Email bounce rate directly impacts your sender reputation, inbox placement, and long-term deliverability. When emails fail to reach recipients, whether due to invalid addresses (hard bounces) or temporary issues (soft bounces), mailbox providers begin to treat your domain as risky.

Unless you can figure out how to prevent email bounce rates in email marketing campaigns, your future ability to reach prospects is at risk.

The average bounce rate is 2.33%. Is yours lower or higher?

Source

Consistently exceeding the above threshold signals poor list hygiene, weak authentication, or acquisition problems. Over time, this reduces inbox placement and damages domain reputation.

Reducing email bounce rate requires more than occasional list cleaning. It demands a structured system: strong sender reputation management, proper SPF/DKIM/DMARC authentication, disciplined segmentation, signup controls, and continuous monitoring.

In this blog, we explore 13 advanced techniques that can help you drastically reduce email bounces. From maintaining a strong sender reputation to handling soft bounces effectively, each strategy plays a critical role in ensuring your messages hit the inbox rather than getting lost in the void.

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting out, these practical tips will help you refine your email marketing strategy.

Advanced techniques to reduce email bounce rate

1. Maintain a strong sender reputation

Your sender reputation is the foundation of low bounce rates. Mailbox providers evaluate your domain and IP history before deciding whether to accept, defer, or reject your emails. A weak reputation increases the likelihood of blocks, deferrals, and delivery failures.

Sender reputation is influenced by bounce rates, spam complaints, engagement signals, authentication alignment, and sending consistency. Even small, repeated mistakes like sending to outdated lists or sudden volume spikes, can lower trust.

Hence, it’s important to take a more comprehensive view of how to maintain your sender reputation.

Do this:

• Keep your subject lines realistic
• Keep your bounce rate consistently below 2%
• Authenticate your domain using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC with proper alignment
• Avoid sudden spikes in sending volume; warm up new domains and IPs gradually
• Remove hard bounces immediately and suppress repeatedly soft-bounced addresses
• Limit the use of words that trigger spam-triggers, e.g. “guarantee”, “urgent”, or “free”
• Monitor spam complaint rates and keep them well below 0.1%
• Send only to subscribers who have clearly opted in and engaged recently

2. Avoid using purchased lists

Purchasing email lists can seriously harm your email marketing efforts. It can lower your sender reputation and email deliverability. 

Purchased email lists are one of the fastest ways to increase bounce rates and damage sender reputation. These lists often contain outdated, scraped, role-based, or fabricated addresses – all of which significantly increase hard bounces.

High hard-bounce rates signal to mailbox providers that you are not practicing permission-based marketing. This reduces trust in your sending domain and can trigger filtering, throttling, or outright blocking.

There is also a compliance risk. Regulations such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM require lawful data collection and transparent consent. Sending to purchased contacts may expose your business to legal and reputational consequences.

Additionally, since these recipients haven’t opted in to receive your emails, they’re more likely to mark your messages as spam. This not only affects your current campaigns but can soon lead email platforms to restricting or banning your account.

Do this: 

• Build your email list organically through clear opt-in mechanisms
• Use double opt-in where possible to confirm address validity
• Never import third-party or scraped databases into your ESP
• If reactivating an old list, verify it before sending
• Suppress contacts who have been inactive for extended periods

Invest in learning how to build your list organically, adopt strategies that will work for you, and then stick to them. You won’t suddenly 10x your list size, but your business will definitely see a positive impact very soon.

3. Handle and remove soft bounces

Soft bounces are temporary delivery failures caused by issues such as a full inbox, server downtime, message size limits, or temporary throttling. While they are not permanent like hard bounces, repeated soft bounces can still damage sender reputation.

Mailbox providers monitor patterns. If the same address generates multiple soft bounces across campaigns, it signals poor list hygiene or disengaged recipients. Ignoring repeated soft bounces increases the risk of filtering.

To manage soft bounces effectively:

Do this:

• Retry delivery automatically 2–3 times over several hours
• If an address soft bounces in 3–5 consecutive campaigns, suppress it temporarily
• Move persistently soft-bounced addresses to a quarantine segment for 60–90 days
• Re-attempt delivery after the cooling period
• If the address continues to bounce, remove it permanently

Treat soft bounces as early warning signals. Proactively managing them prevents reputation decline and keeps overall bounce rates under control.

4. Segment your list

Segmentation is typically associated with engagement and conversions, but it also plays a critical role in controlling bounce rates.

