Email has been a trusted communication tool for decades—and the channel has aged quite nicely. With billions of users per day (and still growing), 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 will reach 4.3 billion this year (2023) and continue to push on to around 4.6 billion by 2026. For marketing, sales, and departments everywhere, this means an even wider audience to connect and build relationships with.
A key challenge that many businesses can face is how they collect email (or any form of contact data) in the first place. They often have multiple, siloed databases that have little to no overarching governance around maintaining data quality.
Add to the mix manual data entry by employees or other people (which is prone to error) and there is bound to be incorrect or duplicate email addresses that comprise your CRM/ERP system. Once this filters through to your communications program, this can put you at risk of being an unreputable sender.
According to our research, up to 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, and worse, if you’ve procured your data from an unreliable source, your reduced sender reputation may result in being blacklisted. This is why you need email validation technology.
What is email validation?
Email validation is the process used to confirm the reachability and validity of an email address. It involves a rapid examination that identifies typos and missing structural elements of an email address (such as the @ symbol) that would act to the detriment of deliverability. Additionally, it verifies the association of a particular email address with a trustworthy domain and whether it’s a ‘disposable’ address.
Common use cases for email validation are:
- Cleaning data prior to use in a marketing campaign
- Verifying email addresses at the point of engagement – i.e. newsletter signup, purchasing transaction etc.
- Maintaining an accurate customer database
- Streamline your sales outreach
One point to note is the difference between consumer email data and business email data. Due to the way email validation works, it is far more effective on consumer email data than business email data, due to the latter being ring fenced by private security firewalls.
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.
- The user uploads a list of email addresses they would like to validate and the software runs a spell check on the email list, looking for missing punctuation or extra spaces. Anything that would invalidate the address
- Then, our technology filters out known 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 labelled as an untrustworthy sender.
- Lastly, we check the domains of your email list to make sure they are valid, and the email server is accepting mail.
You can try this out for yourself with our free online email verification tool.
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:
Tip 1 – Verify in real-time the email addresses you collect through online or in-store POS.
Tip 2 – Minimise manual entry and risk of human error with real-time validation technology.
Tip 3 – Clean an existing email list with a bulk cleaning service, also helping to filter out any spam traps that could’ve made their way onto your email list.
Tip 4 – 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.
- Minimise bounce rates.
- Remain a reputable sender.
- Gain a deeper understanding of your customer’s wants and needs.
Talk to the team today about protecting your reputation and hitting more inboxes
If you have been receiving more bounce back emails lately or you’re recognising dwindling open rates, you may be sitting on a pile of inaccurate emails that are hurting your ROI and it is time to make a change.
Email Validation from Experian is a flexible and intuitive solution that helps you collect accurate emails at the point of entry and clean the emails you already hold.
Be confident your emails are reaching the right people. Make sure to validate your emails today with a solution that works best for your organisation.