Function documentationBounce Management

 

We can distinguish between hard bounces or soft bounces (also known as “permanent bounces” and “temporary bounces” respectively).

Technically, bounces are a type of delivery status notification (DSN). We can distinguish between two types of DSN:

  • Formal DSNs

    Formal DSNs contain a standardized, machine-readable, error code.

    You can identify formal DSNs for e-mail, SMS, and fax.

  • Informal DSNs

    Informal DSNs can be identified only by additional automated checks (parsing mechanisms) or manual checks.

    You can identify informal DSNs for e-mail only.

By identifying bounces you can do the following, for example:

  • Determine how many people actually respond to a campaign, and use this to measure the success of the campaign.

  • Gain valuable data about the quality of external lists in external list management (ELM).

Prerequisites

For more information, see Prerequisites for Bounce Management.

Features

  • You can define how the system processes bounces. You can use either “static bounce processing” or “dynamic bounce processing”.

    • Static bounce processing uses a single defined procedure for all bounces.

      The status of the individual outbound contacts is updated (for example, contact not possible due to incorrect communication data), and the contact counter for rented addresses from ELM is reduced. You can change the procedure by modifying the workflow only.

      You can use static bounce processing for formal bounces only.

    • Dynamic bounce processing uses bounce rules to deal with different bounces appropriately.

      You can use dynamic bounce processing for both formal and informal bounces.

      Recommendation Recommendation

      We recommend that you use dynamic bounce processing.

      End of the recommendation.

  • You can use bounce categories to sort your bounces.

  • You can use monitoring features to see technical details about sent and received e-mail.