Understand bounces and the suppression list

Not every email reaches its destination, and that's normal. What matters is how you respond. When you keep trying to reach addresses that will never accept your mail, inbox providers notice — and it drags down delivery for everyone on your list. BlueyEmail handles the risky cases for you automatically; this article explains what's happening and why you should let it.

Hard bounces vs. soft bounces

A "bounce" simply means the receiving mail server refused to accept your message. There are two kinds, and the difference is permanent versus temporary.

• Hard bounce — permanent. The address doesn't exist. Maybe it was mistyped, the mailbox was deleted, or the whole domain is gone. This will never succeed, no matter how many times you retry. Hard bounces should be removed from your list immediately.
• Soft bounce — temporary. The address is real, but delivery failed for a passing reason: the mailbox is full, the server is down, or the message was too large. These often clear up on their own, so a retry later may go through.

How BlueyEmail protects you automatically

You don't have to track any of this by hand. BlueyEmail watches every send and takes action for you.

1. 1

   Hard bounces are auto-suppressed

   When an address hard-bounces, BlueyEmail automatically adds it to your suppression list so it's never emailed again. No cleanup required on your part.

2. 2

   Unsubscribes are auto-suppressed

   When someone unsubscribes, they're suppressed too — so you can't accidentally email them again from a later campaign.

3. 3

   Soft bounces are handled with care

   Temporary failures may be retried, since the problem is often short-lived. If an address keeps failing, it's treated as permanent and suppressed.

What the suppression list is — and why not to bypass it

The suppression list is a record of addresses BlueyEmail will not send to: hard bounces, unsubscribes, and spam complaints. Every campaign is automatically checked against it, so suppressed addresses are quietly skipped.

It can be tempting to re-add someone who bounced or unsubscribed — maybe you're sure the address is fine, or you think they'd want this particular email. Resist it. The suppression list exists to protect you.

• Emailing a suppressed address risks another hard bounce — the address probably still doesn't exist, and each bounce chips away at your reputation.
• Emailing someone who unsubscribed invites a spam complaint — the most damaging signal there is — and in many places it's against the law.
• Your delivery to everyone else suffers — providers judge you on your whole sending pattern, so mailing known-bad addresses hurts the good ones too.

Suppression handles the addresses you should stop mailing. Keeping the rest of your list clean and engaged is what keeps your reputation strong over time.