bounce-recoverylisted

# Bounce and Reputation Recovery Something has gone wrong and the instinct is to keep sending and hope it settles. It won't. Every additional message sent into a reputation problem makes the problem worse, and the recovery longer. **Stop sending first. Diagnose second. Resume slowly third.** In that order, every time. ## Stop Immediately, on the affected domain and every mailbox on it. Not "reduce volume", not "pause the worst campaign". Stop. This is the hardest step to get agreement on because there's usually a pipeline target attached to the sending. The argument that works: the domain is an asset that takes four weeks to build and can be lost in two days, and continuing to send is spending it. ## Diagnose Establish which problem you have, because the recovery differs. | Symptom | Problem | Cause | |---|---|---| | Hard bounces over 3% | List quality | Unverified, stale or purchased addresses | | Complaints over 0.3% | Targeting or consent | Wrong audience, or no opt-out | | Soft bounces rising | Throttling | Provider is deferring you | | Open rate collapsed, no bounces | Spam placement | Reputation or content | | Specific provider only | Provider-level block | That provider's filters | | All providers at once | Domain or IP blocklisting | Check the lists | | Provider suspended the account | Terms violation | Read their notice carefully | **Read the actual bounce messages.** They state the reason and people skip them. ```bash # Group SMTP bounce reasons — the diag