What is a valid email?

 Our latest research finds that 72% of organizations state that email is the most relied upon channel to reach and stay in touch with customers today and for years to come, making it the most powerful data communication tool. This better exemplifies how vital trustworthy emails are to an organization and marketing campaign efforts—which brings us to the point of why trusted contact data should be top a priority for all companies, with email data being at the forefront.

There are certain emails that would be considered bad and recommended to stay away from for fraud and phishing purposes: emails from unknown domains and emails that come from unsecured sites. Avoiding these types of emails can help keep your company safe from spammers and hackers.

There are certain emails that would be considered bad and recommended to stay away from for fraud and phishing purposes: personal emails, emails from unknown domains, as well as emails that come from unsecured sites. Avoiding these types of emails can help keep your company safe from spammers and hackers. 

What do valid emails look like?

When considering what your business’s email database looks like, an accurate email must contain the correct format, be deliverable, and have an active recipient that belongs to a domain. Additionally, the email must have correct syntax, email prefix, and an email domain, all in acceptable formats. Healthy and accurate email addresses can assure your organization has a trustworthy email list for campaigns.

For example, John@email.com would be considered a correct email. Here are the characteristics that make this a trustworthy email address:

• The prefix or unique name each email address has within a given email domain’s server (John) and appears to the left of the @ symbol
• The “@” symbol that is before the domain
• A recognizable or trusted domain name (email.com)

Top benefits of accurate email address include:

1. Easy communication with customers and prospects can improve the overall experience with your brand 
   
   
2. Improved brand trust with consumers means a more personalized experience goes a long way 
   
   
3. Higher ROI from your email marketing campaigns means your dollars are spent will and enabling your business growth 

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What do unverified emails look like?

Invalid email addresses are detrimental to a company’s contact database and email campaign attempts. You can identify bad emails by an undeliverable message saying the recipient’s email box may be full, have incorrect syntax, contain typos, or profanity. For example, John.com would be considered incorrect.  

 Red flags that tell you an email address is inaccurate:  

• There is no @ symbol after the name
• Before the domain there’s no prefix
• The prefix or domain is misspelled

Top risks of bad email addresses:

1. Increased bounce-back rates mean your dollars are going to waste and your customers are left hanging.
2. Emails land in a SPAM folder creating more work for your customers to find you—and, again, you’re spending unnecessary dollars.
3. Hit to sender reputation means you are no longer able to reputably send emails.

Why email verification is important

In recent research, we found that 77% of companies believe that investing in better data management tools and practices would better prepare them for the next global crisis. Good news, Experian is here to help. Our email validation and appending technology enables companies to keep their contact data safe, up-to-date, and preserves sender reputation resulting in maximized ROIs in campaign efforts.

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