set up bounce mail management in SFMC, follow these steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n