Why am I getting a compliance warning for high bounce rate?

In email marketing, a bounce is where the campaign couldn’t be delivered to the recipient. If the deliverability issue is temporary (such as the subscribers email mailbox being at capacity) we refer to a soft bounce and if there is a permanent issue (such as the email address no longer exists) then this is called a hard bounce.

How to Avoid High Bounce Rates in Mailchimp

Mailchimp is ‘self-cleaning’ in that any hard bounced email addresses are moved to the Cleaned section of a list (which means that you are unable to send to that email address again). If a significant proportion of the subscribers you send to result in bounced email addresses then Mailchimp will flag your list as being problematic (high bounce rates can be an indicator of unsolicited email). If the high bounce rates continue then Mailchimp may well suspend your account.

The best way to avoid high bounce rates is to:

1. Ensure that your subscribers subscribe themselves to your list.
2. A verification email is sent to subscribers.
3. You don’t let your list get stale (send EDM regularly).

If you have any hesitation as to whether you may have email addresses in your list that may bounce then I can help determine which email addresses are valid and which aren’t.

Mailchimp High Bounce Rate Error Message

Below is an example of the warning that you will receive from Mailchimp should a campaign result in a high number of hard bounces.