When you send to your entire database indiscriminately, you increase the probability of hitting inactive, outdated, or risky addresses. Segmentation limits exposure by prioritizing recent, engaged, and verified subscribers.

Mailbox providers evaluate engagement signals when determining whether to accept or filter your messages. Low engagement combined with higher bounce rates weakens sender trust.

Even when you send abandoned cart emails, you will know what will work with which group.

39% of marketers who use segmentation see better open rates, while 24% receive increased leads. Where do you stand?

Source

Do this:

• Create an “active segment” consisting of subscribers who have engaged in the last 60–90 days
• Reduce sending frequency to subscribers inactive for 3–6 months
• Suppress subscribers inactive for 6+ months unless re-verified
• Separate new signups from legacy contacts and monitor bounce rates independently
• Run re-engagement campaigns before sending major promotions to older segments

5. Maintain a regular cadence

You know what’s an email cadence, right? It’s all about the rhythm and frequency of the emails you send. Getting this right is crucial for keeping your bounce rates down. 

There’s a nice analogy to remember when it comes to email cadence: Think of it as the heartbeat of your email marketing strategy. If it’s too slow, you might be forgotten. On the other hand, if it’s too fast, you could end up in the spam folder. Only the right cadence will save you from either fate.

Do this:

• Establish a consistent sending schedule and avoid sudden volume spikes
• Gradually warm up new domains or IPs before increasing send volume
• Prioritize engaged subscribers when increasing frequency
• Reduce frequency to inactive segments before removing them
• Keep promotional campaigns spaced out to prevent complaint spikes
• Monitor bounce rate after every major send and adjust cadence accordingly

6. Use a corporate domain

People often put on business suits while going to important business meetings, right? Think of a corporate domain for your email as pretty much the same. A corporate domain gives your email a professional look. This considerably lowers the chances of you being suspected of being a scammer.

Legal POV:

The GDPR or the CAN-SPAM Act do not explicitly require senders to use a corporate domain. However, Section 7704(a)(1) of the CAN-SPAM Act says, “It is unlawful for any person to initiate the transmission… that contains, or is accompanied by, header information that is materially false or materially misleading”. 

As an example, if you run a small printing business but use something like way2happyhealthylife78@gmail[dot]com to send emails, your emails can easily appear misleading.

Do this:

• If you’ve been using a free email service (e.g. Yahoo) till now, it’s time you switched over to emails. Instead of james.doe@freedomain.org, go for james.d@yourbusiness.com
• Send all marketing emails from a verified corporate domain, not free mailbox providers
• Publish and validate SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records with proper alignment
• Use a dedicated sending subdomain (e.g., mail.yourdomain.com) to protect your root domain
• Ensure reverse DNS (rDNS) is properly configured for your sending IP
• Monitor DMARC reports regularly to detect authentication failures
• Keep WHOIS and DNS records consistent to maintain domain trust signals

7. Conduct A/B testing 

Let’s say you’ve written fifteen email subject lines out of which you’ve shortlisted two that you think are very good. How do you decide which one to use in the campaign?

Simple: Show both of them to a segment of your audience and finalize the one that worked better. This is called A/B testing. Also known as split testing, A/B testing aims to eliminate guesswork from your copy. 

Remember, A/B testing can be used to decide between any two alternatives, not just email subject lines. Email copy, CTA button, color combinations, design layout, pricing, … anything can be tested.

Do this:

• Test subject lines on a small, controlled segment before full deployment
• Measure not only open rates but also bounce rates and spam complaints
• Avoid testing drastically different content structures that may affect filtering
• Keep sending volume consistent during tests to avoid skewed deliverability signals
• Roll out the winning variant only after verifying no negative impact on bounce rate
• Document results to identify patterns that correlate with lower delivery failures

8. Give more control to users

A DJ will be popular only if they can gauge the audience mood and play songs accordingly, right? Pretty much the same way, you should gauge the mood of your subscribers and send emails accordingly.

To reduce email bounce rates, it’s crucial to give subscribers more control over their email preferences. It’s important to remember that giving your subscribers is more than respecting their preferences. By allowing them to pick what they want to receive – and how often – you also get better engagement. 

Do this

• Implement a preference center allowing subscribers to adjust content type and frequency
• Offer a “reduce frequency” option instead of forcing full unsubscribe
• Send re-engagement emails to subscribers inactive for 90+ days
• Automatically suppress subscribers who remain inactive after re-engagement attempts
• Periodically prompt long-term subscribers to reconfirm interest
• Ensure unsubscribe links are clear and functional to avoid spam complaints

9. Be careful with your subject line

Your email’s subject line is like a first impression – it can make or break your chances of getting noticed. But in the email world, a bad first impression doesn’t just mean being ignored; it could land you in the spam folder. Writing the perfect subject line is a delicate balance between catching attention and avoiding spam triggers. 

