How to manage bounced emails and unsubscribes in AtozEmails

Let’s be honest: email marketing isn’t glamorous, and it’s full of grunt work. If you’re sending campaigns with AtozEmails, you’ll quickly run into bounces and unsubscribes. Ignore them and you’ll tank your deliverability, annoy your audience, and maybe even get blacklisted. Here’s how to stay on top of these headaches, keep your list healthy, and avoid the rookie mistakes most people make.

Why Bounced Emails and Unsubscribes Matter

Bounced emails and unsubscribes are like the dirty laundry of email marketing—nobody loves dealing with them, but skip it and things get ugly fast.

  • Bounced emails mean your message didn’t make it. This could be because the address is wrong, the inbox is full, or a server blocked you.
  • Unsubscribes are people telling you, “Stop emailing me.” It stings, but it’s better than a spam complaint.

If you ignore bounces, you’ll keep sending to bad addresses, which hurts your sender reputation. Too many ignored unsubscribes? You’re begging for complaints and legal trouble. So, let’s fix it.

Step 1: Understand the Types of Bounces

Not all bounces are created equal. AtozEmails categorizes them for you, but here’s what matters:

  • Hard Bounces: Permanent problems. The email address doesn’t exist, is misspelled, or the domain is dead. These will never work.
  • Soft Bounces: Temporary issues. Maybe the inbox is full, the server’s down, or your message was too big. Sometimes these clear up; sometimes they don’t.

Pro tip: Don’t obsess over every soft bounce. If you keep getting them for the same address after a few sends, treat it like a hard bounce and move on.

Step 2: Find Your Bounced Emails in AtozEmails

You can’t fix what you can’t see. Here’s how to find your bounces:

  1. Log in to your AtozEmails dashboard.
  2. Go to the “Campaigns” section and pick a recent campaign.
  3. Click on “Reports” or “Analytics” (the language might shift, but both get you there).
  4. Look for the “Bounces” tab or filter.
  5. You’ll see a list broken down by hard and soft bounces.
  6. Export this list if you want to dig deeper in Excel or Google Sheets.

What to ignore: Don’t waste hours hunting down why every address bounced. Focus on the repeat offenders and big picture trends.

Step 3: Clean Up Hard Bounces

Now for the unglamorous part—removing dead weight.

  1. Export hard bounces from your report.
  2. Remove these addresses from your list. AtozEmails can automate this, but double-check.
  3. Go to your “Subscribers” or “Contacts” section.
  4. Use the search or filter to find these emails.
  5. Bulk delete or mark as “inactive.”
  6. Set up auto-removal for hard bounces if AtozEmails offers it (most modern ESPs do, but check your settings).

Pro tip: Don’t just unsubscribe—delete them. There’s zero value in keeping them around.

Step 4: Monitor and Manage Soft Bounces

Soft bounces are slippery. Here’s how to handle them without turning it into a full-time job:

  • First occurrence: Ignore it. Could be a glitch.
  • Second or third time: Flag them for review.
  • More than three times? Treat like a hard bounce.

AtozEmails usually tracks bounce history per address. Set a periodic reminder (monthly is fine) to check your repeat soft bounces and clear them out.

What doesn’t work: Trying to “fix” soft bounces by resending right away. If it’s a real user, they’ll get your next campaign.

Step 5: Make It Easy to Unsubscribe

Resist the urge to hide your unsubscribe link. It’s not just the law—it’s good practice.

  • Always include a clear unsubscribe link in your emails. AtozEmails templates do this by default. Don’t tinker with it.
  • Don’t guilt-trip unsubscribers (“Are you sure? We’ll miss you…”). It annoys people.
  • Check your unsubscribe process: Send yourself a test email and try unsubscribing. If it’s slow or broken, fix it.

Pro tip: If someone wants out, let them go. Forcing people to stay just leads to spam complaints—which hurt more than unsubscribes.

Step 6: Handle Unsubscribes in AtozEmails

Here’s where people get lazy, and it bites them later.

  1. Check your unsubscribes list after every campaign.
  2. In AtozEmails, this is usually under “Reports” > “Unsubscribes.”
  3. Make sure unsubscribes are being removed automatically.
  4. Most ESPs, including AtozEmails, will stop sending to these addresses.
  5. But if you’re exporting/importing lists manually, double-check you’re not re-adding unsubscribers by accident.
  6. Respect global unsubscribes.
  7. If someone opts out of all your emails, don’t add them back for a “special offer.” That’s a fast track to spam complaints.

What to ignore: Don’t try to win back every unsubscribe. Focus on keeping your active subscribers engaged instead.

Step 7: Keep Your List Clean—For Real

List hygiene is ongoing, not one-and-done.

  • Set a schedule. Review bounces and unsubscribes monthly or after big campaigns.
  • Remove inactive subscribers. If someone hasn’t opened or clicked in 6–12 months, consider dropping them. They’re dead weight for deliverability.
  • Don’t buy or rent lists. Ever. These are bounce magnets and will poison your sender reputation.

Pro tip: The best list is a small, active one. Vanity metrics (huge lists with low engagement) just get you blocked.

Step 8: Watch Your Deliverability Metrics

Bounces and unsubscribes are early warning signs. If you’re seeing spikes:

  • Check your content. Are you sending too often? Is your subject line spammy?
  • Check your list source. Did you import a bunch of new emails? Bad imports mean bad bounces.
  • Check your authentication. Make sure your SPF/DKIM/DMARC are set up. If you don’t know what these mean, ask your IT person or look in AtozEmails’ help docs.

What doesn’t work: Obsessing over a single campaign’s numbers. Look for patterns over time.

Step 9: Automate What You Can

Nobody wants to spend all day sorting lists. AtozEmails has tools for this—use them.

  • Enable automatic bounce and unsubscribe handling in your account settings.
  • Turn on notifications if something’s way off (like a huge spike in bounces).
  • Integrate with your CRM if you use one, so you’re not manually updating contacts.

What to ignore: Fancy “list cleaning” services unless you’ve got a serious spam/bounce problem. Most people just need to stick to the basics.

Step 10: Don’t Overthink It—Iterate

There’s a lot here, but don’t get bogged down. Start with the basics:

  • Remove hard bounces.
  • Respect unsubscribes.
  • Check your list regularly.

If you’re doing those three things, you’re ahead of 90% of senders. You don’t need fancy software or a PhD in deliverability—just some discipline and common sense. Keep it simple, check your numbers, and tweak as you go. That’s how you keep your email program (and your sanity) intact.