Checking if email exists or not is the first step in email validation, since a non-existent email is a flaw that does considerable damage to a contact base.
ISPs’ anti-spam filters work tirelessly to find emails that are toxic to both users and themselves.
These toxic emails are costly for ISPs because they consume bandwidth to be directed to a repository created just for them: the spam folder.
In other words, spam takes up unnecessary bandwidth, while that same bandwidth could be filled by the messages that really matter: valid emails.
And this is where check if email exists is important: this action prevents the bounce rate – which is the percentage of bounces – from increasing. And non-existent emails are bounces.
But a non-existent email is not just any bounce. We’re talking about a hard bounce, i.e. a permanent failure that can block an entire campaign, along with its sender IP or domain.
Let’s find out more about bounces and why these failures do so much damage to email marketing investments.
Table of contents
Bounces: get away from them!
Bounce is a failure in email delivery, which can occur for temporary or permanent reasons.
Temporary reasons are those that can be fixed so that the email reaches the inbox.
For example, you send an email that isn’t delivered because the user’s inbox is full. By clearing the box, the message reaches its destination.
Permanent reasons are those that invalidate the email. For this reason, they are considered serious flaws and are highly toxic for providers and email marketing lists. These are the dreaded spams.
And do you know why check if email exists is fundamental?
If you send an email communication campaign with a base containing 3% non-existent (also known as invalid) emails, your entire investment goes down the drain. And you’ll be classified as a spammer.
This is because it is a rule for email providers to block lists containing this percentage of invalid emails.
Only email verification can remove all bounces, guarantee the health of email lists and thus continuously improve delivery and conversion rates.
Try out 100 free credits to see how email validation can boost your email marketing! Each credit is equivalent to verifying one email.
Check if email exists can save your campaigns
Email databases quickly become obsolete. There are several reasons why a contact can become a threat.
For example:
- The user hasn’t opened messages or clicked on anything for at least 3 months. This is an unengaged contact.
- A corporate email changes ownership (the former user moves up or leaves the company). The email becomes non-existent.
- One or more emails on your list become disposable (they only last a few hours or days). Like unengaging and non-existent emails, temporary emails are harassed by anti-spam filters.
- You’ve created a registration form to collect leads, but there are many invalid emails due to typos in the data collected. Avoid this by installing the real-time verification API, which automatically corrects typos.
The validation of bulk emails or registration forms should be done frequently, so that professionals can eliminate risky emails.
Case studies
The case study of Icatu Seguradora illustrates the benefits of checking if email exists.
With an investment of millions being threatened, the company, which was investing heavily in Inbound and using email as a channel to get closer to its customers, began to suffer blocks in the providers’ anti-spam filters.
About to have its domains and IPs sent to international blacklists, Icatu ran the risk of having its communication project completely interrupted because of obsolete contact lists and, consequently, full of bounces.
By validating the bases, the company was able to update its lists and get out of the firing line of spammers’ blacklists.
As a result, the company was able to consolidate its relationship marketing strategies, and its communication investments were successful in achieving their objectives.
In addition, with the installation of the real-time verification API in the registration forms on the website, the company generated new leads, increased its contact lists and thus optimized the project to get closer to customers, which was already underway.
Why check if email exists decreases bounce rate
Checking if email exists is always useful, both for small teams that need to communicate with their leads and for large companies that use email marketing as a campaign channel.
For this reason, email verification is linked to email marketing communication strategies, since removing risky contacts is the service’s priority.
It is important to note that verifying once is not enough, as databases become obsolete very easily.
FAQ
Checking if email exists is an action that detects non-existent emails. This type of email is a hard bounce. In other words, it’s a permanent delivery failure, and a very serious one at that.
Non-existent (also known as invalid) email harms not only mailing lists, which can be blocked by providers, but also the providers themselves, who incur unnecessary costs with emails that need an exclusive repository: the spam box.
A toxic email is one that poses risks to professionals. Unengaging contacts, corporate emails, disposable or temporary addresses and even those from registration forms that have not been validated are considered to be at risk.
Bounce rate is the percentage of bounces, i.e. emails that failed to be delivered for temporary or permanent reasons. This can have a negative influence because a list containing 3% bounces is blocked by email providers and the sender is classified as a spammer.