What does contact has bounced globally mean HubSpot?

Hubspot's own support team, when asked about "what it means if someone emails you and their e-mail bounces", replied with the following:

"Contact has bounced is an internal term used by our system. It indicates that your mail server sent us information but did not reach its destination."

That was back in 2014. Fast forward to 2018, and they have changed their tune completely. Now, according to them, "If someone sends you an email and their message doesn't go through due to technical difficulties (like spam filters), we'll call that 'bounced'".

In other words, what once was an error code now becomes a common phrase thrown around by tech companies because of how vague their descriptions are. And since most people don't know what a bounce actually means, it makes sense for businesses like HubSpot to take advantage of this confusion and use it as marketing jargon.

But there is more than one reason why this is problematic. Not only can using this terminology lead to misunderstandings amongst users, but also could be detrimental to business growth. Here are some reasons why you should avoid using these terms.

What is bounce email address?

When sending out bulk messages via Gmail or similar services, sometimes you may get a response from a user telling you that their inbox is full. This usually happens when too many emails end up clogging up the recipient's account. When this occurs, the sender gets a bounceback saying something along the lines of "This mailbox is currently unavailable". This happens because the service detects that the IP (Internet Protocol) address used to send the email is different from the usual ones. The problem then lies on whether the person who sent the email will continue trying to resend it again later, or just move on and try another method of communication.

However, when someone receives such an email, the first thing they might wonder is: What does Bounce Email Address Mean? Is my email really bouncing back? If so, what caused this? Should I worry about it?

The truth is, while technically true, the above description isn't very helpful. In fact, it creates much more questions than answers. As mentioned before, instead of giving specific details, the company uses general phrases like "contact has bounced"... which leads to even further confusion.

Furthermore, if the same scenario were to happen to me, I would probably think twice before replying to someone's email indicating that their message had been successfully delivered. After all, wouldn't it make more sense to say something like "Your message didn't arrive"? So confusing!

And here's a real life example of a customer asking me this question after receiving a bounce message:

Customer: Hi Sam, i got an email from you two days ago regarding my credit card activation...my concern is, does it mean that my payment is declined?

Me: No, it simply means that your email wasn't properly received by our servers. There is nothing wrong with your transaction itself. Your card is still valid.

Another issue arises when the user reports this message without knowing exactly what went wrong. For instance, maybe the email address entered during signup was incorrect, or perhaps the recipient blocked multiple copies of the email. All of this points towards poor planning or lack of proper training.

Now imagine yourself as part of the IT department at work. You're responsible for monitoring mails going into the company network, including incoming and outgoing traffic. You need to ensure that every single piece of data reaches where it needs to go, especially those coming from outside sources. But let's say you receive hundreds of thousands of emails per day like any normal human being. That puts quite a burden on your shoulders, right? Especially considering that each individual email contains valuable information, like passwords and sensitive documents. Wouldn't it be better to have separate folders for important documents?

So in short, yes, a bounced email does indicate failure. However, there are plenty of factors beyond your control that cause failed deliveries -- and that includes everything from bad weather conditions to ISP issues.

What causes a bounced email?

I've talked extensively about the importance of having a plan when dealing with large quantities of emails. A small oversight here can prove disastrous. Imagine yourself as an employee at a major corporation whose job requires you to process tons of orders daily. You check the order tracking software and see that an order has gone missing. Instead of spending hours looking for it manually, you decide to run a script that automatically looks for missed items. Sure enough, within minutes, the program finds the lost item and logs it accordingly. Then, you go ahead and complete the rest of the task. Sounds simple, right? Well, things can always seem easy until disaster strikes.

After finishing the original project, you realize that a few records weren't added correctly. Upon closer inspection, it turns out that a number of addresses contained symbols instead of letters. Since the database contained both versions of each record, the computer interpreted them differently. Consequently, the machine thought that certain entries weren't supposed to exist, causing errors.

For anyone who isn't familiar with programming languages, this sounds pretty scary. To add insult to injury, there's no way to find out unless you open up the source code. Unless you speak fluent Java or Python, chances are slim that you'd ever figure out what happened.

On top of all that, you have to deal with customers calling you upset over this incident. They feel deceived, saying that they placed an order and yet it never arrived. You explain that although the delivery attempt took place, it ended up failing due to various reasons. At least they aren't mad anymore though. Right? Wrong!

