Email testing is essential to the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns. Marketers may find areas for improvement and optimize their campaigns for maximum effectiveness by thoroughly testing different aspects of an email, such as subject lines, text, graphics, and calls-to-action. Email testing needs attention to detail and a thorough understanding of email best practices. While it can be difficult at times, properly testing an email can assist guarantee that it is delivered correctly and achieves its intended goal.
This article will explain the importance of testing email addresses before sending and it will simplify the various ways of testing an email address.
Why is it Important to Test an Email Address?
Email testing is important for a variety of reasons:
- Ensuring the deliverability of your message: Emails that are not delivered or land up in spam folders will not be seen by the intended audience, which is crucial for the effectiveness of email marketing initiatives.
- Optimizing your campaign: Marketers can understand what identify most with their audience and make data-driven decisions to optimize their campaigns by testing different aspects of an email, including subject lines, content, and calls-to-action
- Protecting your campaign’s reputation: email testing helps in protecting the sender's reputation and in preventing complaints or unsubscribes from recipients.
How to Test an Email Address?
Manually Testing
Testing an email address manually includes verifying that the email address is valid and able to receive emails, and these are the steps to take to do so:
Step 1: Check for Syntax Errors
Check the email address syntax to ensure that it follows the standard email format, which contains a username, the "@" symbol, and the domain name.
Step 2: Verify the Domain Name
Check the email address's domain name to see if it exists and is genuine. This can be accomplished by doing a DNS (Domain Name System) lookup on the domain name to determine whether it has a valid MX (Mail Exchange) record.
Step 3: Send a Test Email
Send a test email to the email address you want to check that the email is sent from a real email address and that the topic and content of the email are appropriate. If the email bounces, it means the email address is invalid or unable to receive emails.
Step 4: Check For a Response
Check to see if the email address owner responds, confirming that they received the test email. If you do not receive a response within a fair amount of time, it may suggest that the email address is invalid, inactive, or not regularly maintained.
Online Email Validation Tools
What does an online email validation tool do?
Online email validation tools are software programs or web-based applications that verify the validity of an email address. These tools check various aspects of an email address, such as its syntax, domain name, and mailbox, to determine whether it is a valid, deliverable email address.
Email validation tools are helpful for a variety of reasons, such as improving email deliverability rates, reducing bounce rates, and preventing fraudulent or fake email addresses from entering a system.
If you're using an online email validation tool, follow these general steps:
- Step 1: Choose an email validation tool
There are several email validation tools available online such as Bounceless.io, Mailtester.com, Hunter.io… Select one that meets your requirements and budget.
- Step 2: Enter the email address you want to test
- Step 3: Click on the "validate" button
After entering the email address, click on the "validate" or "check" button, depending on the tool you are using.
- Step 4: Review the result
After the email validation tool has analyzed the email address, it will generate a report on its authenticity. This report may contain information such as if the email address is legitimate or invalid, the status of the email address, and whether the email address has been used previously.
- Step 5: Take action
You can take the necessary action according to the results of the email validation test. For example, if the email address is correct, you can send an email to it. If the email address is invalid, you may need to find another way to reach the individual.
Built-in Email Validation Tools
What Do We Mean by “Built-in Email Validation Tools”?
Built-in email validation tools are software features that automatically verify whether an email address entered by a user is valid or not. These tools are commonly found in various applications such as web forms, mobile apps, and desktop software. They use a set of predefined rules to check the syntax and format of the email address and ensure that it conforms to the standards of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
These are some general steps to follow when using:
- Step 1: Get an email validation library or tool
Many programming languages, including JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and PHP, offer built-in email validation facilities. Email validation tools and libraries are also available online for this purpose.
- Step 2: Test the legitimacy of the email address
Use the email validation tool to determine whether the email address is legitimate, in most circumstances, you may accomplish this by supplying the email address to the library's or tool's email validation function or method. The function or method will return a Boolean value indicating whether the email address is valid.
- Step 3: Examination
Examine the outcome of the email validation function or technique. The email address is considered valid if the function or method returns ‘true’. If it returns a ‘false’ result, the email address is considered invalid.
It is optional to perform more checks on the email address, such as determining whether it is a valid domain, a disposable email address, or a known spam email address.
Email Address Ping Test
What is an Email Address Ping Test?
An email address ping test is a method to verify the existence and validity of an email address by checking its response time from the mail server. Essentially, it sends a test message to the email address and checks how long it takes for the server to respond. This method can help determine whether the email address is real and active, or if it's a fake or invalid address.
How to Perform an Email Address Ping Test?
To perform an email address ping test, follow these steps:
- Step 1: Open your command prompt or terminal on your computer.
- Step 2: Type "ping emailaddress.com" (replace "email address" with the actual email address you want to test).
- Step 3: Press enter.
- Step 4: Wait for the test to finish and check the results.
If the email address is valid, you should receive a reply from the mail server with the response time. If not, you will receive an error message indicating that the address is invalid or not found.
SMTP Validation
What is SMTP Validation?
SMTP validation is a method of verifying the existence and validity of an email address by checking with the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server that handles the email address. This method involves sending a test email to the email address and observing the response from the SMTP server. It helps ensure that the email address is real, active, and can receive emails.
How to perform SMTP validation?
To perform SMTP validation, follow these steps:
- Step 1: Connect to the SMTP server for the email address using telnet.
- Step 2: Send a test email to the email address and wait for the response from the SMTP server.
- Step 3: Check the response from the server to determine whether the email address is valid or invalid.
If the email address is valid, the server will accept the email and send a response indicating that the message has been received. If not, you will receive an error message indicating that the email address is invalid or not found.
Conclusion
Overall, email address testing is a critical step in assuring the success of your email marketing efforts. It can aid in improving deliverability, lowering bounce rates, increasing engagement, and avoiding spam complaints, all of which can lead to increased conversions and income for your company. In addition, email address testing also supports data privacy and compliance with various regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the CAN-SPAM Act. By ensuring that your email list only contains opt-in subscribers with valid email addresses, you can avoid potential legal issues and reputational damage that may arise from sending unsolicited or fraudulent emails.