chore: Add guides and comparison pages to landing site
This commit is contained in:
Dries Augustyns
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import React from 'react';
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import {GuideLayout, InfoBox} from '../../components/guides';
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import {CodeBlock} from '../../components/CodeBlock';
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import Link from 'next/link';
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export default function EmailBounceRate() {
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return (
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<GuideLayout
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title="Email Bounce Rate: Hard vs Soft Bounces & How to Reduce Them"
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description="Understand email bounce rates, the difference between hard and soft bounces, and proven strategies to reduce bounces and protect your sender reputation."
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lastUpdated="2025-12-20"
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readTime="9 min"
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canonical="https://www.useplunk.com/guides/email-bounce-rate"
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>
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{/* Introduction */}
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<section id="introduction" className="mb-12">
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<p className="text-neutral-700 leading-relaxed">
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Email bounce rate measures the percentage of emails that couldn't be delivered to recipients' inboxes. Bounces
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occur for various reasons—some temporary, others permanent—and high bounce rates seriously damage your sender
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reputation and deliverability.
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</p>
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<p className="mt-4 text-neutral-700 leading-relaxed">
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Understanding the types of bounces and how to minimize them is essential for maintaining a healthy email
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program.
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</p>
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</section>
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{/* What is Bounce Rate */}
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<section id="what-is-bounce-rate" className="mb-12">
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<h2 className="text-3xl font-bold text-neutral-900 mb-6">What is Email Bounce Rate?</h2>
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<p className="text-neutral-700 leading-relaxed mb-6">
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Bounce rate is the percentage of sent emails that were rejected by receiving mail servers and couldn't be
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delivered.
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</p>
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<div className="rounded-xl border-2 border-neutral-900 bg-neutral-50 p-8 mb-8">
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<div className="text-center">
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<div className="text-3xl font-bold text-neutral-900 mb-4">Bounce Rate Formula</div>
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<CodeBlock
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language="text"
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code={`Bounce Rate = (Bounced Emails ÷ Sent Emails) × 100
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Example:
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- Sent: 10,000 emails
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- Bounced: 150 emails
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Bounce Rate = (150 ÷ 10,000) × 100 = 1.5%`}
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showCopy={false}
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/>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div className="grid gap-6 md:grid-cols-3 mb-8">
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<div className="rounded-xl border border-neutral-200 bg-white p-6">
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<div className="text-3xl font-bold text-green-600 mb-2"><2%</div>
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<h3 className="text-lg font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Excellent</h3>
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<p className="text-sm text-neutral-700">Healthy list with good hygiene practices</p>
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</div>
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<div className="rounded-xl border border-neutral-200 bg-white p-6">
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<div className="text-3xl font-bold text-amber-600 mb-2">2-5%</div>
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<h3 className="text-lg font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Concerning</h3>
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<p className="text-sm text-neutral-700">List quality issues need attention</p>
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</div>
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<div className="rounded-xl border border-neutral-200 bg-white p-6">
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<div className="text-3xl font-bold text-red-600 mb-2">>5%</div>
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<h3 className="text-lg font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Critical</h3>
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<p className="text-sm text-neutral-700">Serious problems damaging sender reputation</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</section>
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{/* Types of Bounces */}
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<section id="types-of-bounces" className="mb-12">
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<h2 className="text-3xl font-bold text-neutral-900 mb-6">Hard Bounces vs Soft Bounces</h2>
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<p className="text-neutral-700 leading-relaxed mb-6">
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Not all bounces are the same. Understanding the difference between hard and soft bounces is crucial for
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managing your email list.
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</p>
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<div className="grid gap-8 md:grid-cols-2">
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<div className="rounded-xl border-2 border-red-200 bg-red-50 p-6">
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<h3 className="text-2xl font-semibold text-red-900 mb-4">Hard Bounces (Permanent)</h3>
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<p className="text-neutral-700 mb-4">
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Hard bounces occur when an email can't be delivered for permanent reasons. These addresses will never
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receive your emails.
