Bounce Handling

What this skill does

Bounce Handling provides a detailed framework for processing email bounces, managing feedback loops, and maintaining list hygiene through suppression list automation. It covers interpreting SMTP enhanced status codes to distinguish hard versus soft bounces, implements retry strategies with exponential backoff for temporary failures, and outlines patterns for addressing block bounces that often signal reputation or authentication issues. Additionally, it guides setting up complaint feedback loops (FBLs) with major providers and automates suppression actions to preserve sender reputation and deliverability.

Who it's for

This skill is essential for email deliverability specialists, performance marketers managing large-scale campaigns, and agency strategists responsible for client inbox placement. Growth leads running segmentation and re-engagement campaigns benefit by minimizing wasted sends to invalid or unresponsive addresses. Email operations teams handling suppression lists and feedback loop integrations will use this to automate bounce processing and complaint management, reducing manual overhead and mitigating sender reputation risks.

Key workflows

First, practitioners ingest bounce messages as Delivery Status Notifications (DSNs) and parse critical fields like final recipient and enhanced status codes to classify bounce types. Second, hard bounces trigger immediate suppression list updates to remove invalid addresses, while soft bounces enter a retry cycle using exponential backoff with jitter to handle temporary issues like greylisting or mailbox full conditions. Third, complaint feedback loops from providers like Yahoo, Outlook, and Comcast are set up and monitored; complaints result in permanent suppression to prevent future sends. Finally, block bounces indicating blacklisting or authentication failures require investigation of IP/domain reputation and DNS records, followed by operational remediation to restore deliverability.

Common questions

How many retries should be attempted for a soft bounce? Retry up to three times using exponential backoff before suppressing the address. What’s the difference between a hard bounce and a block bounce? Hard bounces are permanent failures like invalid addresses, while block bounces often relate to reputation or policy issues needing immediate investigation. How do complaint feedback loops differ for Gmail? Gmail does not provide individual complaint reports and relies on aggregate data through Postmaster Tools, complicating granular complaint tracking.

How to use in Metaflow

Attach this skill to a Metaflow agent task that processes inbound bounce emails or complaint notifications. Expect automated classification of bounce types, suppression list management, and retry scheduling for soft bounces to run as part of your email operations pipeline. The skill integrates feedback loop data to flag complaints and can alert you to block bounce conditions requiring manual review. This setup ensures continuous list hygiene and reputation monitoring within your Metaflow workflows.

For broader context, see our roundup of claude skills for marketing, and read Claude Code workflows for marketing agencies for related setup guidance.