Bounce Types Explained: Hard vs Soft, and What They Actually Cost You
A bounced email looks like one lost send. It isn't. Hard vs soft bounces explained in plain English — and why your sender reputation pays for every one of them.
Services
Email infrastructure, handled properly
Fixed-scope audits and rescues when something's broken. Ongoing management when you'd rather never think about it again. Twenty years' experience in both.
Service examples
Defined scope and clear deliverables. Targeted services, starting with a no-obligation conversation.
Email authentication audit
A full review of your SPF, DKIM and DMARC records and sending setup, with a plain-English report of what is broken, what it is costing you, and exactly how to fix it. Typical turnaround: three working days.
Deliverability rescue
Your email goes to spam and you're not sure why. I diagnose the cause — authentication, reputation, list hygiene, content, infrastructure — and fix it. Fix verified with evidence before the job closes.
Authentication implementation
SPF, DKIM and DMARC built correctly from the start, across your sending platforms, with DMARC monitoring until enforcement is safe.
Migrations & platform setup
Moving house — between ESPs or into a self-hosted setup. Segments, templates, automations and authentication carried over and verified.
Marketing automation architecture
Automation flows, drip campaigns and list strategy designed by someone who has run these systems in production for two decades — not just configured them.
Sending infrastructure
Relay setup, reputation management and transactional/marketing stream separation for businesses sending at any volume. The right provider for your volumes and budget, not the default one.
Ongoing management
Some problems are projects. Some are just work that has to keep happening. Ongoing service engagements are billed monthly, scoped to what you actually need, and cancellable with 30 days' notice — the relationship should stay only because it earns its keep.
Managed Mautic hosting
Your own self-hosted marketing automation, on infrastructure I administer. Updates, monitoring, deliverability and authentication maintained — without you running a server.
Monitoring & maintenance
DNS error detection, blacklist monitoring and DMARC report review, with defined response windows. Problems caught before your sender reputation pays for them.
Ongoing consulting
A monthly relationship for businesses whose email is business-critical: advisory, changes, and someone to call when something looks wrong.
Campaign support
Landing pages, campaign sends and setup work for clients on monthly services or recurring engagements.
How I SERVE every client
A defined process, agreed before anything changes — the same discipline for a one-off audit or for ongoing services.
Survey — consultation & investigation
We start with a conversation, then a technical survey of your current setup: DNS, authentication records, sending platforms, list hygiene. No proposals before diagnosis.
Explain — findings in plain English
You receive a clear picture of what's wrong, what it's costing you, and what fixing it involves. Scope and price are agreed before any changes are made.
Remediate — implementation
The agreed work, done properly: authentication records aligned, systems configured, deliverability repaired. Changes documented as they're made.
Verify — proof it works
Tests and reports demonstrating the result — authenticated mail, passing checks, measurable improvement. You see the evidence, not just my word.
Engage — ongoing relationship
Where it makes sense: monitoring, maintenance and defined response windows, so problems are caught before your sender reputation pays for them.
Ready to solve your email problems?
Book your free consultation, or run your own tests first with the diagnostic tools.
From the blog
View all posts »Straightforward guides and updates on authentication, deliverability and overall strategy.
The DMARC Report Reading Checklist: What to Look At First
Aggregate reports arrive as unreadable XML. This is the reading order — which fields matter, which to ignore, and what each finding means for your next move.
The IP Warm-Up Playbook: How to Start Sending Without Burning Your Sender Reputation
New sending infrastructure has no reputation — which receivers treat as suspicious. This is the staged process for building reputation deliberately, and the mistakes that burn it in week one.
List Hygiene for Small Businesses: Why Dead Addresses Are Worse Than No List at All
Bigger list, more sends — that used to be the whole logic of email marketing. It no longer works like that. How to prune a list, when to do it, and why keeping dead addresses hurts you.