Manage bounce-backs
A bounced e-mail (or bounce-back) is one that never arrives in the recipient's inbox and is sent back, or bounced back, to the sender with an error message that indicates to the sender that the e-mail was never successfully transmitted. Typically, this happens when you send your mailings using Smtp servers: if an address is non-existent, Smtp server (which has no way of knowing it) will accept the message anyway, but it will be bounced later.
There are two main types of bounce-backs:
SendBlaster can automatically recognize most* bounced e-mails and unsubscribe or delete bounced addresses in the selected list.
Bounced mails will be sent to the mailing's sender address, which may not be the same address used for subscriptions and cancellations (see Manage subscriptions). Therefore it is necessary to tell the program which address should be checked.
| Which address should I enter? Remember that e-mail bounces are sent to the mailing's sender address, not to the address used for subscriptions. Suppose you chose "subscriptions@mysite.com" as your subscriptions managing address for List 1, and you later sent your mailings from "newsletter@mysite.com" address. Bounce-backs will therefore be delivered to "newsletter@mysite.com", and this is the address you will have to configure in Manage bounce-backs section for List 1. |
The address to check is set by typing the correct parameters to access its POP3 account, just like any e-mail client software: besides the address (E-mail) you need to specify the receiving server (POP3 Server), the Port number (if no port is specified, default port 110 will be used), the Username and the Password. The SSL checkbox enables SSL communication, which may be needed by some pop3 servers (a typical example is Gmail's server). In the Timeout field you can type the number of seconds of inactivity after which the connection will be closed. To verify the parameters just click on Connection test button (no message will be downloaded).
Tip: Profiles button allows to manage multiple POP3 settigs. Account information can be stored for multiple profiles, so all POP3 settings are saved/loaded with a couple of clicks. This feature is specially usefull when sending mails on behalf or someone else.
By checking Keep a copy of the messages on the server once downloaded, SendBlaster will download new messages without deleting them from the server. The messages will then be available for future uses. New messages will be ignored.
By checking Only delete new bounce-back messages SendBlaster will delete only this messages, leaving the rest of the messages in the server.
If Delete bounced addresses is checked, bounced addresses will be deleted from the selected list. If not, they will just be unsubscribed from the list.
By checking Process hard bounces and Process soft bounces you can choose which bounce types (see above) should be processed; of course if neither option is checked no bounced e-mails processing will occur.
By clicking on the Download button, the new messages will be downloaded and the selected distribution list will be updated (as well as all other lists that use the same e-mail address for bounce-backs).
Warning: if the download of new messages appears to be rather slow, this might indicate that on the e-mail server many messages have piled up: disable the Keep a copy of the messages on the server option and click on Download (or execute downloading on your standard e-mail client). The messages, once downloaded, will be removed form the server and the following downloads will be faster.
*New bounce-back formats can be managed from the Advanced Settings screen.