Sequences and how HubSpot responds to bounces.

[ConnorMcM]

I've noticed some contacts that I have sequenced have bounced from the first email but has still sent the second and third email (which has also bounced and has a negative impact on the health of our email).

Is there a way to have it so if an email bounces, they are removed from the sequence?

I've also been in a situation where the first email has been sent and delivered but the second and third has bounced, as well as one where only the second email has bounced.

Does anyone know why this is happening?

[ConnorMcM]

Thank you @natsumimori & @karstenkoehler ! Not a perfect scenario but at least I know the solution.

[ConnorMcM]

Hi @natsumimori & @karstenkoehler!

The way we are seeing these bounces is through Gmail. It appears to be an automated reply to the email by a different email than the original sender. e.g one is from Google Mail | Mail Delivery Service and the other was from SecureServer.net.

Could this be the reason HubSpot is not flagging the emails as bounced?

Thanks for the support!

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @ConnorMcM,

Correct, as @natsumimori has pointed out the bounceback message has to be a direct reply, otherwise HubSpot cannot associate the email with the fact that a contact has bounced. In those cases, you'd have to manually unenroll the contact from the sequence. There isn't a specific setting or automation for this.

Best regards!

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @ConnorMcM,

How does the bounce register? Are you referring to the notice at the top left of the contact record (= is there a value in Email hard bounce reason) or did you receive a separate notice?

In general, HubSpot will automatically unenroll contacts when the email address bounces. If the contact shows as bounced in HubSpot and is not being unenrolled, I'd reach out to HubSpot Support for troubleshooting since this might be a bug. If you received a separate email, then that would be the explanation. HubSpot can't associate these two things and you'd have to manually unenroll the contact.

Best regards!

[natsumimori]

Thank you for your post @ConnorMcM .

Looking at this knowledge base article- Unenroll contacts from a sequence - , a contact should be automatically unenrolled (removed) from the sequences if this contact's email address bounced. One thing to note here is that HubSpot can only detect bounces if the bounceback message is a direct reply to the email that bounced. Services like Mimecast can send bounce notifications as separate emails, however, HubSpot won't be able to relate those separate notifications with bounced sequence.