Our biggest feature request to our Infusionsoft integration is live. For invalid email addresses, mailfloss can now update contacts with tags inside of Infusionsoft. You’ll see this as one of the options in manual mode here: Or, if manual mode is turned off, it will be one of the available options, seen here: If you […]
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Ever wondered how email verification works? In this short article, we explain the general process, why it matters to your bottom line, how long it takes, and a method to get it done for you automatically.
The post How Email Verification Works appeared first on mailfloss.
If you’ve ever had to work in email marketing, you’ve probably had a headache or two because of email verification (or a lack thereof). We'll explain how email verification works and why it's important to your email marketing.
Email marketing starts off simple: you do your best to get a few hundred people on your mailing list through blog content, lead magnets, and other opt-in goodies, and then you start sending email newsletters using a popular Email Service Provider (ESP). Congratulations, you’re now an email marketer.
But with time, you realize that something is going on… What was once an active and engaged email list is now one that’s on life support. Your emails aren’t getting through, they’re bouncing, and for every hundred subscribers, only ten are receiving your emails. That certainly is the case with 48% of global mail that’s being marked as junk.
What? How? Why? This is because your email deliverability is decreasing. Here’s an article we wrote on email deliverability explained in a way marketers can understand.
An important way to improve your email deliverability is through a process known as email verification, and to help you understand how it can impact the success of your email marketing, we’ve dug in deep. Let’s improve your email deliverability!
Email Verification is the process of verifying an email address is valid and improving the odds that it belongs to a real person. The whole purpose of email verification is to ensure that a real person with a valid email address will receive and interact with the sent email.
Typically, email lists degrade at a rate of 22.5% each year. This means that a huge amount of your mailing list subscribers’ emails won’t be valid after a year.
So what happens when you send an email campaign to a lot of addresses that aren’t valid anymore?
All in all, you’re not making it to the inboxes of your subscribers, and that directly translates to bad ROI.
Since there’s a lot of spam and frauds out there, ISPs are doing their best to protect their consumers from harm. Even though you may have the best intentions, you can still get falsely marked and blacklisted as a spammer.
We’ve written an article on how to authenticate your email address and improving your sender reputation so be sure to check it out and ensure that your emails are reaching your customers.
Email verification is a process of verifying emails involving a series of steps that can help you improve your email deliverability.
The following is the general process on how email verification works, although different verification services have different steps and verification methods.
First, it identifies any issues and possible problems before they’re caught by ISPs or ESPs.
It’s actually just like spellcheck – making sure you haven’t misspelled anything before handing in that paper that’s due in 15 minutes.
Email verification usually involves checking your mailing list for spam traps – email addresses which have been created with the intention of capturing senders who aren’t following proper practices.
If you’ve been buying mailing lists, chances are you’ve got a few of them. But even if you’ve legitimately acquired email addresses, there can be one or two of spam traps on there.
Email verification makes sure that these addresses are removed from your mailing lists. Otherwise, if you send an email to a spam trap, you’ll either be asked to remove that address from your list, or you’ll be blacklisted by ISPs and ESPs.
The next thing that happens with email verification is that the provider checks the format of your emails (formatting & syntax check). This includes scanning your mailing list for missing @ symbols, invalid email addresses, and other things that could result in a hard bounce.
For example, if someone put in this email address: john@john@dd, this is where email verification would catch it.
The next step of the process is domain verification. The service checks the DNS records to make sure that the domain name is correct, and that the domain mail exchange server is able to receive emails.
For example, if someone entered this email address: john@johnski.dd, if there’s no domain registered under johnski.dd, email verification would mark it as not valid at this point.
The final step of the process is individual mailbox validation. For this, email verification services use the SMTP protocol to make sure that the mailbox exists and is able to receive messages.
Let’s use our John for this example, too. Let’s say John made a mistake and instead of writing john@johnski.dd he wrote: jehn@johnski.dd. The email verification would at this step send a signal to verify whether this mailbox is able to receive messages. Once it’s clear it can’t, you’d be notified that the email address is not valid.
Poor John.
If the email verification was performed correctly, congratulations, because you’ve just successfully protected yourself from potential blacklisting and having your email deliverability impaired.
That's essentially how email verification works.
At mailfloss, we do a number of additional checks to remove low engagement and low quality email addresses such as role-based emails, disposable addresses, bounced emails, complainers who mark emails as spam, and so on. In all, we have over 15 checks that we go through to ensure we’re keeping your email lists as clean as possible.
Usually, email verification takes less than a second, and it’s done without sending out a single email (otherwise that would be very bad. Imagine receiving an email saying “Please respond if you are a real person”).
You should get your results right after email verification is complete. You can see which email addresses are hard bounces and should be removed, which are disposable and fake, and which are just straight-up invalid.
