Email marketing is a digital marketing approach that entails sending targeted messages and promotional materials via email to a group of people and allows organizations to contact many people at a low cost. It can also assist organizations in increasing brand awareness, promoting products and services, increasing website traffic, and generating leads and sales. Bounce rates are what calculate the percentage of email messages that are returned as undeliverable. They are an important measure in email marketing because they allow you to assess the efficiency of your campaigns and the quality of your email list. But what is the average bounce rate for email marketing? This article has the answer to that.
Bounce rate and email marketing
In email marketing, if an email is sent to a recipient and it bounces, it signifies that the email was not delivered and was returned to the sender.
There are two types of bounces:
- Hard bounces: These occur when an email becomes permanently undeliverable for causes such as an incorrect or non-existent email address, or the recipient's email server banning the email.
- Soft bounces: These happen when an email is temporarily undeliverable, either due to an overflowing inbox or a temporary technical glitch.
In email marketing, bounce rates are calculated by dividing the number of bounced emails by the total number of emails sent and multiplying by 100. The result percentage is the bounce rate. It is essential that you assess your average bounce rates on a regular basis and take steps to lower them if they are high. A high bounce rate can harm your email deliverability and sender reputation, reducing the effectiveness of your email marketing initiatives.
What is the average bounce rate for email marketing?
The typical bounce rate in email marketing campaigns might differ depending on the industry, list quality, and email list age. Nonetheless, a reasonable bounce rate is often between 2-3%. This means that only 2-3 emails out of every 100 should bounce.
Here are some industry-specific average bounce rates for email marketing campaigns:
- Retail & E-commerce: This industry has an average bounce rate of roughly 2.1% in its email campaign.
- Healthcare: This industry has an average bounce rate of roughly 1.9% in its email campaign.
- Finance: This industry has an average bounce rate of roughly 1.7% in its email campaign.
- Education: This industry has an average bounce rate of roughly 2.3% in its email campaign.
- Non-Profit: This industry has an average bounce rate of roughly 2.2% in its email campaign.
A bounce rate of less than 2% is considered good in general, whereas a rate of more than 5% is considered high. The acceptable bounce rate, however, varies based on the industry and the type of emails that are being sent.
This is a list of factors that contribute to high bounce rates:
- Large/outdated email lists: Larger lists have a higher percentage of invalid email addresses, resulting in a higher bounce rate. This is because of the fact that email addresses can become invalid over time as a result of changes in job or personal email addresses.
- Spam filters: Because spam filters are meant to identify unsolicited and unwanted emails, the email may be automatically bounced back if the email content or sender is classified as spam.
- Frequency: When the frequency of emails is too high, recipients may become overwhelmed and choose to unsubscribe or simply ignore the emails, resulting in greater bounce rates.
- Unsegmented email list: If the email list is not classified depending on the recipient's choices or behaviors, the email may be irrelevant, resulting in a higher bounce rate.
- Technical issues: Emails can also bounce due to technical issues such as server failures or internet connection issues.
How to reduce and monitor bounce rates?
Email bounce rate reduction is essential to an effective email marketing campaign. These are some methods for reducing email bounce rates:
- Verify your email list: Check to see if your email list is up to date and confirmed. To reduce the possibility of emails bouncing, remove invalid or inactive email addresses with the help of email validation tools.
- Maintain a good sender’s reputation: Keeping a positive sender reputation is essential for lowering email bounces. Use relevant and valuable subject lines and information, and avoid utilizing spammy subject lines or content.
- Use a reliable email service provider: Choose a reputable email service provider whose emails are delivered to the inbox rather than the spam folder.
- Segment your email list: Send targeted emails to specific groups of subscribers by segmenting your email list. This will allow you to send relevant emails to the proper people while decreasing the likelihood of emails bouncing.
- Use a plain text version of your email: Including a plain text version of your email can help reduce the chances of emails bouncing, as some email clients may have difficulty rendering HTML emails.
Monitoring your email campaign is another method to reduce bounce rates, these are the steps you should take to fulfill that:
- Step 1: Use an email service provider
The majority of email service providers include tools for tracking bounce rates. Check with your email service provider to see if they offer this option.
- Step 2: Determine your baseline bounce rate
The first step in monitoring your bounce rate is determining your baseline bounce rate. This will provide you with a starting point for measuring the efficacy of your email marketing. You can compute your baseline bounce rate by dividing the number of bounced emails by the total number of emails sent.
- Step 3: Analyze the type of bounce
After you've calculated your baseline bounce rate, you should look into the kind of bounces you're getting. Hard bounces indicate an issue with your email list, but soft bounces could suggest an issue with your email content or delivery technique.
If you're interested in learning more about email bounce rates and how they affect your email marketing campaigns, we invite you to check out our blog post on the difference between soft bounces and hard bounces. In it, we explain the reasons why emails might bounce back and what you can do to improve your email deliverability. Just click on this link to read the full article: The difference between a soft bounce and a hard bounce. We hope you find it helpful!
- Step 4: Remove invalid email addresses
If you're getting a lot of hard bounces, you should eliminate invalid email addresses from your list, by using an email validation tool. This will increase email deliverability and lower your bounce rate.
- Step 5: Optimize your email content
A large number of soft bounces could indicate a problem with your email content or delivery technique. To increase email deliverability, try improving your email content, subject line, and delivery time.
- Step 6: Track your progress
Finally, keep track of how far you've come over time. Check your bounce rate on a regular basis and make changes as needed. You can lower bounce rates and increase email deliverability by regularly evaluating and refining your email campaigns.
Conclusion
Reducing email bounce rate is an important factor in any email marketing campaign. A high bounce rate not only consumes time and resources but can also harm your sender's reputation. This can result in your emails being marked as spam, making it impossible to reach your readers' inboxes in the future. Furthermore, a high bounce rate indicates that a considerable amount of your emails are not reaching your intended audience, lowering the impact of your campaign. To keep up with your email marketing campaign, you should try to maintain the average bounce rate for email marketing since it adds a lot of value to your marketing plan.