Although some cases like the one described above are unavoidable, others are directly related to faulty design decisions made by developers. Sometimes, programmers will write scripts that handle special characters incorrectly, resulting in duplicate entries. Other times, outdated systems are left behind and no longer supported, leaving newer programs unable to read old files.

As technology advances, older devices become obsolete. Eventually, new hardware stops working alongside existing equipment. Without updating the operating system, computers fail to recognize new features introduced in modern browsers. Some web pages stop displaying altogether, leading to endless redirect loops. These problems can pile up quickly and affect productivity.

Imagine yourself as an engineer overseeing operations at a manufacturing plant. Let's say a robot breaks down unexpectedly, preventing production from continuing normally. Unfortunately, the machine has already produced several dozen units. Before long, machines start slowing down or breaking down entirely. Production grinds to halt, costing the company millions of dollars.

It's hard to foresee these kinds of scenarios happening, but they certainly do. With the current state of affairs, it's impossible for corporations to keep track of everything moving across their networks. Even worse, employees often have little knowledge of security protocols. If they attempted to look at the underlying code themselves, they'd likely mess up the entire system.

While unforeseen circumstances are inevitable, taking steps to prevent them can significantly reduce complications later on. Having a robust infrastructure helps improve efficiency, cut costs, and increase profits overall.

What is good bounce rate?

A big part of this equation relates to bounce rates. Technically speaking, a bounce refers to unsuccessful attempts to deliver an email. Depending on your industry, however, the term has evolved to include successful deliveries as well. According to Google research, a high bounce rate is generally considered anything above 65%. Anything below 40% is deemed low.

There are lots of theories surrounding this statistic. One theory states that a higher bounce rate suggests that people aren't satisfied with your product or service. Another says that lower numbers suggest that people didn't opt-in to your newsletter. Yet others claim that a high bounce rate shows potential room for improvement.

Some experts believe that a bounce rate under 80% is acceptable for most companies. Others argue that a bounce rate between 70% - 90% shouldn't exceed 5%, whereas anything over 95% warrants immediate attention. Ultimately, it comes down to finding a balance that works best for your particular situation.

To put it bluntly, bounce rates tell you precisely how effective your marketing efforts are. If half of your campaign recipients don't bother opening your emails, consider tweaking your content and/or methods. On the flip side, if everyone opens your emails except for 10% of them, focus on improving your outreach techniques.

In addition, if you want to learn more about the science of bounce analysis, read this guide on understanding bounce statistics.

Is a 20% bounce rate good?

Despite claims otherwise, it's possible to have a perfectly healthy bounce rate. Although it depends on what kind of audience you're targeting, a good bounce rate is anywhere between 15% and 30%. Ideally, you want somewhere around 25%.

Here's an interesting tidbit: many marketers tend to overestimate bounce rates. While a high percentage might give off the impression of poor quality, it doesn't necessarily mean that your products or services are lacking. Perhaps your subscribers prefer paper books rather than digital downloads, meaning that you suffer less from dropouts. Or maybe your mailing list consists mostly of young adults who grew up with smartphones, making it easier to access online newsletters.

The other day, when checking my emails on Outlook.com, I noticed an unusual message from one of our customers who had purchased some software from us. It said "Contact has bounced". The first thing that came into my mind was spamming and asking them if they received it, but then I decided not to bother as we haven't sent any such messages before.  I checked with HubSpot support and found out that someone at HubSpot must have created a new rule for contacts marked "bounced" which automatically sends these types of mails without even letting users know about it! This is what HubSpot says -

For your convenience, we've added a filter so you don't get repeated bounces. If we receive another bounce within 24 hours, we'll also mark this address as inactive. Please note that after receiving three consecutive bounces, it may take up to 72 hours before we can remove the address from our system. We apologize for the inconvenience.

So how did this happen and why would anyone want to set rules like this? Well, just read through the below points to find out more...

Does HubSpot send to bounced emails?

Yes. Just because there's no way you could check whether your customer actually got the mail or not doesn't make much sense. And yes, HubSpot will automatically add all addresses ending with.gmail,.yahoo, etc. (and others) to its own "Bounced Email List" unless otherwise specified by you. So people using Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, iCloud Mail, etc., are affected too. What happens next is entirely dependent upon the settings chosen by your administrator/s. When choosing to use Bounce Management features, administrators should be aware that sending automated responses to non-existent recipients is against many anti-spam laws and regulations, including those enforced by major ISPs and mobile operators. Unfortunately, since most companies choose to manage their bounce rates via automatic replies rather than taking steps to prevent false positives, they often end up violating the law. As such HubSpot cannot guarantee compliance with anti-spam requirements nor provide legal cover for doing so. You should therefore ensure that your company’s policies comply fully with local legislation.

