Email Verification: 7 Practises for Clean and Engaged Recipient Lists
Over time, email has consistently maintained its status as the preferred channel of communication. Statista said the global email marketing market was valued at 7.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. Yet marketers scratch their heads to get their targeted audience's attention. What should be the reason?
One could not be practising email verification, which gives disappointing results.
No worries! In this blog, you will learn the best ways to practise email verification for your email list. So, you can ensure that your emails get to the right audience at the right time.
Let’s get started!
What is Email Verification?
Email verification is the process of confirming the authenticity and deliverability of email addresses. It ensures that the email addresses are valid, properly formatted, and actively in use. It helps in:
- minimise bounce rates.
- prevent spam-related issues.
- improve overall deliverability by removing invalid or potentially harmful addresses.
Notifly: Manage all your notifications in one place
Seven Best Practises for Email Verification
Email verification is an essential step in maintaining a clean and engaged email list. Here are five best practises for email verification:
1. Use double opt-in
First, make sure to set up a double-opt-in system for new subscribers. This means that when people sign up, they'll get an email with a link. They need to click on that link to confirm their email address.
This helps make sure the email addresses are real and that people really want to get emails from you.
2. Regularly clean your email list
Make it a habit to go through your email list and remove email addresses that aren't active or are bouncing (not delivering).
You can get help from tools like Notifly. This tool not only sends mass emails in the fastest time but also verifies email addresses that are invalid or don't exist anymore.
Doing this will make your reputation as a sender better. As a result, it will also increase the chances that your emails will be delivered successfully.
3. Implement real-time email verification
Next, you can also integrate real-time email verification into your sign-up process. With this feature, you can identify the authenticity of the entered email address.
How does it work?
As the user enters their email addresses, the system can immediately check the validity of the email. This prevents invalid or mistyped email addresses from entering your database in the first place.
4. Check for disposable email addresses
During sign-up, some users use disposable or temporary email addresses. Such email addresses are often only valid for a short time and can result in high bounce rates.
How do you identify this issue? To address this, use email verification tools. This tool will help you recognise and filter out these disposable email addresses.
5. Monitor and analyse email metrics
Another fruitful practise for email verification is regularly monitoring key email metrics, such as bounce rates, open rates, and click-through rates. These metrics will give you insights into your email list.
For example, if you notice a sudden increase in bounce rates, it may indicate issues with your email list quality. In that case, you can analyse these metrics to identify and address any problems.
6. Authenticate Your Emails
Implement authentication protocols, such as:
- DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
- Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance, and
- Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
….to authenticate your emails. Doing this helps stop fake emails and protects you from trickery and scams. For instance, by setting up DKIM, your emails are signed with a cryptographic signature, ensuring that they haven't been tampered with during transit.
7. Use CAPTCHA or human verification:
Incorporate CAPTCHA or other human verification methods. This will prevent automated bots from entering fake or invalid email addresses during sign-up.
For instance, adding a basic CAPTCHA challenge can greatly decrease the likelihood of bots adding false information to your email list.
Tip: Encourage Users to Open Emails
Make people more interested in your emails by creating interesting and personalised subject lines. Put exciting things in your emails, like special deals or cool updates, to make them want to open and read what you sent. Try different things and see what works best for the people you're sending emails to.
By incorporating these best practises into your email verification process, you can maintain a clean and engaged email list. Further, you can improve your deliverability rates and enhance the overall effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.
