It’s astonishing how email marketing routs social media when it comes to clicks. According to Mailbird, you’re 6 times more likely to get a click-through from an email campaign than a tweet.
Email just works so well for businesses. That’s why email verification software is so valuable. It’s the fastest and easiest way to optimize your list and improve your deliverability. Indeed, it’s much faster than trying to manually clean your list. Here are 12 specific benefits that email verification software provides for your email campaign.
1) Spam Trap Removal
Spam traps are a fraud management tool used by ISPs and blacklist providers. They look like a real email address, but they don’t belong to authentic users. Therefore, these accounts theoretically shouldn’t receive email. However, they often do get messages, and some of these messages are from well-meaning email marketers. As a matter of fact, if you’ve ever used a single opt-in mailing list, you’re extremely vulnerable to spam traps. Since spam traps look just like regular email addresses, unearthing them manually is knotty. Email validation software is the surest way to remove them.
2) Complainer Removal
Complainers are difficult to detect, just like spam traps. It takes advanced analytics, list building, and holistic software to identify complainers. In fact, complainers are dangerous. According to MailChimp, double opt-in lists should receive 2 spam complaints per 1,000 people (1 per 1,000 for single opt-in). Otherwise, your ability to use MailChimp may be in jeopardy. That’s a strict bar, and that’s why removing complainers via email validation software is a good idea.
3) Email Deduplication
A lot of email lists play in the big leagues. In other words, it’s not unusual to see tens of thousands of emails on a list. On a list that size, it’s not uncommon to see duplicate emails. Email deduplication is the process of removing all matching emails from a list.
4) Reduced Bounce Rate
Bounced emails are like bounced checks. They’re something your business doesn’t want to see. Sure, after you send a campaign, your ESP will often inform you of the hard bounces on your list. Unfortunately, this warning is a day late and a dollar short. Even one campaign to a list full of hard bounces will downgrade your sender reputation. That’s why email validation is so beneficial for users with an email list they haven’t sent to in a while. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
5) Lower Mailing Costs
A penny saved is a penny earned. Indeed, email verification software will save you a lot more than pennies. Many ESPs, like MailChimp for instance, bill you based on the number of subscribers you have. Weed out the unresponsive subscribers and your bill goes down significantly.
6) Increased Inbox Delivery
Email and snail mail are totally different. Unlike regular mail, a lot of the time, email just doesn’t get there. That’s usually because your sender reputation is damaged because of your past campaigns. The best way to improve it is to increase your open rate and conversions. Email verification software removes the deadweight from your list, which improves your campaigns, which ultimately upgrades your sender score.
7) Helpful Customer Support
One alternative to email verification software is verifying emails through do-it-yourself techniques. This tactic may yield success if you have time, patience, and energy. Still, you’ll never get the helpful support that email verification software companies offer. They’ll assist you via the phone, Skype, or chat, making sure the process goes smoothly.
8) Validate MX Records
Generally speaking, MX records are an all-important indicator of email deliverability. For example, spammers are always scoping out the MX records of a server. They’re looking for the lowest priority domain exchange servers because messages are more likely to hit those inboxes. Similarly, not having a valid MX record often means messages won’t reach that inbox. Email validation software scans MX records, helping you remove unideal candidates (namely people with invalid records) from your list.
9) Syntax Verification
When it comes to emails, missing by an inch is like missing by a mile. If a prospect enters their email incorrectly, then you can’t reach them. End of story. This problem is exacerbated with single opt-in because you think a prospect is seeing your emails when they aren’t. Email validation software erases email with incorrect syntax, cleaning up your list.
10) Undetectable Emails
If Noah Webster were looking for a synonym for detect he might stumble upon words like discover, unearth, reveal, uncover, or unmask. In like manner, people who attempt to validate emails on their own are the target of these verbs. Homegrown email verification software and manual validation checks don’t have the tactic of sending undetectable emails down to a science, so they’re often exposed. And what happens if you’re caught emailing an invalid address? It often means a downgrade to your sender reputation. Conversely, email verification software sends undetectable pings to email addresses, a ping which the ISP’s can’t detect.
11) High Accuracy Rates
There’s no need to over-explain this straightforward point. Email validation software boasts accuracy rates at (or above) the 95th percentile. Replicating that kind of accuracy with homegrown software is a monumentally difficult task. Email validation software is able to achieve these great numbers partly by removing spam traps and complainers. That’s a task that is quite taxing unless you have the proper infrastructure in place. This is why email verification software is so useful. As mentioned earlier, spam traps and complainer email addresses look normal- before and after you send to them. Needless to say, there’s an unpleasant surprise at the end of the tunnel.
12) Precise Email Marketing Data
Neil Patel from Quicksprout asked his readers an interesting question in a recent blog post. He opined, “If you’re not checking the statistics, how do you measure the success of each campaign?” It’s a good question. And it leads into another. If your email list is full of sub-optimal addresses, how can you compare your open and conversion rates to others in your industry? The answer is you can’t. One of the key mantras of statistics is garbage in, garbage out. Your email marketing campaign stats lose scope if your email list is dirty.
2) Complainer Removal
Complainers are difficult to detect, just like spam traps. It takes advanced analytics, list building, and holistic software to identify complainers. In fact, complainers are dangerous. According to MailChimp, double opt-in lists should receive 2 spam complaints per 1,000 people (1 per 1,000 for single opt-in). Otherwise, your ability to use MailChimp may be in jeopardy. That’s a strict bar, and that’s why removing complainers via email validation software is a good idea.
Email Validation Software Is a Simple Way to Enhance Your Sender Reputation
72% of consumers prefer email as their main source of business communication. That’s quite astounding in itself. Consider the other platforms out there: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, direct mail, and many others. Still, email, despite the fact it was invented in 1972, remains wildly popular with consumers.
That means you need to take care of your sender reputation. Email verification software is the fastest, simplest, and most efficient way to do that. Did we miss any benefits of email verification software? Leave your thoughts in the comments.