topic Fixing email address classified "hard bounced" in Email Deliverability

Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

DSPierce — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 18:24:52 GMT

I somehow have an indication of a previous "hard bounce" email result on my contact listing. I have no idea why. I have reviewed the spam & account block lists for both my email provider and MS Outlook client that I am using. I'm the CEO of this startup and we're brand new to trying out HubSpot so I want this to succeed but now I can't receive any emails that we are sending to potential users or customers.
Is there a way to get this fixed?

Re: Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

karstenkoehler — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 18:33:22 GMT

Hi @DSPierce,

In the free CRM unfortunately not, no. A Marketing Hub Professional subscription is needed to remove bounces: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/email/how-can-i-send-an-email-to-a-contact-that-has-previously-bounced

(Don't shoot the messenger.)

Best regards!

Re: Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

mangelet — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 18:50:15 GMT

Hello @DSPierce , it seems you're having issues with your emails being marked as spam. The question is whether you are experiencing problems with incoming emails to your personal inbox or outgoing emails.

If you have trouble receiving emails in your personal inbox, HubSpot is not involved in this process. In that case, the issue likely lies with your email provider.

For sending email problems, there are two possibilities: If you face difficulties sending one-to-one emails, then the problem is also with your email provider and not related to HubSpot.

However, if you encounter issues while sending marketing emails through HubSpot, we can look into bounce reasons more closely as pointed out by @karstenkoehler.

Often times, these issues don't lie within HubSpot but rather at the recipient's end. Nevertheless, HubSpot provides indicators for each bounced email to help identify potential causes.

I hope this information helps!

Re: Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

DSPierce — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 18:50:32 GMT

Thanks that is what the Sales support person told me when I did the "Help" chat on the site. I'm amazed that what seems like a simple error condition can take us from a boot strapping startup trying out and learning HubSpot to a $10K/year expense.
It's kind of breathtaking. I only posted here because the sales support help chat person suggested that it might help.

Re: Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

DSPierce — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 19:28:19 GMT

Thanks Martin(@mangelet),
I think this (However, if you encounter issues while sending marketing emails through HubSpot, we can look into bounce reasons more closely as pointed out by @karstenkoehler.) is the situation.
I only discovered that there was a "hard bounce" status on my contact record email address after we tried sending an upcoming email announcement to ourselves to convince ourselves that we had everything working correctly.
The sales guy that I chatted with indicated that because the HubSpot account email addy and my contact record email addy were the same (it's my startup so I was only putting my obvious email address down for both) that this possibly caused the bounce. That seems really counter-intuitive as I would expect that situation to be common and I don't really "know" the reason that caused the bounce. I did review all my spam & block lists to make sure that something didn't accidentally get rejected.
I'm kinda amazed as this seems like something that would be not that uncommon.
In the mean time, I've updated both my account email and contact record emails to alternates to see if I can get this temporarily patched.
Any insight or help is much appreciated...Scott

Re: Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

mangelet — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 06:49:22 GMT

Hi Scott @DSPierce , it's common for you and your team to have contacts in HubSpot and include yourselves in mass marketing e-mail campaigns to stay in the loop. Generally, this doesn't cause any issues. Alternatively, HubSpot allows you to send test emails from the marketing email creation section.

Including yourself in an email campaign likely wouldn't affect bounce rates. The bounce may be due to your specific email provider. To address this issue, check the hard bounce reason provided by HubSpot and make necessary adjustments.

Moving forward, set up a real campaign with accurate data and start working on it. HubSpot has excellent delivery rates, so you shouldn't face problems.

HubSpot offers various ways to automatically notify you about bounces so they don’t catch you off-guard as before. I assume you're going to be using a paid version of HubSpot rather than just the free one in the long run? Give these suggestions a try and let me know how it goes—best of luck with your next marketing campaign!

Re: Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

DSPierce — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 15:25:09 GMT

Thanks Martin,
At this point, after a little more investigation & experience, the issue seems to be with how our company emails are set up and provided through Zoho, perhaps also related to generally receiving & responding from an Outlook client.
Would you know if there is any insights into issues with certain email hostin service providers or the particulars of those set ups?

Thanks for your interest & help!...Scott

topic Fixing email address classified &quot;hard bounced&quot; in Email Deliverability

Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

Re: Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

Re: Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

Re: Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

Re: Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

Re: Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

Re: Fixing email address classified "hard bounced"

topic Fixing email address classified "hard bounced" in Email Deliverability