Email verification is vital for effective communication.
In 2024, 9.7 billion emails were sent and received daily in the United States alone. Rule #1 of sales is to go where your customers are.
This makes email an essential touchpoint for positive growth and brand association. A database of email addresses can provide your sales team with a steady stream of leads. However, those leads must be accurate. Otherwise, you're in for a headache.
This post will cover email verification, why it matters, and how to do it right. This will ensure that your outbound sales process continues to run smoothly, resulting in more revenue.
What is Email Verification?
But why does it matter so much?
Why is Email Verification Important for Outbound Sales?
Incorporating effective outbound sales tools hinges on the accuracy of your email list. There are plenty of reasons you should verify your email list, but the most important ones are:
- Marketing campaigns: Accurately gauge the number of people on your list to see useful open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates.
- Sender reputation: If your emails bounce, eventually, it will be harder for your messages to land in prospects' inboxes.
- Optimize time: Your outbound sales team only has so much time in the day. Make sure they're spending it on messaging real prospects.
Now that we know why email verification is vital for your sales outreach let's look at how to do it effectively.
1. Syntax and Formatting
The first step in email verification is checking the syntax of an email. An email's syntax refers to the order in which it is created.
For instance, a service providing email verification will check addresses across major email service providers. A Yahoo email address, for example, cannot begin with a number—if it does, it's a dead giveaway that the address is fake.
After syntax, we turn to formatting. Several complex rules determine what email address usernames can and cannot include. This requires running thousands of formulas quickly, which is impossible to do manually in any reasonable amount of time.
2. Server Confirmation
After format and syntax, a proper verification service will then confirm the server. It checks DNS records for the domain names of emails. For example, abc@xyz.com has a domain of xyz.com. The service will ensure that the domain is set up to receive emails in the first place.
Another issue that can cause bounce is having a full inbox. While rare these days, with most providers granting large storage options for free, it does happen. Email verification should include checking inboxes to see if they are full—if they are, it should weed them out.
This is a crucial component. Even if your email only bounces because your recipient has a full inbox on their valid domain name, it will degrade your sender's reputation.
3. Mailbox Validation
Mailbox validation involves contacting an SMTP mailbox server to see if a mailbox exists. If it does, it can receive emails.
An EHLO message will be sent to the email address, and we await a response. The email address is confirmed and classified as active when it receives a response.
This step sometimes happens in seconds, whereas other times, it can take longer, depending on the size of your mailing list and whether they have intricate anti-spam systems in place that delay the process.
4. Duplicate Checks
Having an email address confirmed active and ready to receive emails is all good. But the last thing your outbound sales reps need is for the same prospect to receive multiple copies of the same email.
Firstly, it's annoying, and if it happens too often, it can become a liability. A single duplicate email might not turn away potential customers, but if you're blasting daily or weekly emails, eventually, they could land you in the spam filter. On top of that, it's not a professional look.
This brings up the need to check your database for repeat or duplicate entries.
Looking to improve the effectiveness of your sales email campaigns? Dive into the world of technical email setup for valuable insights and practices.
5. Role Account Checks
As their name suggests, role accounts are addresses that a company uses for a particular role or department. Examples are billing@, admin@, or support@.
Your prospects are real people. While they may be in one department, it still comes down to one or several individuals. For this reason, sending outbound messages to role accounts is not a good idea.
Even if it turns out that your decision-maker largely uses one of these role accounts, the email address can change hands quickly—or even have several people using it. This can confuse or even cause other users to delete emails. So, when verifying, check against role accounts and aim to market only to specific name-based users.
6. Verify Without Sending a Return Email
In many cases, the end user must send a reply to verify their email address is valid. However, using the EHLO process mentioned above can occur without requiring a manual user reply.
Aim to use a verification service that can perform this automatically to avoid more downtime when confirming live addresses.
7. Double Opt-in
When you can't confirm an email address automatically, another method is double opt-in. You should include this in your outbound sales and marketing process anyway because it improves deliverability.
A single opt-in means that a user hands over their email address and agrees to receive an email address from you. An example would be exchanging their email for a free downloadable PDF or subscribing to your newsletter.
However, instead of immediately sending out your sales emails, send a quick confirmation email right away—called a double opt-in. This has a few benefits: you can eliminate fraudulent users who signed up with someone else's email address.
By using a double opt-in, you also ensure that the prospect is truly interested in receiving your sales and marketing materials. They must click on a confirmation link in their email with a unique URL that confirms that the email address has been double opted-in.
If you go this route, keep it simple and inform your recipient exactly what you'd like them to do and why, such as the following template:
8. Use an Email Verification Tool like Mailshake
The final and perhaps most important tip is to use an email verification tool. After all, writing a formal email starts with ensuring it reaches the right person.
A tool like Mailshake offers list cleaning with one click, which includes email verification. And it does it in an automated fashion—meaning you don't need to put important sales reps on the task or hire a third-party expert.
But Mailshake is more than an email verification app; it is a comprehensive sales outreach tool with features like:
- Lead catcher: Get a bird's eye view of your leads. Mark them won or lost, and reply to them right within Mailshake.
- Social outreach: Utilize multitouch outreach to be everywhere your customers are.
- Split testing: Send different emails to prospects to see which leads convert to customers at the highest rate.
- CRM integration: Make sure all of your email data is available from within your favorite CRM to effortlessly track contacts.
- Phone dialer: Make all the cold calls you need with unlimited calling to the U.S. and Canada over VOIP. Record the calls and take notes in real-time.
Boost Sales with Email Verification
Outbound lead generation and sales via email are still among the most effective ways to grow your business. But as with anything, it can present some challenges. If your leads aren't verified, you'll waste time and have inaccurate sales forecasts.
Luckily, the steps above allow you to implement email verification. That way, your team has access to fresh, real leads that they can follow up with and sell to. The result is a more robust sales process that better leverages your team's hard work.
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