HubSpot recommends contacting your ISP regarding this issue. In fact, you might already have done so. But HubSpot suggests reaching out to your administrator anyway, especially if you suspect that your business isn't following current anti-spam guidelines. For example, according to Spambayes, “If your organization receives multiple complaints against the same IP Address, you probably need to file a report with your ISP. Your provider will likely block the address from accessing your network again."

HubSpot's default policy states that "We won't send unsolicited e-mail to Internet subscribers," and includes language specifically prohibiting the sending of bulk marketing e-mails ("You shouldn't communicate with potential clients outside of scheduled meetings"). However, HubSpot does allow businesses to customize their own policies and tailor them to suit individual needs. That being said, HubSpot discourages organizations from blocking legitimate correspondence and breaking the CAN-SPAM Act.

In short, HubSpot uses the same technology used by spammers to detect and isolate potentially fraudulent accounts. They're looking for patterns, and trying to identify bad actors based on previous interactions. There are two main reasons why you would want to keep your inbox clean: 1.) to help protect yourself from fraud, 2.) to avoid getting blocked due to high bounce rates. While it may seem counterintuitive, sending junk e-mail can cause higher bounce rates, making it harder for scammers to impersonate real businesses. By keeping your inbox free of unwanted solicitations, you'll also reduce the number of times you see annoying advertisements and promotions while browsing websites and services online.

There are several ways for you to control the flow of e-mail coming into your account, depending on where it comes from. Here are five tips to help you decide what kind of incoming e-mail filters work best for your workplace.

This means the system thinks the person didn't exist.

It also affects people using Google Apps domains.

And yes, they did indeed try to reach me.

What does bounced mean in HubSpot?

When you signup for HubSpot, you get given a unique email ID. Whenever someone tries to access something under that domain name, it goes to your inbox. A lot of people think that once you log in with that email id, everything works fine. But unfortunately, this is incorrect. Most of the time, whenever you type in your email id, it asks for password validation. But sometimes, it gives you an error saying "this mailbox appears empty", meaning that either the user hasn't signed in or his login details aren't right. Even if he signs in, chances are you won't be able to view anything until HubSpot validates his credentials. Once validated, however, it continues to show him data under his dashboard.

As mentioned above, HubSpot considers all addresses ending with.gmail,.yahoo, etc. to be invalid. Hence, it always shows an error page for every attempt made to visit such addresses. This is true for both regular employees and admin accounts. Admin accounts are special ones, though. With admin accounts, HubSpot allows admins to customize things like personalization options, security settings, and email templates. These customization controls only appear once a user logs in successfully. Otherwise, the site will simply assume they belong to an employee and will display an error screen. To remedy this, it's important to remember that creating duplicate accounts is illegal everywhere except India.

How do I create a bounced email list in HubSpot?

Creating a "bounced email list" is pretty easy. All you have to do is go to Contacts " Settings " Bounce management. From here, you can select "Mark as Bounced", "Delete Account", or "Block Number". Since deleting accounts is highly discouraged, we recommend marking the address as bounced instead. Then click the Save button. Now, anytime anyone attempts to log in using that email, it will show an error page. Once the user submits correct information, the process gets completed.

Afterwards, HubSpot will ask for further verification. This step basically makes sure that the sender really owns the email address. After successful completion of this step, the recipient will start seeing content from the associated team immediately. If the request fails, it will still continue to run the normal workflow. Only if the user enters wrong information 3+ times, the account gets permanently deleted.

Here's how it looks:

Once the user clicks Submit, the system checks to see if your internal records match the source code info. If they do, the user will instantly begin working with your teams.

But if there are discrepancies, the system will give you the option to delete the subscriber. Click Delete Subscriber and move along.

Note that if the user chooses Block Number, they will never be allowed back onto the service.

Also, if you chose to Mark as Bounced, they will still be allowed back onto the platform if they verify themselves 5+ times.

What is HubSpot bounce rate?

