What is email validation and why is it important?

Email is still one of the most preferred and effective communication channels, with most people checking their emails daily. Worryingly, only 10% of email addresses collected are accurate, this bad data is mostly due to human error. Real customers start with real emails - and the use of email validation is still the most effective way to ensure the collection of quality data. When you verify email addresses your email marketing is more effective, fraud prevention is improved and the ability to protect your sender reputation increases.

Email validation - did you know..?

According to Convince and Convert, consumers who purchase products through email spend 138% more than those that don’t receive email offers. Also, in a recent Loqate consumer survey, we found that over 70% of global consumers check their email more than once a day.

Research from Campaign Monitor shows that 41% of emails are opened on a mobile device. And 23% of readers who open an email on a mobile device open it again later.

McKinsey state that email is almost 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined in helping your business acquire new customers, and according to Direct Marketing Association, Email marketing has ROI of around 4, 300%, and, of course, saves trees.

Why email data quality is vital

Marketing Week state that 60% of consumers intentionally provide incorrect information when submitting their personal details online, and a further 10% of emails addresses entered into checkouts, sign up forms and internal systems are invalid.

10% of email addresses entered into checkouts, sign up forms and internal systems are invalid. If the email addresses are entered via a mobile device then that figure dramatically increases.

3 reasons why you should verify your email addresses

Eliminate hard bounces

Hard bounces mostly occur because the email address no longer exists, was a fictitious email address, or was closed by the user.

Reduces Spam Complaints

Best practice dictates that for every 5, 000 email messages sent out you should receive less than five spam complaints.

Blacklists

Getting blacklisted stops your messages (including vital transactional emails) from getting accepted by the server.

How to keep your email address data clean

Data quality is your number one rule

Clean your email address lists regularly using a batch email validation tool will identify old or incorrect email addresses and remove them before your next campaign. With real-time email address verification you can validate each newly acquired email address to prevent typos and fake accounts from creating additional unwanted hard bounces.

Review your data base regularly

Review and remove unengaged subscribers. Uninterested users can create problems - if a user has not opened any of your emails in the past three months remove them from your list to reduce the risk of spam complaints and hard bounces.

Find out more about email validation from Loqate.