What is the primary difference between email validation and identifying who to email?

Email validation primarily checks the technical deliverability and format of an email address. Identifying who to email, however, focuses on subscriber engagement and value, using validation as one tool among others to determine a contact's relevance to your campaigns.

How can engagement data help inform my email validation strategy?

Engagement data (opens, clicks, conversions) helps prioritize which segments of your list need validation. For example, highly engaged subscribers likely don't need frequent validation, while inactive segments or those with suspicious activity might benefit from a thorough check before re-engagement efforts.

What are 'phantom clicks' and how do they impact email list strategy?

Phantom clicks are opens or clicks that do not represent genuine human interaction, often caused by security scanners or bots. They can inflate engagement metrics, making an email address seem active when it's not. Strategic validation helps differentiate these from real engagement, preventing wasted sends and potential spam trap hits .

Is it always necessary to use an email validation service for my entire list?

Not necessarily. While beneficial for initial cleanups or purchased lists, a strategic approach might involve validating only specific segments, such as old, inactive contacts, or new sign-ups in real-time. Continuously cleaning your list ensures ongoing deliverability and reputation.

What are strategic considerations for email list validation and alternative approaches to identifying who to email? - Sender reputation - Email deliverability - Knowledge base

When it comes to email list health, many of us instinctively turn to email validation services. The technical process, checking for correct syntax, active mailboxes, and potential spam traps, is relatively straightforward. However, the real challenge often lies in the strategic decision-making: which email addresses truly need to be validated, and how can we best identify who to email without blindly scrubbing our lists?

It's a question of maximizing value while minimizing costs. We might question whether to validate email addresses that have shown a click or two but no further human interaction, such as a purchase or cart abandonment. These could be 'phantom clicks' or simply less engaged subscribers. For the investment in some validation services, a more nuanced strategy before simply removing emails seems like a worthwhile endeavor.

This involves moving beyond a binary valid/invalid assessment to a deeper understanding of subscriber behavior and potential value. It's about finding a balance between strict list hygiene and retaining potentially valuable contacts who might just need a different approach to re-engagement.

The foundations of email validation

Email validation, at its core, is the process of verifying the existence and deliverability of an email address. This typically involves several checks, including syntax validation, domain existence, and mailbox validation, which confirms the email account is active. This process is crucial for maintaining a healthy list and avoiding issues that can negatively impact your sender reputation.

A primary benefit of email validation is reducing your bounce rate, especially hard bounces, which signal invalid or non-existent email addresses. Consistently high bounce rates indicate poor list quality to internet service providers (ISPs), leading to lower inbox placement. By removing these addresses, you protect your sender reputation and ensure your messages reach legitimate inboxes.

Beyond technical validity, validation services also identify risky email addresses, such as spam traps, temporary or disposable addresses, and role-based accounts that may not be suitable for marketing. Understanding these categories is key to a strategic approach to email list hygiene.

Shifting focus: from who to drop to who to email

Rather than solely focusing on identifying and removing invalid addresses, a more strategic perspective involves determining which subscribers are truly valuable and worth engaging. This means using validation as one component of a broader strategy that prioritizes actual engagement over mere deliverability status. For instance, an email address might technically be valid, but if it shows no signs of meaningful interaction, its value to your program is minimal.

This alternative approach involves segmenting your list based on real engagement, such as recent opens, clicks, or conversions, instead of just phantom clicks or low-interaction activity. It helps you identify subscribers who are still salvageable and could still be contributing to your marketing goals. This can involve re-engagement campaigns for inactive segments, aiming to rekindle interest before considering them for removal.

Traditional validation

Goal: Remove invalid and risky emails to reduce bounces.
Focus: Technical deliverability and reducing immediate risks.
Action: Scrub list based on validation status. Refer to this email verification best practices guide for more.

Engagement-based strategy

Goal: Identify valuable, engaged subscribers for targeted communication.
Focus: Audience quality and long-term marketing ROI.
Action: Segment by activity, run re-engagement, then consider validation.

Implementing a balanced validation strategy

A comprehensive strategy involves a multi-layered approach to email list validation and hygiene. It starts at the point of data capture, utilizing real-time validation to prevent bad sign-ups, and extends to periodic cleaning of existing lists. For new contacts, simple syntax checks and domain validation can prevent many common errors at the source.