You can verify your emails by batch-uploading them to an email verification service, or by connecting an email verification API that checks your email addresses. The second is generally a better choice as you’re able to prevent issues from occurring in real-time, but require a developer and can be costly if you have limited budget and resources dedicated to development.
Batch uploading, on the other hand, doesn’t require development resources but is a pain in the ass in its’ own right. You have to export your email list from your ESP, wait around until the file is ready to download. Download it, then upload it to the email verification service, wait around, and then download the results. Then you need to go back into your ESP and clean out the list based on the results. Shoot me now. Does that sound like fun to you? Get out the paint, paint your desk. Watch it dry.
Or you could try mailfloss. It’s better than both options because it automatically handles the entire process from beginning to end for you. Simply connect your ESP, set your preferences, and let mailfloss handle the rest automatically (you won't need to know how email verification works since it's done for you).
If you want to make sure that you’re getting full email deliverability, make sure you’re also regularly updating and checking your mailing lists, and staying away from shady practices.
That’s what’s going to get you the best return on your email marketing investment.
What is a soft bounce? In email marketing, bounces are kind of a big deal. In this article we'll explain what a soft bounce is, the difference between bounces, how to differentiate the bounce types, and specifically how to deal with bounces. We'll show you some easy ways to prevent bounces from ruining your email marketing efforts as well.
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Having an email list is one of the most important things that you can do for your business, but it’s not as easy as just collecting someone’s email address. Email marketing is actually pretty heavily regulated, and if you aren’t managing your list properly then you could be in for a nasty surprise. So in this article we’ll answer the question: "What is a soft bounce in email marketing?" and what you can do to limit their occurrence.
In email marketing, when mail is undeliverable it’s called a bounce. This is obviously not something that you want happening, because it means that your subscriber isn’t getting your messages, and you lose out on the ability to market to a potentially interested client.
When a bounce occurs though, you’ll be notified. You’ll also receive some helpful information which could help you to determine the cause of the bounce. A bounced email will be returned with the time and date that the message bounced, which mail server turned it away and an RFC code to help you identify the type of bounce.
Every bounced message will return an RFC code, and you’ll need to use this to figure out why your message was not delivered. Here are some examples of RFC codes and what they mean.
If your email has to bounce, then a soft bounce is what you really want to see. When a soft bounce happens you at least know that your address is correct and it made contact with the desired email server. A soft bounce in email marketing typically refers to issues which are temporary, and in many cases, this problem may even work itself out on its own.
Some reasons that you may experience a soft bounce include downtime for the mail server or that your recipient is just not very good at keeping their mailbox empty. In most cases, the RFC code returned for these errors will start with a 4, but there are a couple of outliers, like the mailbox full code listed above which is really a soft bounce issue but coded as a 5 level error.
Most email marketing services will continue to attempt to deliver your message to these addresses for a short period. However, if the bounce continues, then they may upgrade it to a more severe status and put it on a block list which will stop emails for this address permanently.
We talked about how soft bounces are a temporary problem already, but what about hard bounces? A hard bounce is a permanent issue that will not be resolved on its own. This is a bounce which really has no solution other than to delete the address from your list. The cause for these types of bounces could be that the email address you’re trying to send to does not exist or that there was no answer from the host server.
Hard bounces are not a good thing to have, and you should regularly remove them from your list. Email marketing is serious business. Web servers have a low tolerance for what they consider spam. If you continue to send a large number of hard bounce emails to them then they could blacklist future emails from you.
Having a high bounce rate of any kind could be an indication that your list quality is poor. A rule of thumb for your bounce rate is to keep it at around 2%. If it’s any higher than that, then you might have a problem and you should start looking into improving the health of your list.
Sending to addresses which are known to be bad can harm your reputation with service providers. Email marketing is heavily based on whether or not providers think you are sending worthwhile messages, and it’s possible that your sending address could be blacklisted if you don’t play ball. This is obviously not something you want, because it will greatly impact your ability to monetize your list.
To keep providers happy, keep a close eye on your bounce rates. Purge any hard bounce addresses, and practice good email list housekeeping to keep your overall bounce rate low.
Using some good practices when it comes to your email list can avoid many problems. The name of the game is to only have people on your list who really want to be there. So make sure to do the following to keep your list in tip-top shape.
You should be using double opt-in for your list at all times if you want clean email lists. While it can seem like a negative to use this when you can just use single and have their email address in one go, this is bad for quality management. People who double opt-in really want to be on your list.
Managing your list is much easier when things are organized. Almost every provider should allow you to filter your list recipients into categories based on open rates, deliverability, etc. Use this to your advantage to weed out any issues.
Once everything is organized, keep a good reputation with email hosting providers by removing bad addresses so you don’t deliver to them. Get rid of any fake addresses or those which are undeliverable. mailfloss will do this for you automatically.
