Email validation best practices

Email has been around for decades—and the channel has aged quite nicely. With billions of users per day, email is a great way to connect with consumers on-the-go, at work, and even while watching TV.

According to Statista, the number of daily email users is expected to climb to 4.3 billion by 2023 (2020). For marketing, sales, and departments everywhere, this means an even wider audience to connect and build relationships with.

The challenge that many businesses can face is collecting accurate email data to effectively communicate with prospects and customers. With potentially dozens of databases across a company and manual data entry, there is bound to be incorrect or duplicate email addresses that comprise your CRM/ERP system. This can put you at risk of being an unreputable sender.

According to our research, 50 percent of data inaccuracies are due to human error. Think: Something as simple as a spelling error could be the reason you aren’t reaching contacts within your database.

This is why you need email validation.

What is email validation?

Email address validation helps you send emails to the right (and real) people. When you are equipped with a list of accurate and reliable emails, you will see more deliveries, fewer bounced back emails, and continue to be a reputable sender.

How does email validation work?

Whether you decide to integrate real-time quality control checks or clean your email list in bulk, Experian’s email verification software identifies errors within the format of the email address, and then pings the address to determine if it’s live and active. Ultimately, this ensures that if you send an email to this address, it will reach the right inbox.

Here's how our process works:

1. The software runs a spell check on your email list, looking for missing punctuation or extra spaces.
2. Then, we filter spam traps from your email list. These are email addresses designed to catch businesses who are sending emails without permission. Filtering spam traps from your list allows you to avoid them at all costs and not be labeled as an untrustworthy sender.
3. Lastly, we check the domains of your email list to make sure they are valid, and the email server is accepting mail.

Test this out with our free online email verification tool.

Try it out

Email validation best practices

The goal is to always have trustworthy emails so you can stay engaged with your customers and, ultimately, deliver a seamless customer experience. Here’s how you get there:

Verify in real-time the email addresses you collect through online or in-store POS.
Minimize manual entry and risk of human error with real-time validation technology.
Clean an existing email list with a bulk cleaning service.
Filter out any spam traps that could’ve made their way onto your email list.
Create an ongoing process to always ensure you are sending to valid emails.

The right data quality technology will verify your emails automatically, so you can be confident you are effectively reaching your customers with the right messages. What’s more, you will also be able to:

Track accurate email statistics and analytics.
Increase open rates and engagement.
Improve email marketing ROI.
Improve customer experience.
Minimize bounce rates.
Remain a reputable sender.
Gain a deeper understanding of your customer’s wants and needs.

If you have been receiving more bounce back emails lately or recognizing dwindling open rates, you may be sitting on a pile of inaccurate emails that are hurting your ROI.