When to validate

Real-time: At signup forms to block malformed or temporary email addresses. This is a key part of preventing bad signups.
Batch processing: For older, inactive segments before attempting re-engagement campaigns. This focuses your efforts where they're most needed.
Post-engagement decay: If a subscriber hasn't engaged after multiple re-engagement attempts, validate them as a final check before removal.

For existing lists, especially those with inactive subscribers, consider a phased approach. First, try to re-engage them. If they remain unresponsive, then validation becomes a useful tool to clean out hard bounces, spam traps, or addresses with persistent unknown rates. This prevents wasting resources and damaging your reputation by sending to bad addresses. Remember, even obvious typos can sometimes get through initial checks and only later become problematic.

Here's how different types of email addresses might be handled:

Email type	Validation status	Strategic action
Valid, engaged	High deliverability	Continue regular sending.
Valid, inactive	Potentially deliverable, but low engagement.	Run re-engagement campaigns, then validate and consider suppression if no response.
Invalid (hard bounce)	Undeliverable	Immediately remove from lists. These can cause email deliverability issues.
Spam trap	Deliverable, but highly damaging.	Immediate removal and investigation into acquisition source.
Disposable/temporary	Temporarily deliverable	Prevent at signup, remove from lists if detected.

Impact on sender reputation and cost efficiency

Maintaining a clean email list directly translates to a better sender reputation

Gmail and

Yahoo) monitor various metrics, including bounce rates, spam complaints, and engagement. Sending to invalid or disengaged addresses inflates bounce rates and can lead to increased spam complaints, ultimately landing your domain or IP on a blocklist (or blacklist).

While validation services come with a cost, it’s important to view this as an investment in your email program's long-term health. The costs associated with poor deliverability, such as missed conversions, wasted marketing spend, and damage to brand reputation, often far outweigh the expense of validation. By strategically validating, you ensure your resources are directed towards genuine prospects, enhancing the overall return on investment of your email campaigns. For a more detailed guide on costs, see this email list validation tools guide.

Beyond explicit validation tools, integrating engagement metrics into your customer relationship management (CRM) and email service provider (ESP) allows for dynamic segmentation. This proactive approach helps identify subscribers who are falling inactive, enabling targeted re-engagement efforts or systematic removal before they negatively impact your standing. This forms a holistic approach to maintaining a healthy, active list, as discussed in this guide on email list verification.

Views from the trenches

Best practices

Regularly clean inactive segments of your email list.

Prioritize email list hygiene at the point of data capture.

Leverage engagement data to inform your email validation strategy.

Use a combination of real-time and batch validation methods.

Maintain a dynamic suppression list for known bad or typo domains.

Common pitfalls

Blindly scrubbing entire email lists without considering engagement.

Ignoring obvious typos in email addresses that still manage to get through.

Over-validating active subscribers who are already engaging with your content.

Failing to integrate validation insights with broader email marketing strategy.

Underestimating the long-term costs of sending to invalid or risky addresses.

Expert tips

Focus on identifying who to email based on engagement, rather than just who to remove.

Consider the return on investment of validation services as an investment in deliverability.

Use validation tools to re-evaluate inactive segments before attempting re-engagement.

Implement segmentation strategies around real user engagement, not just activity metrics.

Periodically review and update your list cleaning processes based on performance.

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks says that validation primarily focuses on removing non-valid email addresses, and if you are already actively emailing contacts and they are deliverable, the utility of re-validating them might be limited.

2022-09-14 - Email Geeks

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks says that they use validation tools for segments of emails that they have stopped messaging due to inactivity, specifically to identify and opt out addresses that are straight-up invalid to prevent future sends.

2022-09-14 - Email Geeks

Refining your email list strategy

Strategic email list validation moves beyond simple cleaning; it’s about refining your audience to ensure you’re communicating with those most likely to engage. By integrating validation with a deep understanding of subscriber behavior and engagement patterns, you can optimize your deliverability, protect your sender reputation, and ultimately enhance the effectiveness and ROI of your email marketing campaigns.