How Validation Can Be Used To Reduce The Number Of Spam Letters

A good email validation software is a vital part of almost every serious email marketer’s arsenal. The secret to any kind of email marketing, whether you’re sending unsolicited emails to live contacts or to those you intend for cold contacts, is, keeping an eye on your open rates. And the quickest way to kill your deliverability rate is to constantly send email to dead email addresses.



But what if there’s no way to tell whether the email address exists? What if, in fact, the email address exists but the user doesn’t know he/she exists? It’s an honest question. And an honest answer is 'it depends'. Let’s discuss some common errors people make with email validation.



First, users frequently over-use the 'check email' function. They may use it to check their deliverability — but then they don’t use the feature to validate the email address. If the email comes from a trustworthy source and the user intends to transact business with them then it would be prudent to let them know the email address exists and validate the sender. But many don’t.



Users also commonly under-use the 'double opt-in' feature. They include an extra set of information in their registration form that enables them to receive two emails from the same person. This is fine, unless the person who wants to subscribe also places a 'subscribe' link on his page. That means the unsubscribe link will be included twice and the email validation service has to double check the details to check the subscribe link is valid and only sent to one user — a double opt-in that breaks the delivery rate.



Many users are also ignorant of the risk level associated with email validation. Most websites to check for validity and quality before allowing users to register and access content on the website. If an email contains bad grammar, improper syntax or missing punctuation then the risk level goes up considerably. Content that isn’t readable and safe for the user’s computer is also going to reduce the overall deliverability rating. Validation should not be used to increase risk; use it to make it easier to determine whether the content passed the test for readability and acceptability or not.



Another area that people often don’t check when they use a web email lookup service is the list of domains that the email lookup service will return results for. This list is not set-up and designed specifically for users; it is simply a list of trusted domains and sub-domains of large businesses. Many users will check email addresses with these large businesses before registering with another smaller site. If an email lookup service returns any domains that are included in the list then it is likely that the user has been targeted by a spammer and spambot. It’s important to validate email addresses that come from known domains and sub-domains to avoid losing subscribers, valuable email addresses and valuable business.



Lastly, users must always remember to validate emails themselves before they even think about hitting the submit button to submit a new email address. By simply inputting in a valid email address, the user has already minimized the risk of being targeted by spam traps. Once the user has ensured that the email address is not one of those that is blacklisted on spam lists then they should check the deliverability and validity of the email address with a popular email verification tool.



As mentioned earlier, email validation can be used to decrease email sender score by verifying that the email addresses are in fact valid. However, there is more to it than just that. Validating email addresses is only one part of the equation in reducing the number of spam messages. Combining that with a good email marketing campaign can effectively get rid of threats to your email identities and deliverability.