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</p>
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<div className="space-y-3 mb-4">
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<div>
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<h4 className="font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Common Causes:</h4>
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<ul className="space-y-1 text-sm text-neutral-700">
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<li>• Email address doesn't exist</li>
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<li>• Domain name doesn't exist</li>
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<li>• Email server has completely blocked delivery</li>
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<li>• Invalid email address format</li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div className="rounded-lg bg-red-100 border border-red-200 p-4">
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<p className="text-sm font-semibold text-red-900 mb-2">Action Required:</p>
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<p className="text-sm text-neutral-700">
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<strong>Remove immediately.</strong> Never send to hard bounce addresses again. Continuing to send to
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them damages your sender reputation.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div className="rounded-xl border-2 border-amber-200 bg-amber-50 p-6">
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<h3 className="text-2xl font-semibold text-amber-900 mb-4">Soft Bounces (Temporary)</h3>
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<p className="text-neutral-700 mb-4">
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Soft bounces are temporary delivery failures. The email address is valid, but delivery failed for a
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temporary reason.
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</p>
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<div className="space-y-3 mb-4">
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<div>
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<h4 className="font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Common Causes:</h4>
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<ul className="space-y-1 text-sm text-neutral-700">
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<li>• Recipient's mailbox is full</li>
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<li>• Email server is temporarily down or busy</li>
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<li>• Email message is too large</li>
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<li>• Recipient's server is experiencing issues</li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div className="rounded-lg bg-amber-100 border border-amber-200 p-4">
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<p className="text-sm font-semibold text-amber-900 mb-2">Action Required:</p>
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<p className="text-sm text-neutral-700">
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<strong>Retry automatically.</strong> Most platforms retry for 24-72 hours. After 3-5 consecutive soft
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bounces, treat as a hard bounce and remove.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<InfoBox type="info" title="Bounce vs Block" className="mt-6">
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<p>
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A <strong>block</strong> occurs when the receiving server actively rejects your email due to reputation or
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content issues. Unlike bounces (address problems), blocks indicate deliverability problems that affect all
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your emails to that domain.
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</p>
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</InfoBox>
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</section>
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{/* Common Bounce Reasons */}
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<section id="bounce-reasons" className="mb-12">
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<h2 className="text-3xl font-bold text-neutral-900 mb-6">Common Bounce Reasons & Error Codes</h2>
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<div className="rounded-xl border border-neutral-200 overflow-hidden">
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<table className="w-full">
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<thead>
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<tr>
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<th className="px-6 py-4 text-left text-sm font-semibold">Error Type</th>
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<th className="px-6 py-4 text-left text-sm font-semibold">Reason</th>
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<th className="px-6 py-4 text-left text-sm font-semibold">Type</th>
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<th className="px-6 py-4 text-left text-sm font-semibold">Action</th>
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</tr>
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</thead>
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<tbody className="divide-y divide-neutral-200 bg-white">
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<tr>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 font-mono text-sm text-neutral-900">550</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">Mailbox unavailable</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-red-600">Hard</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">Remove</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 font-mono text-sm text-neutral-900">551</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">User not local/Invalid address</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-red-600">Hard</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">Remove</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 font-mono text-sm text-neutral-900">552</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">Mailbox full</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-amber-600">Soft</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">Retry</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 font-mono text-sm text-neutral-900">553</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">Mailbox name invalid</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-red-600">Hard</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">Remove</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 font-mono text-sm text-neutral-900">554</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">Transaction failed</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-600">Varies</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">Investigate</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 font-mono text-sm text-neutral-900">421</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">Service not available</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-amber-600">Soft</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">Retry</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 font-mono text-sm text-neutral-900">450</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">Mailbox busy</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-amber-600">Soft</td>
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<td className="px-6 py-4 text-sm text-neutral-700">Retry</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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</div>
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</section>
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{/* How to Reduce Bounces */}
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<section id="reduce-bounces" className="mb-12">
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<h2 className="text-3xl font-bold text-neutral-900 mb-6">How to Reduce Email Bounce Rates</h2>
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<div className="space-y-4">
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<div className="flex items-start gap-4 p-6 rounded-xl bg-neutral-50 border border-neutral-200">
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<div className="flex h-8 w-8 shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-neutral-900 text-white text-sm font-bold">
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1
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</div>
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<div>
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<h3 className="font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Use Double Opt-In</h3>
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<p className="text-neutral-700">
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Require new subscribers to confirm their email address by clicking a verification link. This ensures the
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address is valid, active, and belongs to the person who submitted it. Double opt-in reduces bounce rates
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by 50-70%.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div className="flex items-start gap-4 p-6 rounded-xl bg-neutral-50 border border-neutral-200">