You might also consider removing people who have never opened your emails in say a six month period. These could be spam catcher addresses, and delivering emails which are never opened can often get you pushed into the spam box because providers like Gmail assume your message isn’t worth displaying. However, if you have a very high number of users not opening your messages, then you should try out better headlines first to improve your open rates.
Managing an email list seems easy at first glance, but if you’re not careful, then there are some things that can really catch you off guard. Unfortunately, there are many traps that businesses who are new to the email marketing game can fall into, and one of the largest is the dreaded spam trap. Here’s how to remove spam traps and keep your email list safe.
The post How to remove spam traps and keep them off your list appeared first on mailfloss.
Managing an email list seems easy at first glance, but if you’re not careful, then there are some things that can really catch you off guard. Unfortunately, there are many traps that businesses who are new to the email marketing game can fall into, and one of the largest is the dreaded spam trap. Here’s how to remove spam traps and keep your email list safe.
A spam trap is a sort of honeypot used by email service providers to catch malicious senders. What they are after is people who are sending unsolicited emails to addresses that they have stolen or purchased in bulk, because these unscrupulous marketers never got permission from the owners of those addresses to send them in the first place.
Unfortunately, even if you’re not doing anything shady, it can be easy to get caught up in these traps as well. This is because many of the triggers for a spam trap include not using good email list practices, and new list owners are often not knowledgeable enough to know why they should be taking these precautions.
Spam traps look like they are real email addresses, but they aren’t used for any communication at all. Their sole purpose is to catch spammers and scammers who are filling up people’s inboxes with junk mail that they never signed up for.
It’s estimated that one in five emails that you send will never reach the inbox of your subscribers. Email marketing is a numbers game based on tons of variables and knobs that can make your campaigns successful when done right, but if those emails never arrive, then none of that matters.
Falling into a spam trap doesn't just throw a wrench into your finely tuned marketing machine, but it could totally destroy everything you’ve built if you’re not careful. If you get caught in a spam trap, then the provider will likely blacklist your address from their servers. This means that all of your emails sent to any addresses they host go straight to the spam folder.
If you get blacklisted from a popular email provider like Gmail, then the consequences could be catastrophic for your business, and once you’re blacklisted there’s no easy way to fight the decision. Email providers and spam compliance agencies have a zero tolerance policy on this and your case likely won’t be reviewed. You might even get banned from your marketing services provider because they have a responsibility to address these issues as well.
There are a few types of spam traps, so let’s go over them.
Pristine or Pure Spam Traps
This trap should not really impact you as long as you’re not doing anything shady, but it is important to bring it up anyway. Email addresses used for spam traps in this category are hidden in web pages. The address is never made public, so the only way to get it is by using scraping software to illegally harvest email addresses in bulk from places like forums.
While sometimes the scammer may send offers to this list themselves, it’s more likely that they will try to sell it to someone who doesn’t know any better. This can get you into a lot of trouble, and you should never purchase an email list from anyone. While it can be tempting to “jump start” your business with an existing list, these shortcuts will only bring you trouble.
Recycled email traps
Most providers have a time limit for email addresses. If you don’t use that address within a specified time frame, then it will be released to save space on their servers. Sometimes though they actually repurpose these emails as spam traps.
They look just like real addresses because they used to be, but they don’t communicate at all. Sending an email to an address like this will result in a hard bounce. If you see any hard bounces at all on your list you should remove them immediately as this is a metric that providers will use to judge your trustworthiness as a sender.
Typo, fake or incorrect domain traps
In many cases, these are not traps but simply users who have not correctly entered their email address. Sometimes though, innocent looking addresses like this can be traps that will trigger a higher spam rating. You should make it a point to delete these if you come across them.
It can be tough to identify spam traps since most of them look like real addresses, but you can easily get rid of them by practicing good mailing list hygiene practices. Spam traps are not actually people, so they do not behave as a subscriber would. That means that the easiest way to keep them off of your list is to make sure that actions are required to sign up or stay on the list.
Use Double opt-in
Double opt-in is the number one way to keep spam traps off your list. A spam trap can’t opt-in. It also stops typos and fake addresses from making their way on to your list, and everyone who runs an email list should be using it to keep their list healthy.
Don’t buy email addresses
This is actually illegal under many jurisdictions, and - for example, the CAN-SPAM act prevents you from selling or buying email lists. In order to send mail to people, you must have gotten permission from them, and that permission is not transferable. Plus, even if it was not illegal, many lists you would buy are junk produced by scrapers which would have little value anyway. It’s also a good way to get yourself blacklisted by email providers, so don’t do it.
