Verifying email addresses  is one of the most important steps in creating a high-performance email marketing database. Without it, you risk sending emails to addresses that are invalid or inactive. This wastes your time and money, while skewing your overall email results.

There are a variety of ways to verify email addresses, including manually pinging them or using an automated tool. However, the best way to verify an email address is to use a verification service that does all the work for you in a quick and reliable manner. These services can identify syntax errors, flag them for deletion and even remove them from your email marketing database if they are deemed to be undeliverable.

Verifying email addresses ensures that you are only sending marketing messages to recipients who want and expect to receive them. This helps you avoid spam complaints and keeps your overall email deliverability rates high. It also helps you focus your cold outreach efforts on contacts who are likely to engage with your brand.

Mastering Email Address Verification: A Comprehensive Guide for Marketers

An email verification process works by analyzing the DNS records of a domain. It checks the MX records specifically, ensuring that the domain is capable of receiving email messages. The email verification process also identifies common typos and misspellings that could be preventing delivery. It will also identify rogue email addresses, which are likely to mark your emails as spam for a variety of reasons.

It’s important to perform regular list hygiene with a reliable email verification tool, particularly if you have a large volume of marketing lists that need to be cleaned regularly. It’s especially essential for enterprise-level senders who collect email addresses in a variety of places, including offline with POS entry in physical locations and events, online at opt-in forms, content downloads, contest entries and user community participation.