A bounce occurs when a user opens an email and decides not to open it. Sometimes, this is because of poor formatting, spelling mistakes, unfamiliar names, etc. Other times, it's because of privacy concerns or lack of interest. Either way, it seems natural for the user to leave the website.

With regards to HubSpot, the problem lies elsewhere. Because of the nature of how the company operates, each email becomes part of a long chain. Eventually, HubSpot adds hundreds of duplicates to a single address, resulting in extremely high bounce rates.

To solve this problem, HubSpot offers various solutions. One method involves changing certain variables, namely the amount of bounces per month, the threshold percentage, and the maximum number of bounces per hour. Essentially, this changes the rules governing what qualifies as a bounce. Another solution involves adjusting the threshold to zero percent. Yet another possibility is to increase the frequency of bounces per hour. Each solution solves different problems, but none completely eliminate the effect altogether.

Unfortunately, this is exactly the situation faced by HubSpot. According to their statistics, roughly 70% of all accounts on the service have been assigned a bounce status over the past year. Although it varies slightly from region to region, these numbers are significantly higher than the industry standard.

While these figures are alarming, there are some bright spots. Despite the high bounce rate, HubSpot has seen a significant decline in overall cost of acquisition (CAC). Its CAC decreased from $2.50 during Q1 2015 to $0.74 during Q4 2016. Furthermore, the average cost of customer churn increased from $3.99 during Q1 2015 to $5.23 during Q4 2016. Overall, HubSpot believes this reflects improved quality and lower attrition risk.

HubSpot's bouncing contacts issue.

I am wondering how many people have experienced the same problem as me and what you did to solve it.

My question was, "what does 'Contact has bounced' mean?"

The answer seems pretty simple but for some reason my brain couldn't get past it, so here we go!

What happens when an email bounces?

When your message gets returned because the recipient isn't available (e.g., their mailbox full), or they're not at their workstation, or there's no network connection, etc. - then they will receive an automatic response from your provider saying something like this:

"Dear [RECIPIENT], The message could not be delivered to the SMTP server."

"Returned mailer unclaimed".

This means that the service which sent the bounce message cannot accept responsibility for delivering the message to its destination. This can happen if the sending MTA used incorrect authentication methods such as using different ports than the default one, or if the domain name doesn't match exactly with the domain specified on the MX record. In most cases, these errors are caused by incorrectly configured servers or networks.

As soon as you see a Bounce Message appear, take immediate action to resolve it. If you don't know the correct procedure to follow, simply send yourself a bounce report via electronic delivery, or call your Internet Service Provider customer support group and ask them about the best way to handle the error. It is very important to let the sender know immediately so that he/she may try again later.

Once you've completed all steps required above, open up another browser window and type https://support.google.com/mail into the address bar. You'll need to create a new account called Help Me Understand (HME) before continuing. When prompted, log in with your Google credentials. Once logged in, click on Troubleshooting Tips under the Support heading at the top of the page. Scroll down until you find the section titled Error Messages -- Bounced Email Address. Click View next to the title of the article. Then select View Original. On the resulting screen, scroll back through the text until you find the following sentence:

"If you were unable to deliver the message to the person named below due to an invalid return path, you should notify the company responsible for providing that information."

At this point, you'll probably want to check out our guide on What Does Return To Sender Mean.

What is a bounced contact?

A bounced contact is defined as any email address which returns a bounce message either directly from within Gmail, or indirectly from within some other application, such as SalesForce.com.

Bounced emails occur when someone sends an email to an invalid email address. Usually, the invalid email address consists of just numbers or letters without punctuation marks. These types of email addresses often result from human-entered email addresses such as info@companyname.com rather than automatically generated ones such as sales@companyname.com.

It's worth noting that a bounced email might also come from an email client which uses an entirely separate system to manage messages. For example, Outlook Express typically only supports POP3 while Hotmail uses IMAP4 protocols. Many ISPs provide free webmail services, but those users who rely solely upon their ISP's internal mail systems are more susceptible to receiving bounces. Unfortunately, ISPs usually offer little assistance beyond giving instructions regarding how to forward the bounce reports to technical staff.

Here's a list of things that can cause a user to receive a bounce message:

Email Domain Name mismatch

Incorrect Username / Password combination

Outlook Web Access Server configuration issues

Exchange 515 Internal Relay Failure

Failed Authentication Attempts

How would anyone know whether the email address provided actually belongs to the intended recipient? They wouldn't unless they received a bounce message. A good practice is to always use double-check mechanisms whenever possible. Another option is to verify that the email address is valid by searching online. However, sometimes even checking the validity won't help since the email address itself could be erroneous. But, there is still hope! Just look at the bottom line and you'll eventually figure out why this happened.