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<div className="flex h-8 w-8 shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-neutral-900 text-white text-sm font-bold">
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2
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</div>
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<div>
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<h3 className="font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Validate Email Addresses</h3>
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<p className="text-neutral-700 mb-3">
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Use real-time email validation on signup forms to catch typos and invalid formats. Validate:
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</p>
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<ul className="list-disc list-inside space-y-1 text-sm text-neutral-700">
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<li>Email format (contains @ and valid domain)</li>
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<li>Domain has valid MX records</li>
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<li>Catch common typos (gmial.com → gmail.com)</li>
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<li>Block disposable email addresses (if needed)</li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div className="flex items-start gap-4 p-6 rounded-xl bg-neutral-50 border border-neutral-200">
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<div className="flex h-8 w-8 shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-neutral-900 text-white text-sm font-bold">
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3
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</div>
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<div>
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<h3 className="font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Remove Hard Bounces Immediately</h3>
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<p className="text-neutral-700">
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Automate removal of hard bounce addresses from your list. Never send to them again. Continued sending to
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invalid addresses signals poor list hygiene to email providers.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div className="flex items-start gap-4 p-6 rounded-xl bg-neutral-50 border border-neutral-200">
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<div className="flex h-8 w-8 shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-neutral-900 text-white text-sm font-bold">
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4
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</div>
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<div>
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<h3 className="font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Clean Your List Regularly</h3>
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<p className="text-neutral-700">
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Remove or re-engage inactive subscribers every 6-12 months. Email addresses become invalid over time
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(15- 20% per year). Regular list cleaning prevents bounce accumulation.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div className="flex items-start gap-4 p-6 rounded-xl bg-neutral-50 border border-neutral-200">
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<div className="flex h-8 w-8 shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-neutral-900 text-white text-sm font-bold">
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5
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</div>
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<div>
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<h3 className="font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Never Buy Email Lists</h3>
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<p className="text-neutral-700">
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Purchased lists have 20-40% invalid addresses and zero engagement. They'll destroy your bounce rate and
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sender reputation. Build your list organically—it's slower but dramatically more effective.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div className="flex items-start gap-4 p-6 rounded-xl bg-neutral-50 border border-neutral-200">
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<div className="flex h-8 w-8 shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-neutral-900 text-white text-sm font-bold">
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6
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</div>
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<div>
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<h3 className="font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Monitor Soft Bounces</h3>
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<p className="text-neutral-700">
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Track addresses that repeatedly soft bounce. After 3-5 consecutive soft bounces over multiple campaigns,
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treat them as hard bounces and remove them.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div className="flex items-start gap-4 p-6 rounded-xl bg-neutral-50 border border-neutral-200">
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<div className="flex h-8 w-8 shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-neutral-900 text-white text-sm font-bold">
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7
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</div>
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<div>
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<h3 className="font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Optimize Email Size</h3>
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<p className="text-neutral-700">
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Keep email size under 100KB to avoid soft bounces from size limits. Compress images, minimize code, and
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avoid large attachments (link to downloads instead).
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div className="flex items-start gap-4 p-6 rounded-xl bg-neutral-50 border border-neutral-200">
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||||
<div className="flex h-8 w-8 shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-neutral-900 text-white text-sm font-bold">
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8
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</div>
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<div>
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<h3 className="font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Maintain Consistent Sending</h3>
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<p className="text-neutral-700">
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Send regularly to maintain list freshness. Long gaps between sends (3+ months) increase bounce rates as
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addresses become invalid or subscribers forget about you.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</section>
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||||
{/* Impact on Deliverability */}
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<section id="impact" className="mb-12">
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<h2 className="text-3xl font-bold text-neutral-900 mb-6">How Bounce Rate Affects Deliverability</h2>
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||||
<p className="text-neutral-700 leading-relaxed mb-6">
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Bounce rates directly impact your sender reputation and ability to reach the inbox:
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</p>
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||||
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||||
<div className="space-y-6">
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||||
<div className="rounded-xl border-2 border-red-200 bg-red-50 p-6">
|
||||
<h3 className="text-xl font-semibold text-red-900 mb-3">Damaged Sender Reputation</h3>
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||||
<p className="text-neutral-700">
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||||
Email providers track bounce rates. High rates signal poor list quality and careless email practices,
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||||
damaging your reputation score. This causes more emails—even to valid addresses—to land in spam.
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||||
</p>
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||||
</div>
|
||||
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||||
<div className="rounded-xl border-2 border-amber-200 bg-amber-50 p-6">
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||||
<h3 className="text-xl font-semibold text-amber-900 mb-3">Spam Trap Hits</h3>
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||||
<p className="text-neutral-700">
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Invalid addresses can be recycled as spam traps—addresses used to catch senders with poor list hygiene.
