Email marketing may seem easy, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. Carefully crafting the right content is key, but the job doesn’t end there. From ensuring email templates are mobile and desktop responsive, to segmenting lists, embedding prudent links, A/B testing for better response and open-rates and even scheduling distribution times, the checklist can get daunting.
One of the most common mistakes marketers make during this process is forgetting to validate their list. We get it: you have plenty of balls in the air as an entrepreneur. That’s why we want to make sure you don’t drop one.
Email verification is essential to campaign deliverability and overall performance. If this step is missed, it can lead to a plethora of hard bounces or complaints from customers.
Here are five reasons validating all incoming data is essential—period.
Improve inbox deliverability and engagement rates
You’ve wasted your time, and your campaign, if your emails aren’t reaching inboxes. Your Sender Score, a system used to identify if you are a trusted sender or a spammer, is directly connected to your inbox deliverability. Better data means better performance and a better Sender Score.
Once you verify your email data, you can eliminate accounts that don’t matter. While your list size will be smaller, your engagement rate will increase. You’ll notice you have a better click-through rate (CTR) and open rate if you send emails to customers actively using those addresses.
Related: 3 Essential Email Marketing Trends to Utilize in 2019
Eliminate hard bounces
Hard bounces equal time wasted and lost opportunities. Not only does it impact your Sender Score, but it can also lead to getting blacklisted. Email verification was designed to check accounts and make sure they are real.
Good quality email validation is a real-time check to ensure the username is a registered and active mailbox at the host server. This validation will offer you peace of mind that your email list is safe and real.
Reduce spam complaints
Being tagged as spam is like a death sentence in the email marketing world, as it can damage the deliverability of your campaigns. We often see complaints when users feel they are receiving too many emails, or they don’t understand how to unsubscribe from the mailing list.
The tolerable spam complaint rate is less than 0.1 percent, so consider opting for an email validation tool that helps you identify users who frequently mark email communications as spam. The tool will notify you on which addresses to make outreach to sparingly or not at all.
Avoid high-risk email accounts
Risky email accounts include addresses linked to fraud or chargebacks and can involve known litigators in the email marketing space. Avoid these as much as possible because engaging with these addresses could land you in hot water. Using validation helps you steer clear of many of these rotten apples.
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Dodge spambots
Spambots are another email marketing pitfall because these bots can flood your contact forms with fictitious data. CAPTCHA is often used to dodge bots, but that also annoys users. Accurate data is key at this stage. Beating the bots is simply knowing the difference between a real account and fake data.
When it comes to email marketing, implement these five tips in order to improve your inbox deliverability and overall engagement with users. Doing so will also make your marketing life a little bit easier.
