Yahoo Emails are Bouncing: How it affects email marketers and measures to take.

Perhaps, you have been experiencing a considerable number of Yahoo addresses bouncing for more than ten months back; it is no accident. As a result of a clean-up process engaged by Yahoo, several hundreds of marketers globally have witnessed an increased email bounce rate.

Yahoo emails are bouncing back to the sender. Why? and what should you do?

The cleanup is believed to affect the dormant accounts, i.e., any account that has been unused for more than twelve months. Such accounts are being erased, deactivated, or released to other new users.

Understandably, many email marketers will be wondering how the process could affect their businesses, and if it happens, what are the measures to take to protect your email deliverability?

First off, keep in mind that the challenges have no straightforward solutions. Nevertheless, by taking some necessary steps, you would be saved from any significant consequences. However, before we proceed, it is salient that we understand the effort which Yahoo is making to run an efficient and secure email service platform

In June 2013, the initiative began when the former Senior Vice President of Yahoo, Jay Rossiter, wrote an article concerning the process. The blog post revealed that the company would delete all unused email accounts which hadn’t been accessed for over twelve months. More so, 30 days after deleting such an account, the email platform will recycle the identities, then provide them to the public again. Cleverly, Rossiter tried to make the whole process sound like a beneficial effort for the public by adding that people can then get the ID, which they have always desired.

A Great Number of Bounces for Email Marketers

Understandably, some might be excited by such a claim; however, the overall consequences can be quite significant for the email senders and receivers. Earlier this year, the company stepped up the clean-up process by deactivating a considerable number of unused email accounts.

What Are the Consequences?

Email marketers experience the most significant impact due to massive Yahoo bounces. As a result, they are striving to keep their email hygiene and get emails back into the inbox.

What to Do Now?

Yahoo’s effort is affecting your email marketing; What are the solutions?

Maintain a Clean List Using an Email Verifier

Email marketing is premised on keeping a safe and healthy email list. Hence, endeavor to get an email verifier to clear out any redundancies on your list if it has been a while that you do so. In this way, you can easily find the accounts that may result in email bouncing. More so, with an email verifier, you will be able to get rid of spam traps, temporary addresses, and role-based addresses, which never add any value to your business.

Furthermore, you can protect your signup form by installing an email verification API. This system helps validate emails in real-time and block inadequate signups. Also, it comes handy for keeping a clean list for an extended period. However, bear in mind that email verification services and Email service providers tend to find it challenging to verify a disabled account. This means that in a state of inactivity, the account is disabled; however, once the owner logs in again, the email service provider will re-enable the account.

Get Rid of Unengaging Subscribers

This method is a common approach towards email deliverability because it helps maintain a sender’s reputation in the long term. Learn about your inactive subscribers by reading a periodic report about your email marketing. Also, endeavor to remove any address that has not engaged any of the emails sent to it in the last three to four months.

One of the metrics of determining a sender’s reputation is the engagement rate. Keeping dormant addresses on your list is a worthless risk – whether Yahoo list or not. Although, by removing some addresses, you will lose a few subscribers; however, considering that there is no engagement from them, is there really any loss?

Be Mindful of Your Spam Complaints

After an email account closure from Yahoo, the account will be recycled and made available to any new user – will this influence your email marketing?

Let’s look at the situation practically: If one of your subscribers, [email protected], decided to change to another email service provider. However, despite that the owner didn’t delete the Yahoo account, he/she hasn’t logged in for more than twelve months either. In this case, Yahoo will automatically disable the account, followed by a deletion.

Now, after a while, if another Adelaide finds out that [email protected] is available, definitely, he/she will choose the address. And before long, the new owner will be receiving emails from you. In such a situation, the most likely thing that Adelaide will do is to unsubscribe, then tag you as spam. And as an email marketer, you should know that being tagged as spam doesn’t help maintain a good reputation. The consequence is always being seen as an illegitimate sender by the Internet and Email service providers. Thus, it won't be straightforward for your emails to reach the inbox.

So, what Can You Do to Save Yourself from Spam Complaints? After getting a notification, endeavor to remove abuse emails from your list manually. For a faster and safer approach, get a functional email verifier. With an advanced system, you can even find known email complainers with a track record of marking emails as spam. In this way, you can remove them before they complain. Constant attention to reports is crucial towards managing Yahoo bounces right now. We recommend that you peruse your bounce codes meticulously; be mindful of your engagement rates and get rid of unengaging subscribers without remorse.

The Consequence of False Positives

As we mentioned earlier, Email service providers or email verification services cannot validate an email account that has been tagged “disabled” by Yahoo. A “disabled” state implies that the owner has been inactive for some time, but once the owner logs in again, the account could be re-enabled. In such a state, any email sent to it will bounce back even though the mailbox is actually existing. Consequently, an address for such an account will be tagged as “deliverable” when assessed with an email verifier, although “undeliverable” status should apply. This situation is referred to as a “false positive” result. As far as Yahoo accounts are concerned, the industry standard lies around 96% accuracy – within deliverable emails. Nevertheless, the general quality of the data and its source play a crucial role. Overall, a poor list quality will simply result in a high risk of false-positive results.