Remove inactive users
If you have users who never open your emails you should consider removing them. This increases the chance of your emails being labeled as spam. Plus, even if you collected a now abandoned email the right way when it was active, it could still become a spam trap later! Regularly clean your list using an email verification service to stop these traps in their tracks.
In this punchy, info-packed article, we explain how to verify an email address and why it matters. We also discuss how to properly authenticate your own email address to keep your reputation protected and your email deliverability safe.
The post How to Verify an Email Address appeared first on mailfloss.
Let's show you to how to verify an email address in this punchy, info-packed article. If you’ve ever dabbled in email marketing (or done it professionally), you may know of the grim statistics surrounding email deliverability.
48.16% of global emails are marked as spam and never delivered to the people who are supposed to be bringing you a 4200% ROI. With over 100 billion emails sent each day, 70% of them won’t even reach inboxes because of low sender scores.
So what’s a marketer supposed to do?
You can start by verifying your email address and your subscribers’ email addresses.
It’s one of the best ways to prevent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Email Service Providers (ESPs) from mistaking you for a spam account that wants to bother their users.
If you want to check your subscribers’ email addresses to reduce the risk of hard bounces, you can use an online email verification service such as mailfloss that does everything for you automatically by checking your email lists everyday and removing invalid emails.
Other email verification tools require manual work or, at best, exporting your csv spreadsheets from your email marketing provider and then removing invalid emails from the provider once you’ve received the results back.
You can also use email verification APIs. These require costly developers to implement so may not be an option for some businesses.
If you want to verify your own email address, you may need to set up your SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records.
Adding your email domain to SPF records means verifying which mail servers can send emails from your domain. This is typically used to prevent fake emails.
So let’s say you’re typically sending email from hello@verify.me and you’re using a newsletter service like MailChimp. If the SPF record is properly set up, mail servers will correctly recognize that MailChimp is authorized to send email for you, from the hello@verify.me domain.
Otherwise, these emails may be flagged as spam. And if only 10% of your emails are flagged, 40% of them don’t ever get delivered.
If you want to check if your SPF record is properly set up, you can use tools such as:
Checking your SPF records is especially important if you’re using third-party services to send email.
Every day, almost 100 billion emails get sent across the world. That’s a lot, right?
So imagine ISPs who have to chug all of that content and guess which is real, and which is fake. You may be sending mail from hello@verify.me, but how do they know you’re really who you’re claiming to be?
They may be paranoid, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t spammers trying to trick and scam their customers.
The best way to prevent extreme measures against your account (mistake or no mistake) is by using Domain Keys Identified Mail verification.
In short, DKIM verifies that you, the domain owner of the domain from which emails are sent, have given permission for that email to be sent.
Why is this so important?
Because, in order to put DKIM verification in place, you need to be able to access the DNS records of your domain, which can only be accessed by rightful domain owners.
(This may or may not include a fingerprint scan and blood tests.)
Once added to your records, DKIM will add a unique key to every email you send, identifying you and the email as lawful. Once a mail server receives your email, they’ll verify that this email was sent by you, and that the contents haven’t been intercepted in the meantime.
Adding the DKIM verification protocol to your email is generally a good idea if you’re sending emails for commercial purposes, as ISPs are adding stricter and stricter policies every day in their battle against spam.
This is one of the best ways to identify yourself as a known sender with a good reputation.
And speaking of reputation…
Your sender score is the score that ISPs and ESPs use to decide whether your email should be delivered to their users’ inboxes.
So if you’ve got a low score, maybe none of your emails will go through – even if you’ve got a mailing list with over 10,000 subscribers.
There are a lot of ways to prevent bad sender reputation, and email list hygiene is one of them (we’ll discuss below), but one of the surprising ones is inconsistent email delivery.
In this study by Return Path and published by Marketing Sherpa, it’s clear how send frequency has an impact on your sender reputation.
So let’s say you’re sending three emails a week for over a few months. The ESPs got used to it, and so have your subscribers.
But suddenly – you stop.
You don’t send any emails for a few months, and then you come back with a vengeance. You send three emails a day. Maybe you send more. Maybe the subject lines are full of caps lock and EXCLUSIVE OFFERS that your subscribers hate.
Not only will you get flagged as spam, but you’ll also draw the attention of ISPs and ESPs who’ll blacklist you.
After all, you’re not following your regular sending patterns. Maybe your email address was hijacked.
When it comes to some things, it just pays to be consistent.
But First: Wash Your Hands!
Finally, remember that it’s important to practice good email list hygiene. This means:
These practices already go a long way towards establishing good sender reputation, and they can also help with hard bounces (inactive emails) and soft bounces (mailboxes exceeding capacities).
If you verify and authenticate your email address, as well as your subscribers’ email addresses using a good email verification service, and use best practices to send email, ISPs won’t just leave you alone.
They’ll smile and wave.
