When it comes to your email subscriber list, there’s nothing more frustrating than bounced emails. Most people view bounces as a bad sign that you’ve just lost a subscriber, and there’s nothing you can do but remove the address and forget about it.
However, bounced emails can actually be great opportunities to touch base with your customers—and maybe even make a sale. Here’s how to make the most of bounces and keep your prospects on board.
Pick up the phone
Instead of giving in to the typical reaction of a bounce and deleting the email address, take a few extra minutes to look up the customer and give them a ring. In most cases, bounced messages are a result of simple errors, such as:
- The customer transposed a few letters of the address, or forgot to include “extra” characters like dots, underscores, or numerals
- The address is correct, but the customer wrote down the wrong domain—it’s common to instinctively use “.com” for email, but some addresses end in .net or .me
- The email address has expired, either due to inactivity or because the customer used a free email service that has since been discontinued
- In any case, most customers will appreciate hearing from you and knowing that there’s a problem with the email address they used. Many will be happy to supply the correct address, or an alternate address that is active and functioning.
Go ahead and pitch
While you’ve got the customer on the phone, let them know about what was in the bounced message so they won’t miss out on anything. If you’d sent out a special offer or discount, you can extend it over the phone and make it easy for them to take advantage, so they won’t have to wait for a resent email.
In general, bounced emails are a great opportunity to touch base with your customers and provide an extra level of service that they’ll appreciate.