Your Emails Aren't Being Delivered?
There are various reasons why emails are not delivered and figuring out why can be tough. With a little investigation, you should be able to improve your email bounce rate.
Email that cannot be delivered (aka bounced email) has a negative impact on the success of an email campaign and erodes confidence in communication between a church, parish, or other organization and it's members. If you have email addresses that bounce repeatedly, consider removing the option to send email to this particular address while you're investigating the problem or attempting to contact the recipient.
Types of Bounces
- Soft bounce - A soft bounce means the email address is correct and it was delivered to the recipient's inbox, but it still bounced because the mailbox is full, the server was down at the time of delivery, or the message is too large for the inbox.
- Hard bounce - A hard bounce occurs when an email is permanently rejected because the address is invalid or doesn't exist.
The Most Common Reasons Email Bounce
- The recipient's email address contains a typo or doesn't exist. The person may have closed the account, left the organization, or provided a false address.
- The recipient's email isn't deliverable because the receiving email server is temporarily unavailable or overloaded. If the email continues to bounce, it may mean the server is gone forever.
- Inbox is full or the size of the email or attachment is too large to fit in the inbox
- The recipient has his/her email set to "Vacation/Auto-Reply". The email was delivered to their inbox, but you will still receive an "undelivered" notification. If this continues for a long period of time, you may want to remove the contact.
- A receiving server may block the recipient's email and place it in a "blocked" category. You're more likely to see this when communicating with corporate, educational, or government institutions. The recipient must ask their employer to unblock the email or provide you with an alternative.Tip: Email that cannot be delivered (aka bounced email) has a negative impact on the success of an email campaign and erodes confidence in communication between a church, parish, or other organization and it's members. If you have email addresses that bounce repeatedly, consider removing the option to send email to this particular address while you're investigating the problem or attempting to contact the recipient.
- Spam blockers managed by a third-party may block email.
Is Your Email Blocked?
Congregants with blocked emails may contact a church or parish administrator for assistance. ACST Support can take several steps to unblock the email address.
If you're a church or parish administrator, contact ACST Support to unblock the email address. You may email support or call 1-800-669-2509.