You’ve invested in an email marketing tool. You spent more money to build an email list and launch a robust email marketing campaign.
You even hired an email copywriter to create crispy email copy and email templates for the future.
You’ve done everything right.
So you pat yourself on the back because you’re sure people will buy your product.
Just then, you’re hit with an unexpected turn of events. Most of your emails keep bouncing. Your email deliverability is at its low.
A deeper look, and you realize the emails you were using weren’t valid. You’ve spent a fortune to get here. But it’s all going to waste in front of your eyes.
If you want to avoid such a horrendous experience, this guide will show you the simplest thing you can do to improve your email deliverability.
What is Email Verification and Cleaning?
29% of marketing professionals say that improving deliverability is their biggest challenge in email marketing strategy.
Many factors might contribute to this, but the most prevalent is invalid email addresses. That’s where email verification comes in.
It’s an efficient way to ensure valid and accurate emails before starting your email marketing campaign.
On the other hand, email cleaning removes incorrect emails from your already existing list that you’ve been using for a while.
For example, since email lists decline by 20%-30% each year, you might have 2000 inaccurate email addresses if you have a list of 10,000 subscribers.
Either way, cleaning and verifying your emails has a lot of benefits.
- Help generate more leads as it guarantees a high deliverability rate.
- Reduce bounce rates hence improving your sender’s reputation. Gmail is happy, you’re happy, everyone’s happy.
- Since everyone on your list receives emails, you can personalize emails to customers who’ve shown more interest in your product. It’s completely worth it, as one study shows that email personalization can increase conversion rates by 123% and revenue per email campaign by 141%.
- Your email list remains fresh, healthy, and up-to-date.
How to Verify Your Emails
There are multiple ways of verifying emails.
It goes from simply checking an email address to using sophisticated email verification tools. We’ll look at the most popular methods in this section.
Syntax check:
This is simply checking if an email address is spelled correctly. All emails follow the same format of [email protected].
The email address shouldn’t have spaces or commas between the format. Plus, you can check for irregular capitalizations or if the address has more numbers than required.
However, this type of email verification is laborious, especially when you have a huge list. And it will cost you a lot of money when you hire a V.A for the task.
Make a DNS lookup
DNS lookup simply monitors the DNS checks the legitimacy of a domain. This means that it will also flag down spammy and blacklisted data related to the domain.
First, open MXToolbox DNS Check to perform a DNS lookup, type the domain name on the search box and run it.
The search spits back a list of hostname and details of the DNS records. If it doesn’t give back any details, the domain is available.
Using Email Verification Tools
This is the most straightforward and most efficient method of verifying emails. You don’t need technical skills. You just need an email verification tool and your email list.
The tools work by doing all the above steps in a flash. These include syntax checks, domain checks, and technical processes like email ping.
In simple terms, the tools verify if the connection to the mail server owning an email address can be adequately established If the email still exists and doesn’t appear to be a catch-all.
The best part? The tools offer bulk verification features which enable you to check hundreds of emails at once.
How to Clean Your Emails
Cleaning your email list is less intensive as you’re only removing emails from your existing email list.
Here are a few tips to keep your email hygiene intact.
- Use Double opt-in
Double opt-in allows your users to confirm their email when subscribing to your list.
Typically, you’ll send your page visitors an email with a link. Clicking on the link confirms that they’re aware that you’re adding them to an email list.
It gives you the green light to keep sending them nurturing emails. Plus, it shows that the email they have given you doesn’t have typos or syntax errors.
- Check Open Rate
You feel good when you have a list of 20,000 subscribers. But it doesn’t change anything if only a tiny percentage of that number opens your emails.
GetResponse analyzed 7 billion emails and found that the average open rate for email across all industries is 19.66%.
That itself doesn’t sound good. So it’s even worse if your list is loaded with people who aren’t your tribe.
That said, use your email marketing tool to check your active email readers. Remove subscribers who don’t read your emails.
It’s better to have a thousand active subscribers on your list than a million people who’ve never even read your welcome email.
- Check Bounced Addresses
Email bounces hurt your sender score. Therefore, get rid of people who have blocked you or use invalid email addresses.
But before you do that, first note that some emails bounce due to server blockage.
For example, your emails might fail to be delivered due to temporary reasons like the server being too busy. In such a scenario, stop sending emails to the recipients until the issue is solved.
- Allow them to leave
Getting an unsubscription notification hurts, but sometimes it’s good for you.
Don’t make unsubscribing a puzzle that your audience has to solve. Making it technical is unethical and might tarnish your reputation.
The button should be easy to find and a one-step process. It shows that you respect your subscriber’s opinion.
Conclusion
Email cleaning and verification should be a routine practice to keep your deliverability rate high. It’s not always getting new people to your list.
Sometimes a little cleaning helps you remain with your true tribe who supports your goal, agrees with your mission, and is ready to buy your product.
About the author
David Campbell is a digital marketing specialist at Ramp Ventures. He helps manage the content marketing team at Right Inbox. When he’s not working, he enjoys traveling and trying to learn Spanish.