Do this:

• Avoid excessive capitalization, multiple exclamation marks, and aggressive sales language
• Keep subject lines under 40–50 characters for optimal rendering
• Maintain consistency between subject line and email content to avoid spam flags

• Personalize carefully without using deceptive placeholders.
• Limit emoji use to one (if at all) and ensure it matches brand tone.
• Monitor bounce and complaint rates after subject line changes.

Remember, the goal is to pique curiosity without overpromising. Build trust over time, and watch those bounce rates go down quickly.

10. Track your analytics

‘You can’t improve what you can’t measure’. You know the old adage, right? To reduce your email bounce rate, it’s essential to track specific metrics in your email analytics. 

Do this:

• Monitor hard bounce rate separately from soft bounce rate after every campaign
• Set an internal alert if hard bounces exceed 2%
• Track bounce rate by segment (new signups vs. older contacts)
• Identify patterns such as specific domains generating repeated bounces
• Review authentication alignment (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) if bounce spikes occur
• Maintain a suppression list to prevent re-mailing undeliverable addresses

To prevent hard bounces in the first place, we highly recommend you use a bulk email verifier. That will remove undeliverable emails from your list before you hit Send.

11. Exercise caution when you incentivize signups

Getting sign ups is not easy, what with the severe competition everywhere. So marketers resort to different ways to attract prospects. Free content, actionable videos, beautiful e-books, … there’s more. An unusual addition to this list is discounts. 

By being mindful of how you collect email addresses through sign-up incentives, you can protect your email deliverability. You will ensure your messages reach genuine, engaged subscribers, and minimize the chances of bounces.

Which is why you want to exercise a little caution. 

Do this:

• Implement real-time email verification on signup forms
• Block disposable and temporary email domains at the point of entry
• Use double opt-in to confirm address ownership before adding to your active list
• Limit aggressive incentives that encourage fake submissions
• Monitor bounce rate from new subscribers separately for the first 30 days
• Automatically suppress new signups that fail confirmation or bounce on first send

If nothing else, do at least two things. Firstly, implement real-time verification. It will immediately spot fake, invalid, or disposable email addresses. And secondly, you can also consider using a double opt-in process. This requires new subscribers to go to the inbox and confirm their email addresses before they receive the incentive.

12. Limit the use of URL shorteners

When URL shorteners were introduced, they looked like a great way to make your link look clean and compact. Over time, however, bad actors have been using them to disguise dangerous links and trap unsuspecting people.

Shortened URLs often hide phishing or malicious links. That’s the principal reason some spam filters red flag URL shorteners. These filters may direct emails with such links to the spam folder or just outright bounce such emails.

Do this:

• Avoid public URL shorteners in marketing emails
• Use full, branded domain links whenever possible
• Ensure all links use HTTPS and valid SSL certificates
• Keep link domains consistent with your sending domain
• Test emails across major mailbox providers before full deployment
• Monitor bounce and spam filtering patterns after adding new links

By carefully choosing how you incorporate links into your emails, you can reduce the chances of your messages being caught in spam filters, ultimately lowering your bounce rate and improving email deliverability.

13. Restrict the size of your emails

When creating emails, it’s important to be mindful of the total size of your email.

Emails that occupy less memory are at a  considerably lower risk of bounces. Many email servers have strict limits on the size of incoming emails. If your message exceeds these limits, it may be blocked and never reach the recipient’s inbox. 

Do this:

• Keep total email size under 100 KB whenever possible
• Avoid large attachments; host files externally and link to them instead
• Compress and optimize images before embedding
• Limit excessive HTML code and inline styling
• Test rendering across major email clients before sending
• Monitor bounce logs for size-related delivery failures

Conclusion:

Reducing email bounce rate is not a one-time fix – it is an ongoing discipline. Hard bounces signal list quality issues. Repeated soft bounces signal engagement or infrastructure problems. Both affect sender reputation and future inbox placement.

The most effective teams treat bounce management as a system: controlled acquisition, real-time verification, strong authentication, disciplined segmentation, careful cadence, and continuous monitoring.

If your bounce rate is rising, do not ignore it. Early intervention protects your domain reputation, stabilizes deliverability, and prevents long-term damage.

Consistent bounce control leads to stronger inbox placement, better engagement, and more predictable email marketing performance.