Email verification works by subjecting email addresses to analysis by algorithms that are able to validate various technical characteristics of these addresses, confirming that they are authentic, valid and able to receive messages, collaborating with best practices in email marketing.

Bearing in mind that the aim of email marketing actions is to establish a good relationship with recipients, leading to conversions and sales, it is of the utmost importance to ensure that all aspects related to email marketing are optimized, guaranteeing the efficiency of these campaigns.

As such, taking care of all aspects involving the reputation of email marketing (such as authentication, content curation, among others), as well as compliance with data protection laws when collecting, storing and processing data, should be a constant concern for marketing and data professionals in companies.

Among these aspects, of course, is email verification. This is extremely important in order to avoid problems related to hard bounces, spamtraps, temporary emails and other types of email addresses that could represent some kind of damage.

When these precautions are neglected, they have a direct impact on the results of email marketing actions, from the quality of data collection, through blocking and blacklisting, to a reduction in engagement and conversion rates. It’s a cascading effect that can’t be ignored.

That’s why we’re going to give you a brief guide to how email verification works and its best practices.

How does email verification work?

Email verification is an analysis methodology that works on the basis of an algorithm that carries out a series of criticisms and checks in sequence, validating various technical and behavioral aspects related to each of the email addresses analyzed.

It’s clear that this is a fairly recurring question in the market, as marketing professionals (and technology professionals too) want to be able to understand exactly how email verification works and how reliable it is.

Key components of email verification

In short, the verification of an e-mail address must go through at least the following steps:

Basic validations:

• Syntax validation: the format rules for email addresses are defined by a series of reference documents (RFCs). If the email format does not comply with the standards, it can already be considered invalid (or subject to correction). This is therefore the first – and essential – step.
• Domain validation: this is a basic validation, which answers the simple question “does this domain exist and is it active?”. If the domain doesn’t exist or doesn’t follow the syntax rules, it also makes the email address invalid and should therefore be removed.
• Validation of MX (Mail Exchange) records: the MX record indicates how e-mail messages should be forwarded according to SMTP. In other words, in addition to existing, a domain must be configured to send and receive e-mail messages. Therefore, even if a domain exists, if it doesn’t pass the MX validation, it will be considered inappropriate and the email address will not be recommended.

Deep validations:

• Identifying the existence of users: at this stage, once all the previous steps have been validated, the email verification tools carry out further analysis to confirm the existence of the email user in a given domain. Here, they can be classified as valid or non-existent.
• Detection of non-recommended emails: some email addresses, even if they are valid, may present some kind of risk due to some of their characteristics, which can be triggers for heuristic anti-spam filters, which identify certain words and technical aspects that can lead to blocks and quarantines. These emails are therefore identified and marked as “risk”.
• Detection of temporary and disposable emails: also known as “burn emails”, this type of address is valid but disposable and becomes invalid in a few minutes, hours or days, so they need to be prevented from being registered or removed from existing lists, as they represent a risk to the reputation of email marketing, increasing hard bounce rates.
• Identifying spamtraps: one of the most dangerous types of email addresses, spamtraps (pristine or recycled) can lead to blocking and blacklisting. It is essential that they are removed and that no messages are sent to them.
• Classifying the type of email: at this stage, with the email already verified, it’s time to classify it as valid and categorize it, for example, as a corporate address, or as an address with low deliverability, among other information, in order to deliver the maximum amount of information to the user.

Ways to perform email verification

Many people think that e-mail verification is only done on contact lists. But that’s not the case. In fact, there are many possibilities.

These are the ways to perform email verification:

• Email list verification via browser: the classic method. Simply upload a file with your mailing list in any quantity to the interface of your email verification platform and wait for the analysis results.
• List verification via integration: for those who have integrated systems and databases and don’t want to carry out exports and imports manually, it is possible to integrate systems and carry out the processes automatically between the platforms.
• Checking one or a few emails: email checking platforms usually allow you to analyze one email or a whole bunch of emails individually, simply using the copy and paste function to see the results on screen.
• Checking emails in real time: for those who want to make the most of lead generation and not waste any opportunities, there are APIs that can be integrated into registration forms and carry out email checks in real time, while visitors are filling in the form and requesting corrections when necessary.

The benefits of email verification for companies

Email verification should be considered a strategic activity by companies, because it directly affects all the indicators of one of the main digital marketing channels: email marketing.

