Reducing the returned or spam email rate

A returned or "bounced" email occurs when an email that was sent was returned with an error. For example, the domain name didn't exist, the user's email account at that domain name didn't exist, the user's email account was disabled by the email provider, the user's email inbox was full, etc. When this happens, additional emails won't be sent to that email address and if there is a forum user account associated with the email address, the user will be asked to update their email address next time they visit the forum.

A spam email occurs when the user or email provider marks a received email as spam. The user is automatically unsubscribed from that type of email and a notification is shown in their forum Notifications drop down informing them of what happened.

The returned and spam email rates are the percentage of sent emails that were returned with an error or marked as spam. Email providers, including Yahoo and Gmail, use these rates as a factor in determining a reputation score for emailers. If your forum's email reputation score goes too low, it can affect the deliverability of your email. To protect your email reputation score, if your forum's returned email or spam rate goes too high, outgoing email can become deferred until we're able to investigate the situation.

Ways to reduce your returned email and spam rate:

• Ensure that Email Verification is enabled.
• Set the Automatically Follow option to Topics I start.
• Only email your users (via the Users -> Email section) rarely and with high quality emails that most users will really appreciate.
• Enable Human Verification to prevent spam sign ups.
• If you're receiving spam sign ups from specific countries, prevent sign ups from those countries.
• Turn off the weekly digest email.
• Turn off new event email notifications.
• Ensure that users that have been imported have verified email addresses or are imported into the Pending Email Verification user group.
• Only invite users that are expecting your forum invitation.
• Set a forum title and outgoing email address that matches your forum and is easily recognizable by someone if they receive an email from that email address and name.
• Authorize Website Toolbox to send email (DKIM and SPF verification)

If you still need help, please contact us.