A bounced email (or simply "bounce") couldn't be delivered and is returned to the sender. In most cases, it contains information from the mail server, saying why the email could not reach its recipient.

There are two kinds of bounced emails: "hard bounce", and "soft bounce". These are appropriately named; in short: if you soft-bounce off a mattress, you can try it again (how cool is that, after all), but that's not the case with bouncing off hard surfaces.

In either case, Woodpecker will assign the status "BOUNCED" to the related prospect automatically, and will not continue sending emails to that address. You can review the information in the bounced email and decide whether to change the prospect's status back to "ACTIVE" in order to retry. If you do so, Woodpecker will resume sending it to that prospect.
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Note that they will receive follow-up emails next. The solution to that is to copy your campaign (use the "Copy" button from the drop-down menu on the right), and then add those prospects to that copied campaign, so that the first email can be resent to them.

Open the Inbox in Woodpecker, then click "BOUNCED" in the categories on the left. Any bounced emails are recorded by Woodpecker, and you can access them right here.

Open the Campaigns menu, then click any campaign that has some bounced emails (take a look at the stats), and open the Prospects tab in that campaign, next click the filter "Status" and select "BOUNCED". Check the related emails in the list by expanding the displayed entries.

You can download and export this list of prospects to a CSV file, by selecting any entries and clicking "Actions" (top-right), then selecting "Export as .csv" from the drop-down menu.

Deliverability - issues with SPAM
Let's say you have checked your campaigns and Inbox and noticed a lot of bounced emails, some of them marked, for example, as "High probability of SPAM". This is the signal that your messages may be landing in the SPAM folder and don't reach your prospects.
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Have a look at our articles to learn how to deal with SPAM issues:

To maximize email deliverability and minimize issues:

"Invalid" refers to an email address that has been verified by the system as – you guessed it – invalid, either because there was a typo in it, or because it doesn't exist, has been deactivated, or otherwise cannot be reached at all (e.g. because it's in a closed network). Proactively verifying email addresses before sending helps to maintain high deliverability rates and avoid issues such as spam flags or high bounce rates. This ensures campaigns reach valid and active recipients, protecting sender reputation and improving overall campaign performance.

Email addresses are checked and verified by the App thanks to our integration with Bouncer before your emails are sent – Woodpecker checks if the recipient is there and can get your email. If this is found to be false, this status is assigned automatically, and no emails are sent to that address.

Woodpecker also includes a free catch-all email verification feature as part of its service. Catch-all domains, which accept emails for all addresses under a domain, are challenging to verify. However, Woodpecker's verification process ensures these domains are handled effectively at no extra cost. If an address is identified as invalid, sending to that contact is stopped to prevent bounces.

Some of these addresses may simply contain a typo, which can be easily corrected by you once spotted. That is why it's a good idea to check prospects with the Invalid status once in a while.

Open the Campaigns menu, then click any campaign that has some invalid addresses (take a look at the stats), and open the Prospects tab in that campaign, next click the filter "Status" and select "INVALID". A list of invalid addresses in that campaign will be displayed.

You can export this list of prospects to a CSV file, by selecting any entries and clicking "Actions" (top-right), then selecting "Export as .csv" from the drop-down menu.