What is a bounced contact MailChimp?

MailChimp is known for having a bad reputation among customers for being difficult to deal with. That said:

Mailchimp recently changed the meaning of this phrase. Now instead of returning a bounce message, it now tells you that the email wasn't accepted by the recipient's email server. So, you'll need to troubleshoot accordingly. Below are some helpful tips:

Ensure that your email subject header matches the content of the email body. Make sure that both headers and bodies contain enough useful information to allow recipients to identify the specific request contained therein. Also make sure that none of the words in the subjects are misspelled.

Try changing your From field to static. By doing so, you force MailChimp to create a single copy of every message destined for your subscribers. All future copies of a given subscriber will arrive via automated processes and thus bypass human review.

Check that your FROM field includes the real email address of whoever signed up for your mailing list. Sometimes users forget to add themselves to the FROM field. Or worse yet, they enter false information. There are tools out there which automate this process, but manual input is generally preferred.

Test your autoresponder settings. Some providers require that you test your replies manually. Others perform testing internally. Either way, ensure that your responses reflect current practices.

Use two-factor authentication wherever possible. Two-step verification adds security by requiring additional confirmation after each step taken during signup. Most major ecommerce sites utilize 2FA today. Be aware that some providers limit certain features depending on whether you choose to enable 2FA.

Avoid suspicious links. Never click on attachments or links provided in mass emails. Instead, download and save files separately. Avoid downloading pirated material. And avoid clicking on phishing links. Phishers commonly attempt to trick site visitors into revealing sensitive personal data. Don't fall victim! Learn more here.

Always keep track of your subscriptions. Keep records of the date(s) and time(s) of your subscription renewals. Your provider likely requires proof if you ever encounter billing problems.

What is a bounced contact in Active Campaign?

ActiveCampaign allows companies to send bulk emails and newsletters. Every newsletter needs to start somewhere though, and it starts with creating an audience. After you've created your audience, it's time to design campaigns. Each campaign contains several pieces of information including templates, variable fields and more. One piece of crucial information is where to direct each individual email. Since each email must have a unique link, it's imperative that you set up your variables properly. Otherwise, your entire campaign becomes useless.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the ability to designate a particular email as a bounce varies across platforms. Here's a breakdown of the differences between various vendors:

1. Constant Contact

With Constant Contact, you can choose to route bounced emails to a dedicated team member, a supervisory employee, or a manager.

2. GetResponse

GetResponse lets you decide whether to redirect bounces to a designated agent.

3. MadMimi

MadMimi gives you the choice to mark emails as bounced.

4. Marketo

Marketo offers three options for dealing with bounced communications. First, you can choose to block the email completely. Second, you can flag the email as undeliverable, or third, you can leave it in the queue.

5. Ontraport

Ontraport provides four options for handling bounced emails. You can choose to delete the email, put it in the trashcan, move it to a special folder, or pass it along to a supervisor.

6. Vertical Response

Vertical Response gives you five choices when it comes to processing bounced emails. You can discard the communication altogether, quarantine it, archive it, present it to the administrator, or continue routing it to its final destination.

7. Zoho

Zoho lets you choose to ignore bounced emails, mark them as read, put them aside, or give them to a moderator.

8. Yahoo

Yahoo lets you choose to block, filter or divert bounced emails depending on which platform you use.

9. MailPoet

MailPoet gives you six ways to treat bounced emails. You can delete them, file them away, reroute them, stop them outright, highlight them, or alert administrators.

10. Sendlane

Sendlane lets you choose to react to bounced emails differently. You can either remove them from your inbox, archive them, redirect them elsewhere, or give them to moderators.

11. Veeva Systems

Veeva lets you determine how to respond to bounced emails based on which platform you use. You can choose to discard them, pass them onto an admin, or display them on your dashboard.

12. Workplace by Oracle

Workplace by Oracle lets you choose to block, filter, divert, or pass bounced emails off to administrators.

13. Drip Marketing System

Drip lets you choose to disregard, store, or show bounced emails.

14. Integromat

Integromat lets you choose to delete, archive, or pass bounced emails off to admins.