Bounce Rate
The bounce rate in email marketing describes the percentage of emails which did not reach recipients.
There are lots of reasons why an email may bounce. These can be summarised into two main types of bounces:
Soft bounce: The email hasn't been delivered due to a temporary issue such as the recipient's mailbox being full.
Hard bounce: The email hasn't been delivered due to a permanent issue, which can include due to the email address being misspelt or no longer existing.
Email marketers need to watch their bounce rate carefully, as the standard benchmark is below 2%.
If the bounce rate gets too high, your email service provider may mark your emails as spam.
Example
If you send 1,000 emails to your subscribers and 980 messages sent but 20 messages bounced, the bounce rate would be 2%.