Keep bounce rates low
Why bounces hurt your sender reputation, how to keep them under 2%, and how to handle Risky and Catch-all addresses.
A bounce is an email that can't be delivered. A few are normal. Many tell mailbox providers that you're sending to a list you didn't check, which is what spammers do. Keep your hard-bounce rate under 2% and your domain stays healthy. At 5%, OmniLead pauses the sequence automatically.
Why bounces matter
Mailbox providers track how often your domain sends to addresses that don't exist. A high bounce rate lowers your sender reputation, and a low reputation sends even your good emails to spam, including the ones to your customers. Reputation takes weeks to rebuild, so preventing bounces is far cheaper than fixing them.
Before you enroll
Send to Valid addresses first
Filter the list by verification status and start with Valid. These are confirmed deliverable.
Batch Catch-all addresses
Put Catch-all addresses in a separate, smaller sequence. Prefer those with a strong source, such as the person's own staff page, and a confidence of 70 or more.
Hold Risky addresses back
Risky addresses often belong to shared inboxes or full mailboxes. Send to them last, in small numbers, or not at all.
Re-verify anything old
Verification results are cached for 30 days. For older contacts, OmniLead verifies again before sending, but you can re-verify a list in advance with Re-verify in the action bar.
Set a minimum confidence
In the sequence settings, set Minimum confidence to 70. Leads below it are skipped and listed for review.
Imported lists need extra care
Contacts from a CSV import haven't been through OmniLead's search. They're verified in the background after import, and invalid ones are blocked from sequences. Still, lists from events or old CRMs often have a high share of stale addresses. Start with a small batch and watch the bounce rate before enrolling the rest.
Watch the right numbers
Open a sequence and look at its Activity tab. Three numbers matter:
Each mailbox card in Settings → Mailboxes also shows its bounce rate across all sequences.
Hard and soft bounces
- Hard bounces are permanent: the address or domain doesn't exist. OmniLead marks the address Invalid and suppresses it, so you never send to it again.
- Soft bounces are temporary: a full mailbox or a busy server. OmniLead retries later. Repeated soft bounces are treated as a hard bounce.
Only hard bounces count toward the bounce rate and the 5% auto-pause.
If your bounce rate climbs
- Pause the sequence if auto-pause hasn't already.
- Find the source. Filter bounced leads by list, import, source lens or verification status. Bounces usually cluster in one segment.
- Remove or re-verify that segment.
- Resume slowly. Lower the mailbox's daily cap for a few days.
See Auto-pause for the full recovery steps.
Other habits that help
- Keep SPF, DKIM and DMARC passing. Authentication problems can look like bounces. See SPF, DKIM and DMARC explained.
- Ramp up new mailboxes. See Ramp-up and sending limits.
- Honor unsubscribes immediately. OmniLead does this automatically; don't re-import people who opted out.
- Write to fewer, better-matched people. Relevant emails get replies, and replies improve your reputation.