Therefore, when a company invests in email verification in the right way, it will see benefits such as:

• Reducing operating costs: when we handle mailing lists without invalid and duplicate records, we are also reducing costs, for example, with email marketing and CRM tools – which usually charge for stored records. We also reduce the costs of the staff involved in handling these lists.
• Reduced cost per lead: by using real-time email verification in registration forms, visitors are alerted even during registration about any incorrectly entered email addresses, leading to a better use of the leads generated, resulting in a lower cost per lead and optimizing every penny of the budget invested.
• Increased sales conversions: lists that are of superior quality have certain privileges in their delivery. With this, combined with segmentation strategies and good targeting of messages and offers, it is possible to obtain higher conversion results.
• Increased return on investment (ROI): doing the math, with a lower cost for lead generation, lower operating costs and more sales, you get a higher and better return on investment.
• Compliance with data protection regulations: the integrity and accuracy of the personal data (emails) stored are characteristics expected of companies that have a genuine concern for compliance with privacy and data protection laws. These characteristics are described in various documents and should be part of the routine management of customer and prospect databases.

Benefits of email marketing metrics

Other benefits of email verification are directly related to email marketing metrics, of course.

These include:

• Reduced bounce rates: when you check mailing lists, both when collecting and maintaining existing lists, you are free of invalid emails that increase hard bounce rates and lead to blocking and blacklisting.
• Improved sender reputation: mailing lists free of invalid emails, temporary emails, spamtraps, among others, contribute directly to improving the sender’s reputation.
• Improved deliverability: as the sender’s reputation score improves, block rates drop and the delivery of messages to the inbox (inbox placement) improves considerably. In this way, more messages are displayed as “priority” to recipients, rather than in secondary folders such as the spam folder.
• Increase in open rate: delivering more messages to the inbox, to better targeted lists, can also lead to an increase in open rates. All you need is well-targeted messages and an attractive subject line.
• Improved click-through rate: here, the math is simple, because if you have invested in quality, well-segmented and targeted lists, have a well-built reputation and have achieved an increase in open rates, click-through rates will tend to follow the same upward movement.

Email verification: do’s and don’ts

Email verification is more than the act of importing emails into a tool for analysis and removing the bad ones.

In fact, this is just one (very important) part of the process. But understand that there are many more things you can do to make your email lists much more powerful and useful for your email marketing actions.

Here are some of the things you should do and others you should avoid:

To sum up the above, free or low-quality tools can leave your lists susceptible to poor verification and data leaks. That’s why you should prefer professional platforms that are committed to privacy and data protection laws.

Increase the quality and profitability of lead generation by verifying emails in real time at the point of data collection. This way, as well as valid leads, you’ll have as many contacts as possible for your email actions.

Prevent duplicate emails on your lists and carry out regular checks of your email lists, as addresses can be deactivated (especially corporate ones). Ignoring this can lead to increased hard bounce rates. Avoid only revalidating inactive lists.

Last but not least, respect data protection laws: don’t buy mailing lists, don’t collect data indiscriminately on the Internet and make sure that registrations are made on the basis of consent given by the data subjects.

Email verification tools and technologies

Deciding which tools and techniques to use to verify emails and guarantee the best quality in your contact lists is an important step in obtaining all the benefits we mentioned earlier.

So here are some suggestions and precautions for choosing tools and technologies for email verification:

• Abandon registrations in non-digital formats: registrations on forms already have very high rates of invalid registrations due to typing errors. Paper forms are much more prone to errors, both on the part of the person filling them out and on the part of those who have to interpret what is written by hand. Invest in registrations on totems, tablets, QR codes where visitors can use their smartphone themselves. It’s smarter and less prone to errors.
• Criticism of registration forms: invest in validating the form. Check syntax aspects directly on your form, such as invalid or excessive characters.
• Email verification tool: a professional email verification system will remove invalid emails, temporary emails, spamtraps, etc., as well as removing duplicate records. Make a correlation between accuracy, cost-effectiveness and commitment to privacy and data protection laws.
• Real-time email validation: email verification platforms have APIs for real-time verification, i.e. while the visitor is filling in the form. This way, the visitor is alerted to the invalid email and has time to correct it before leaving the page.
• Systems for integrating, storing and processing data: when hiring a CRM and Email Marketing platform, remember that they must also offer mechanisms to prevent duplicate registrations, alert you to invalid registrations, allow segmentation and integration (especially with the email verification platform).
• Data standardization mechanisms: to avoid errors in other fields (such as city names, etc.), try to standardize the data, i.e. use selection fields with previously registered data (such as the list of cities), formatting masks (in the case of telephone numbers, for example), among others. The less prone you are to errors, the higher the overall quality of your contact lists will be.

Finally, remember that your contact lists are the raw material that your marketing and sales team will use to establish contact with potential customers and also customers to strengthen the relationship and promote repurchase.

Conclusion

Email verification is not just a technical step, but an indispensable strategic practice to guarantee the efficiency of email marketing actions.

Correctly implementing verifications helps companies not only to optimize their lists, but also to improve key metrics such as deliverability, open rates and click-through rates, while reducing operating costs and remaining compliant with data protection laws.

Adopting the good practices discussed throughout this article helps create a reliable basis for successful email marketing campaigns, allowing every email sent to reach the right recipient and bring value to the business.

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