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How SalesGenie Reduced Email Bounce Rates by 62% with Smarter List Segmentation

4 min read
How SalesGenie Reduced Email Bounce Rates by 62% with Smarter List Segmentation
meetings growth
3x
bounce rate reduction
62%
inbox placement improvement
30%

Executive Summary

SalesGenie, a fast-growing sales tech startup, struggled with high email bounce rates that hurt deliverability and domain reputation. Despite strong targeting, poor list hygiene caused up to 15% of cold emails to bounce—wasting SDR effort and damaging campaign effectiveness.

By introducing smarter list segmentation and automated verification workflows, SalesGenie reduced bounce rates by 62% (from 15% → 5.7%) in just two months, restoring sender reputation and improving cold email performance.

Company Background

SalesGenie provides an all-in-one platform for SMBs to build, manage, and execute outbound campaigns. With a team of 20 SDRs, their growth depended heavily on cold outreach at scale.

But as the company scaled outreach lists into the thousands, bounce rates rose dangerously high, putting their domains at risk of being blacklisted.

The Challenge

Before segmentation, SalesGenie faced:

  1. High bounce rates: 12–15% of emails bounced back.
  2. List quality issues: Old, scraped, or duplicate records inflated lists.
  3. Deliverability risk: Spam filters and poor domain health reduced inbox placement.
  4. Lost productivity: SDRs wasted time chasing dead leads.

The leadership team realized list hygiene wasn’t optional—it was mission-critical.

Objectives

SalesGenie wanted to:

  • Reduce bounce rates below 7% to protect domain reputation.
  • Ensure SDRs only reached out to valid, high-quality prospects.
  • Scale campaigns safely without hurting inbox deliverability.

Approach

The RevOps team implemented a list segmentation and hygiene framework:

1) Automated Email Verification

  • All new contacts passed through a real-time verification API before being added to sequences.
  • Invalid and risky emails (catch-all, disposable, role-based) were flagged or removed.

2) Smarter Segmentation

  • Broke down lists by industry, company size, and persona to improve targeting.
  • Removed generic “info@” and “support@” emails from campaigns.

3) Progressive Warming

  • Introduced domain warming sequences for new email addresses.
  • Sent small, controlled batches of emails daily to protect reputation.

4) Continuous Cleaning

  • Old leads were re-verified every 30 days.
  • SDR dashboards displayed bounce trends in real time.

Implementation Timeline

  • Week 1–2: Integrate verification tools into CRM and outreach platform.
  • Week 3–4: Audit existing lists, purge invalid or risky contacts.
  • Week 5–6: Deploy segmentation filters and train SDRs on new workflows.
  • Week 7–8: Monitor bounce rates, fine-tune filters, and scale outreach volume.

Results

Within two months, SalesGenie achieved:

  • Bounce Rate: 15% → 5.7% (↓ 62%).
  • Deliverability: Inbox placement improved by 30%.
  • SDR Efficiency: Reps saved hours weekly by avoiding dead leads.
  • Meetings: More emails landed in inboxes, boosting reply and booking rates.

What Changed in Practice

  • SDRs trusted that every lead on their list was verified.
  • Campaigns ran smoothly without sudden spikes in bounce rates.
  • Leadership gained confidence in scaling outreach without risking domain blacklisting.

Lessons Learned

  1. Bad data kills good outreach. Even the best copy won’t work if it never lands in inboxes.
  2. Segmentation improves engagement. Targeted lists get better replies than mass blasts.
  3. Continuous verification is key. Data decays quickly—real-time checks prevent issues.
  4. Small fixes have big impact. Lower bounce rates boosted overall campaign performance.

What’s Next

  • Rolling out AI-driven lead scoring to further refine segmentation.
  • Adding intent-based filters to prioritize leads most likely to engage.
  • Expanding deliverability monitoring across all active domains.

Customer Voice

“We didn’t realize how much bad data was holding us back. Once we cleaned our lists and tightened segmentation, the difference was immediate—bounce rates dropped, more emails hit inboxes, and our SDRs finally saw their hard work pay off.” — Head of Growth, SalesGenie

Bottom line: By investing in list hygiene and smarter segmentation, SalesGenie reduced bounce rates by 62%, safeguarded deliverability, and unlocked more effective cold outreach at scale.