Email marketing is the leading way to reach the people who use or are interested in your product or service. In an age of bots, unscrupulous spammers, and fake email addresses, email list validation ensures that you reach real people. It’s crucial if your business is using email marketing, which in almost every case you should. With the right strategies, you’ll reach and connect with real people and not end up in the spam folder!
Email List Validation Separates the Real From the Fake
The email list is one of your company’s best assets. Think about how valuable it is to have a group of people who appreciate what you do enough to invite you to regularly communicate with them. That’s exactly what email marketing is–taking your brand into their homes and into their daily lives.
Your customer’s email address is the best way to communicate with them. People sometimes go days without checking their postal mailbox, but many check their email throughout the day. Care and thought should go into the emails you create, as it’s the most effective way to remind your customers of what you offer.
You must start with something “real” to begin with. It almost goes without saying that the people on your list should be cultivated organically. Give people a means to subscribe to your email list. That means giving the option in your store or place of business or allowing them to sign up on your website or social media platform.
Buying a list is not only against the law, it is almost totally ineffective. It’s a surefire way to tarnish your brand’s image by making you seem untrustworthy.
So why do you need email list validation?
For a variety of reasons, email lists degrade by about 22.5% every year, according to the MarketingSherpa research group.
Why do lists go bad? Well, there are lots of reasons:
- People changing and abandoning their email address
- So-called “abuse” emailers who habitually will sign up for a list then mark you as spam
- Internet Service Providers with good intentions commonly set up spam traps in order to trick malicious senders and flag them as spammers.
You don’t want any of these kinds of addresses on your email list!
The Benefits of Using an Email List Validation Service
Remember that 22.5% decline in quality? It matters not only because you’re not reaching those people, but it’s affecting your ability to reach the healthy email addresses who are receptive to your communications also! Most email marketing softwares and services (sometimes called “blasters”) charge based on the size of your list. If you have tons of invalid, fake, abuse email addresses, you are paying for them. It’s not been unheard of people having big lists with more than half of the contacts being bad. That’s incredible waste, but the ramifications are even greater. Even the valid emails could and likely will be prevented from reading your message. There is something called email sender reputation or sender score, and email hygiene plays an essential role in preserving it. Having low quality email addresses on your list can prevent the newsletter or promotion you painstakingly worked on to end up in the spam folder. Your receptive subscribers? They could forget about you if they don’t hear from you. Email list validation ensures that your hard work, time, and effort reach full potential – making an impact and getting results from real people. It decreases costs and increases profit and productivity. Your email subscription list is not like a commodity you would insure. That’s precisely what email verification is – insurance that your list is protected and maintained.
What to Look for in an Email List Validation Service
The obvious is that you need an email list validator or “cleaner” that determines which addresses are bad and removes them. There are other considerations worth your attention. Let’s talk about each of them.
Accuracy
Accuracy is of paramount importance. You certainly don’t want the harmful email addresses to go undetected. Similarly, you don’t want a verifier that is going to weed out the good, valuable addresses. Remember, reaching real people is the objective. Some kind of guarantee, such as a 98% accuracy rate is a good sign that the verification service is reputable.
A Money-Back Guarantee
Another sign of a reputable service is not unlike most legitimate businesses. There should be some kind of “money-back” guarantee. If the company is a legitimate business, they should offer a refund if you don’t get good results.
An Email List Validation API
Given all maintenance is an ongoing thing, it’s good to look at email list hygiene in the same light. You can use an email list validator and get your list in good shape, but sooner or later some contacts will deteriorate. Some have been using their company email address and they change jobs. Although some people keep the same email for years, other people change their address quite frequently. For this reason, it’s good to choose a service that offers an email validation API. API means Application Programming Interface and it allows your softwares to interact. This handy feature can be installed on your website and when someone signs up to the list the email address can be checked in real time. This allows you to always be reaching real people receptive to your message.
Reliable Support
Good email verification services should have employees who are knowledgeable about email marketing and can be a trusted advisor to your business. But it doesn’t matter how much the company’s staff knows about email list validation, if their hours are limited or you have trouble contacting anyone. The better companies offer 24-hour support and are there to help you along the way.
Extra Features, Such as Email Scoring
Once you’ve cleaned your email list, consider scoring it to understand more about its quality. Some email list validation companies offer this feature, as well. How does it work? Hotels get four or five stars based on different criteria. The health inspector may give an immaculately clean restaurant maximum score. Similarly, an email scoring service analyzes every email address in your database and returns a quality score, such as from 0 to 10. The higher the score, the more likely for that email address to be valid and active. It pays to be choosy. You would want email addresses that have a perfect or near perfect score. Having high standards will protect the value of your list.
Let’s Wrap Up
An email list is the key to the success of almost all businesses. Communicating regularly, at the same time of the week and having a newsletter or promotion that looks professional and visually appealing is important. But using email list validation to keep your list healthy is just as crucial, if not more so. With planning and creativity, email marketing can be a lot of fun and very worth your organization’s attention and time.
email concept -DepositPhotos
