Hey All, Have a n00b question I set off a mail on one server with some new data to clean out hard bounces, worked out to about 15%. I then took the 'cleaned' data and mailed it on a different server, but its still getting hard bounces. Sure, the ratio is much lower(under 5%) but just wondering how this can be seeing how there was only a couple of days gap between the two mailings...
Several possible reasons. Listed in order of most likely to least likely, and also it could be a combination of factors. 1. Your script may not have got them all out first pass. 2. Some of the soft bounces converted to hard bounce. 3. IP reputation varied from one server to another server and mail that got delivered soft bounced multiple attempts on new server and you have it set to remove as hard bounce after x attempts. 4. Attrition.
Only one drop to clean out HB's before you considered it "clean"? If so, you should have hit it a few times to watch the HB count across a few, if not several, drops. But Bubbs has a point about your IPs too, they do make a difference. What block A reaches might not be what block B reaches so you'll get HB's from that changing...every time.
Thanks Bubbles, What do you mean by Attrition? Oh really... ok so i should be running data through a few times first. Good tip, thx.
1) Legitimate hard bounces. 2) List churn; expect to lose about 1,000 for every 1M sent. This value can be inflated by number 3. 3) Falsely issued hard bounces which seem to coincide with the "perceived complaint rate". Both Hotmail and Yahoo are big offenders with #3, where they will offer false or inappropriate 5xx error messages for emails that are in fact valid. Stupid ass cunts.
I ignore the error code to be honest and instead have a script which parses through the smtp logs and pulls emails based on their error msg tagwords e.g. "Bad email address","Invalid email recipient", etc. I've several dozen of these phrases I've compiled over time. I've found this helps cut down on the bogus issues and the false positives... ...of course, I never trust anybody, and before I dump a server, I'll always take the recently generated bounce list and send it a final pass, collecting any deliverables in the process to be safe.
Hmm thanks guys. Good tips roundabout, will have to look into setting something like that up. I am assuming this is a clicker file for the emails to be so valuable?