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Sending to spam traps can get you blacklisted, severely impacting deliverability across all recipients.
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||||
</p>
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||||
</div>
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||||
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||||
<div className="rounded-xl border-2 border-blue-200 bg-blue-50 p-6">
|
||||
<h3 className="text-xl font-semibold text-blue-900 mb-3">IP/Domain Blacklisting</h3>
|
||||
<p className="text-neutral-700">
|
||||
Consistently high bounce rates can lead to your sending IP or domain being blacklisted by email providers
|
||||
or third-party blacklist services, making it extremely difficult to deliver emails.
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<div className="rounded-xl border-2 border-purple-200 bg-purple-50 p-6">
|
||||
<h3 className="text-xl font-semibold text-purple-900 mb-3">Reduced Engagement</h3>
|
||||
<p className="text-neutral-700">
|
||||
High bounce rates correlate with low engagement. Email providers notice when large portions of your list
|
||||
aren't valid, reducing trust in your remaining emails.
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<InfoBox type="warning" title="Recovery Takes Time" className="mt-6">
|
||||
<p>
|
||||
Once your sender reputation is damaged by high bounce rates, recovery can take weeks or months of
|
||||
consistently good sending behavior. Prevention is far easier than recovery.
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
</InfoBox>
|
||||
</section>
|
||||
|
||||
{/* Monitoring Bounces */}
|
||||
<section id="monitoring" className="mb-12">
|
||||
<h2 className="text-3xl font-bold text-neutral-900 mb-6">Monitoring & Managing Bounces</h2>
|
||||
|
||||
<div className="grid gap-6 md:grid-cols-2">
|
||||
<div className="rounded-xl border border-neutral-200 bg-white p-6">
|
||||
<h3 className="text-lg font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-3">What to Track</h3>
|
||||
<ul className="space-y-2 text-sm text-neutral-700">
|
||||
<li>• Overall bounce rate (target: <2%)</li>
|
||||
<li>• Hard bounce rate specifically</li>
|
||||
<li>• Soft bounce rate and retry success</li>
|
||||
<li>• Bounce rate by campaign</li>
|
||||
<li>• Bounce rate trends over time</li>
|
||||
<li>• Specific bounce reasons/error codes</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<div className="rounded-xl border border-neutral-200 bg-white p-6">
|
||||
<h3 className="text-lg font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-3">Automated Actions</h3>
|
||||
<ul className="space-y-2 text-sm text-neutral-700">
|
||||
<li>• Auto-remove hard bounces immediately</li>
|
||||
<li>• Retry soft bounces 3-5 times over 72 hours</li>
|
||||
<li>• Remove persistent soft bouncers</li>
|
||||
<li>• Alert when bounce rate exceeds threshold</li>
|
||||
<li>• Weekly bounce rate reports</li>
|
||||
<li>• Validate emails at signup</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</section>
|
||||
|
||||
{/* Related Guides */}
|
||||
<section id="related-guides" className="mb-12">
|
||||
<h2 className="text-3xl font-bold text-neutral-900 mb-6">Related Email Guides</h2>
|
||||
<div className="grid gap-4 md:grid-cols-3">
|
||||
<Link
|
||||
href="/guides/email-deliverability"
|
||||
className="block rounded-xl border border-neutral-200 bg-white p-6 transition hover:border-neutral-300 hover:shadow-lg"
|
||||
>
|
||||
<h3 className="text-lg font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Email Deliverability</h3>
|
||||
<p className="text-sm text-neutral-600">Complete guide to reaching the inbox.</p>
|
||||
</Link>
|
||||
<Link
|
||||
href="/guides/email-sender-reputation"
|
||||
className="block rounded-xl border border-neutral-200 bg-white p-6 transition hover:border-neutral-300 hover:shadow-lg"
|
||||
>
|
||||
<h3 className="text-lg font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Email Sender Reputation</h3>
|
||||
<p className="text-sm text-neutral-600">Build and maintain sender reputation.</p>
|
||||
</Link>
|
||||
<Link
|
||||
href="/guides/email-marketing-best-practices"
|
||||
className="block rounded-xl border border-neutral-200 bg-white p-6 transition hover:border-neutral-300 hover:shadow-lg"
|
||||
>
|
||||
<h3 className="text-lg font-semibold text-neutral-900 mb-2">Email Marketing Best Practices</h3>
|
||||
<p className="text-sm text-neutral-600">Complete email marketing guide.</p>
|
||||
</Link>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</section>
|
||||
</GuideLayout>
|
||||
);
|
||||
}
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user