Marketers go out of their way to create great, original content, placed into appealing email templates, to ultimately get subscribers to click on those CTA (call-to-action) buttons. However, many of us marketers still tend to overlook an essential aspect: the quality of your email list.
Bad data tarnishes your reputation, so keeping it in your list is risky, not to mention it eats up a portion of your prospect database limit. Email list verification is the first step to getting your emails into the recipient’s inbox – a good email verifier uses complex algorithms to detect the bad data in your list.
Bad Email Addresses: 5 Types
Here are five of the risky email addresses an email verifier can detect, and how this helps you stay on top of database hygiene.
1. Invalid Emails
Whether they were invalid to begin with, or they became obsolete over time, these email addresses are bound to bounce. In fact, it’s estimated that around 20% of email addresses in your database become obsolete each year (especially in B2B marketing, where employees move on from the company).
Sending emails to them is not only a waste of time, but it also affects your sender reputation. Weed them out as soon as possible.
2. Remove Abuse Emails
Remember the last time a recipient marked your email as spam? Their email address becomes an abuse email.
Not only does every spam complaint hurt your sender score, but most marketing automation platforms have a low tolerance for spam complaints (Pardot’s threshold is 0.1%, one per every thousand emails). You may end up getting shut out from the tool you’ve invested time in customizing for your operations.
These can be identified by an email list verification service, so you can remove them from your database.
3. Spam Traps
These email addresses don’t even belong to real human beings. ISPs and blacklist providers create them only to attract and block Spam senders. Of course, you’re not a spammer, but you may be taken for one if your emails hit any spam traps. Prune your list periodically to avoid the risk.
4. Temporary Emails
Have you ever created a temporary email just to get a freebie? Well, other people do the same when they’re not looking for a long-term relationship with your brand.
The problem with these emails is that they self-destruct, so you end up with a sure bounce. Email list verification services detect temporary accounts and eliminate them right away.
5. Catch-All Emails
Designed to catch all the emails everyone sends to them, catch-alls are also risky to your email marketing. Organizations set them up to make sure they don’t miss any communication. But some catch-all emails will bounce and taint your sender reputation. Even email list verifiers have a hard time validating them. They detect them easily, but encounter difficulties when trying to establish whether they’re valid or not.
Calculating Bounce Probability
How do you go about putting a number on the chance an email will bounce? What would you look for when assessing a predictive quality score for each contact, if you were to scan your list?
An example scoring framework could look something like this. A score from 0 to 10, where low scores suggest those people are unlikely to engage with your email content. Catch-alls with low scores are, almost always, invalid and will bounce – finally, you would be able to sift through your bucket of catch-alls and make informed decisions on whether to send to these individuals or not.
Of course, there are no guarantees that a score 10 email address will turn out to be a great lead; however, a score is better than a single status. It gives you a lot more feedback on your list quality and helps you target your email campaigns towards the right audience.
Summary: What Can You Expect After Email List Verification?
Cleaning your marketing database is a vital step to your email marketing success, and you’ll soon notice:
- An improvement in your email deliverability and sender reputation.
- Avoid hitting Pardot prospect database limits (which can quickly turn expensive).
- More people will open your emails (as you’ll start reaching their inbox).
- Higher click-through rates.
- A real chance to connect with your audience and boost your conversions.
Similarly, scoring your email list offers you more perspective on your subscribers’ potential interaction with your content. With this information in hand, you can tweak your visuals and copy until you find your sweet spot.