Email Marketing: Improving Your Bounce Rate
An email bounce rate is the percentage of emails that never make it to a recipient's inbox. The emails "bounce" back to the sender. Think of it like posting a letter to an old friend that comes back as undelivered. There are different reasons why an email might bounce. Knowing what causes them and ways to prevent them can help you reduce the number of emails that get bounced. This can help improve your sender reputation. The different email bounce typesEmails bounce for different reasons. Some issues that caused the bounce can be temporary (soft bounce), and some are permanent (hard bounce).You can view bounce rates from the Delivery statistics panel of any email in the Email Marketing tab in your site's dashboard. Soft bounceA soft bounce occurs when a temporary issue prevents the delivery of an email to its recipient. Some common reasons include:
The recipient's mailbox is full. The recipient's email server has technical issues. The email message is too large.Since a soft bounce is a temporary issue, emails that are marked as soft bounced in email campaign statistics will not be marked as bounced.Hard bounceA hard bounce is caused by a permanent issue that prevents the delivery of an email to its recipient. Some common reasons include:
The recipient email address is invalid, meaning it might contain spelling mistakes, no longer be in use or it might not exist. The recipient email server has blocked delivery.Other types of bouncesBounced by a local blacklist means that you received spam complaints in the past or if you continue sending emails to email addresses that have bounced before, your campaign can be rejected and bounced.How bounced emails can affect your Wix accountJust like your business reputation, a good sender reputation is easy to maintain but takes more effort to regain when negatively impacted. A small number of bounced emails is expected and can occur even if you’ve done everything to prevent them. If your bounced email rate is higher than normal, Wix can take the necessary safety measures to keep the negative impact to a minimum, and make sure you can improve your reputation sooner. 
Declined emails: Wix may decline distributing some of your email campaigns until you clean your mailing list and slowly rebuild your reputation as a sender. Reduced email allowance: Your email allowance (the number of contacts you can send email campaigns too) might be reduced if you have a large number of bounced emails.  Deactivated account: If you continue to have a high bounce rate over a long period of time, your Wix account may be deactivated due to a breach of the Wix Email Marketing Terms of Use.Improving the bounce rate The number of bounced emails from your campaigns is used to establish your sender reputation and impacts how many recipients you can reach with your campaigns. It's always possible to take steps to improve your bounce rate and thus your sender reputation over time.Create a good quality mailing list A quality mailing list is more important than a large mailing list. It’s best to grow your mailing list organically and over time. Sending to a smaller mailing list that shows high engagement not only improves your statistics and reputation, but you’re more likely to achieve your goals sooner if you continuously deliver emails to recipients that want to hear from you.Even with a quality mailing list, emails can still bounce. There are steps you can take before sending an email campaign to prevent emails from hard bouncing:
Only send email campaigns to people who have actively signed up or subscribed to be on your mailing list.  Enable Double Opt-In in your form settings, asking users to verify their email address.  Only import contacts from the mailing lists that you have built up and have permission from people to use. Do not use purchased mailing lists or contacts you found online (e.g. Facebook).Tip: You can add a subscribe form to your site to help grow your mailing list.Check bounced emails regularly Getting into the habit of regularly checking your bounced emails can help you improve your bounce rate in no time. After you have sent an email campaign:
Check for typos in email addresses that have bounced your campaigns. If you have alternate email addresses for subscribers whose email campaigns bounced, contact them directly and invite them to re-subscribe to your mailing list. Or reach out through another channel.   If you are unable to correct a contact's email address, delete it from your mailing list and don't send to it again. Never add a bounced contact back to your mailing list without verifying the email address and getting permission from the person.Review your mailing list regularly Maintain your mailing lists by reviewing them every 6 months. It’s recommended to remove anyone you haven’t been in touch with during the past 12 months. In addition, you can use an email validation tool to keep your mailing lists clean.FAQsClick a question below to learn more about email bounce rates. How can I see my email campaign's bounce rates? You can see your campaign bounce rates in Email Marketing in your site's dashboard. 
Go to Email Marketing in your site's dashboard. Click the Check stats icon  on any sent or published campaign.  Click Bounced under Delivery Statistics.Can I see specific contacts that bounced an email campaign? Yes, can find out which contacts are bouncing your campaigns, and download a report which includes specific reasons why emails were bounced.
Go to Email Marketing in your site's dashboard. Click the Check stats icon  on any sent or published campaign. Click Email recipients. Click the drop-down next to Filter by and select Bounced. Click Download.Does Wix do anything to help maintain my sender reputation against bounces? Yes. When you’re using a new mailing list, Wix samples a small portion of it to protect your sender reputation, to make sure you're following Wix Email Marketing best practices. If an email bounces, Wix automatically labels the recipient's email address as "Bounced" in your contacts. When you send an email campaign, Wix removes email addresses with a "Bounced" label from your list of recipients.Why are some email marketing campaigns bouncing from German mail services?This issue occurs because different mail services have their own way of determining which emails go through and which don't. Unfortunately, since each mail service has slightly different compliance demands, we cannot guarantee that your emails will go through.Emails sent from a sender with a good reputation have a greater chance of being sent successfully. The best way to reduce the chances of your emails bouncing is by following Wix Email Marketing Best Practices, and most importantly, by enabling the double opt-in.