\n| Ambiguous SMTP text, inconsistent codes, or \u201caccess denied\u201d without clarity<\/td>\n | Unknown<\/td>\n | Temporary suppression; route to verification + alternate channel<\/td>\n | Email status = Unknown bounce; Suppressed = Temporary; Notes = paste SMTP message<\/td>\n | If it repeats, treat as suppress + refresh; do not keep \u201ctesting\u201d the address<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n Stop-rules callout note:<\/strong> If a record hard-bounces once, it is suppressed immediately. If a record soft-bounces repeatedly, it is suppressed after your defined retry limit and routed to refresh. No exceptions for \u201chot\u201d candidates\u2014switch channels while you refresh.<\/p>\n<\/span>Step-by-step method<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/span>Step 0: First-hour containment (ops + recruiter coordination)<\/span><\/h3>\n\n- Ops:<\/strong> pause the affected segment\/campaign and export the bounce log with recipient, timestamp, SMTP message, sending mailbox, and source list\/import.<\/li>\n
- Ops:<\/strong> suppress clear hard bounces immediately in the sending tool and mirror the status in the ATS\/CRM.<\/li>\n
- Ops:<\/strong> quarantine the source list\/import that\u2019s driving the spike until it\u2019s verified\/cleaned.<\/li>\n
- Recruiters:<\/strong> keep working the req by switching to phone\/text (where permitted) and to already-verified addresses.<\/li>\n
- Recruiters:<\/strong> log the alternate-channel attempt in the ATS\/CRM so the team doesn\u2019t duplicate outreach.<\/li>\n
- Recruiters:<\/strong> tag the record as \u201cemail bounced\/blocked\u201d (or equivalent) so it stays out of sequences until verified or refreshed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>Step 1: Classify bounces into action buckets<\/span><\/h3>\nDon\u2019t let \u201cbounce\u201d be a single status. You need at least four buckets:<\/p>\n \n- Hard bounce<\/strong> (permanent failure): suppress + refresh required.<\/li>\n
- Soft bounce<\/strong> (temporary failure): retry with limits; then suppress + refresh.<\/li>\n
- Policy\/content reject<\/strong>: pause and fix sending\/auth\/content before resuming.<\/li>\n
- Unknown<\/strong>: suppress temporarily until verified; route to alternate channel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>Step 2: Enforce suppression so it can\u2019t be bypassed<\/span><\/h3>\nSuppression must be enforced in the sending tool and reflected in the system of record. Minimum rules:<\/p>\n \n- Hard bounce<\/strong> \u2192 permanent suppression for that email address.<\/li>\n
- Soft bounce<\/strong> \u2192 retry cap, then suppression + refresh task.<\/li>\n
- Unknown bounce<\/strong> \u2192 temporary suppression until verified.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Also consider temporary domain-level suppression if you see a pattern until you know whether it\u2019s policy, throttling, or a bad segment.<\/p>\n <\/span>Step 3: Gate resends with verification or refresh<\/span><\/h3>\nResending to an address that just bounced is how teams degrade deliverability. Your resend gate should be: \u201cverified since last bounce\u201d or \u201crefreshed to a new address.\u201d This requires manual verification.<\/p>\n Practical verification steps recruiters can execute without guesswork:<\/p>\n \n- Confirm the domain is real and active (typos are common).<\/li>\n
- Check the organization\u2019s public directory or staff page for email format patterns (if available).<\/li>\n
- If you can\u2019t verify, don\u2019t resend\u2014route to refresh and use another channel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>Step 4: Refresh stale records (don\u2019t patch them)<\/span><\/h3>\nRefreshing means replacing stale contact points with current ones, not just trying a second guessed email. Tie refresh to triggers:<\/p>\n \n- Hard bounce on a previously \u201cgood\u201d address<\/li>\n
- Soft bounce beyond your retry window<\/li>\n
- Wrong-person reply (see the SOP below)<\/li>\n
- Role change signals (new employer, new practice site)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For phone outreach while email is being cleaned, Heartbeat supports teams with ranked mobile numbers by answer probability<\/strong> so recruiters spend dials where answers are more likely.<\/p>\n<\/span>Step 5: Monitor mailbox-provider signals (basic Postmaster hygiene)<\/span><\/h3>\nYou don\u2019t need a deliverability engineer to catch obvious problems early. Minimum monitoring:<\/p>\n \n- Set up Google Postmaster Tools<\/strong> for your sending domain(s) and review trends weekly.<\/li>\n
- Track bounce categories by sending mailbox and by list source\/import.<\/li>\n
- Confirm SPF\/DKIM\/DMARC records are present and aligned with your sending domain (coordinate with IT\/security).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Weekly Postmaster review checklist (no guesswork):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Look for sudden changes week-over-week (not day-to-day noise).<\/li>\n
- Compare trends across domains\/mailboxes to isolate whether the issue is one sender or the whole domain.<\/li>\n
- If you paused a segment, confirm signals stabilize before resuming that segment.<\/li>\n
- Document what changed (source quarantined, copy updated, throttling adjusted) so you can attribute improvements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>Weighted Checklist:<\/span><\/h2>\nUse this to decide what to fix first.<\/strong> Score each item 0\u20132 (0 = not true, 1 = somewhat, 2 = clearly true). Fix the highest-impact gaps first.<\/p>\n |
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