As reported by Oberlo, a study monitoring email user trends since 1993 indicates that the global number of email users is projected to surpass 4.48 billion in 2024. This marks a 3% rise from the previous year and signifies over half of the world's population. With such a vast number of email users worldwide, ensuring the effectiveness of your email communication becomes crucial.
If you’re tired of your emails bouncing back or getting lost in spam folders, you're not alone. Email validation might just be the solution you've been searching for. Keep reading this blog as we dive deep into the world of email validation and uncover its various benefits.
What is email validation?
Email validation is a crucial process that ensures the legitimacy and deliverability of an email address. It uses specialized software tools to analyze lists of email addresses, identifying and removing any invalid or undeliverable ones. This verification can also occur in real time through integration with an email validation API.
The primary objective of email validation is to preemptively detect and rectify any potential issues before they impact email deliverability. With the majority of disposable and fake email addresses, as well as the presence of bots and spam traps, email marketing is fraught with challenges.
With email validation, businesses can safeguard their sender's reputation and avoid the risk of their emails being flagged as spam or bouncing back. Overall, email validation is a proactive measure to ensure that only genuine and active email addresses are included in marketing campaigns and other communication efforts.
Advantages of email validation
-
Improve engagement
When you validate your email list, you ensure that you're sending messages to real people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say. This means you're more likely to get responses to your emails because they're going to the right people who are more likely to engage with your content.
-
Enhance email deliverability
Validating your email addresses helps you avoid sending emails to addresses that don't exist or are inactive. By doing this, you reduce the chances of your emails bouncing back or getting marked as spam by email providers. As a result, more of your emails will successfully reach your recipients' inboxes.
-
Increase conversions
When you're sending emails to a clean and validated list of recipients, you're reaching people who are genuinely interested in your products or services. This increases the likelihood that they'll take action, such as making a purchase or signing up for your newsletter, which ultimately leads to higher conversion rates.
-
Less spam
By removing invalid and inactive email addresses from your list, you reduce the risk of your emails being flagged as spam. Email providers are more likely to trust your emails and deliver them to recipients' inboxes when they come from a sender with a clean list of validated addresses.
-
Reduce bounce rate
Validating email addresses helps reduce bounce rates by eliminating undeliverable emails from your list. This means that fewer emails "bounce back" as undeliverable, leading to a healthier email list and better overall email performance.
-
Less chances of getting your account blacklisted
Sending emails to invalid or inactive addresses can negatively impact your sender reputation and increase the likelihood of your email account getting blacklisted by email service providers. Email validation helps mitigate this risk by ensuring that you only send emails to valid and engaged recipients.
-
Improve email marketing ROI
Validating your email list ensures that you're not wasting resources by sending emails to addresses that won't generate any value. By targeting your emails to a more engaged and active audience, you'll see a higher return on investment (ROI) from your email marketing efforts.
How does email validation work
-
Syntax and Formatting
Email validation starts with checking the syntax and formatting of the email address. This step ensures that the email address follows the correct structure, such as having an "@" symbol separating the local part (before the "@" symbol) and the domain part (after the "@" symbol).
The validator also looks for common errors like missing "@" symbols, spaces, or incorrect characters in the email address. If the email address doesn't meet the basic syntax requirements, it's flagged as invalid. Ensuring proper syntax and formatting is crucial because email servers expect addresses to be correctly structured to deliver messages accurately.
Read more about email address syntax here.
-
Domain Verification
After checking the syntax, the next step is domain verification. This involves verifying that the domain part of the email address (the part after the "@" symbol) corresponds to a valid and active domain on the internet. The validator checks if the domain exists and has functional Domain Name System (DNS) records, which are essential for routing emails.
If the domain doesn't exist or doesn't have proper DNS records, the email address is considered invalid. Verifying the domain helps prevent emails from being sent to non-existent or inactive domains, improving deliverability and reducing the chances of emails bouncing back.
Read more about domain verification here.
-
Mailbox Check
The final step in email validation is checking the existence of the mailbox associated with the email address. This involves communicating with the recipient's mail server to verify if the mailbox exists and can receive emails. If the mailbox is found to be valid and active, the email address is confirmed as legitimate.
However, if the mailbox doesn't exist or is inactive, the email address is flagged as invalid. Verifying the mailbox helps ensure that emails are sent to real recipients who are capable of receiving them, enhancing deliverability and reducing the likelihood of emails being marked as spam.
Learn how to check if an email is valid here.
-
Using SMTP testing tools
An SMTP testing tool detects potential email security issues within your server that could hinder your email delivery. It assesses the operational status of your outgoing email server and alerts you to any identified issues, such as connectivity problems, along with recommendations for resolution.
While telnet remains a conventional method for checking server status, its functionality is limited, notably lacking encryption. Therefore, users seek out more advanced testing solutions.
Here are 10 best SMTP testing tools.
How do you validate your email?
To ensure your email addresses are valid, you can rely on email validation tools. These tools fall into two main categories:
- APIs: These tools allow you to connect your email program directly to a database for email verification.
- Manual validation tools: These tools let you upload your email list through a self-service portal to check against an email validation database.
Both methods validate email addresses instantly. However, with manual tools, you need to export your list to a file like .csv or Excel before uploading. This process, often called "email list cleaning," usually takes a few minutes, but can take longer for larger lists.
Regardless of how you upload your list, email verification services use the same method to check emails. This ensures accuracy and reliability in the verification process.
Should you validate your emails?
Email validation is a simple, quick, and affordable task with many advantages. It should be given high importance right away due to its simplicity. Incorporating this procedure into your daily routine can prevent major problems in advance, such as spam reports or blacklisting, and ultimately spare you a great deal of hassle.