bounce

Definition

In email marketing, when your carefully crafted message gets rejected and returns to sender like an unwanted boomerang—the digital equivalent of your mail being marked "return to sender." Bounces come in hard (permanent failures like invalid addresses) and soft (temporary issues like full inboxes) varieties. High bounce rates are the email marketer's nightmare and ISPs' favorite excuse to label you as spam.

Example Usage

The campaign's bounce rate spiked to 23% because half the email list hadn't been cleaned in three years.

Source: Email marketing terminology

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