How to Validate Cold Email Leads
Lead databases do their best to keep data fresh, but people change jobs all the time. A lot of the email addresses you export will no longer work.
Emails sent to addresses that don't exist "bounce". A high bounce rate tells mailbox providers you are emailing people you don't know, which damages your domain's reputation. Your emails start going to spam, or your inboxes get blocked.
Always run your list through an email validation service before you send.
Bounce rates to aim for
| Bounce rate | What to do |
|---|---|
| Below 1% | Good. Keep going. |
| 1% to 2% | Check your list source and validate again |
| Above 2% | Pause the campaign and fix your list before sending more |
How much a list shrinks
Expect to lose a lot of leads when you validate. When I first did this, I started with 10,000 leads and was left with 5,200 valid ones after validation. That's normal, and much better than sending to the 4,800 bad ones.
Validation services
| Service | Cost |
|---|---|
| Bulk Email Checker | $9.95 per 10,000 emails, pay as you go |
| Instantly's built-in verification | Uses Instantly credits |
Some guidance when validating:
- Remove addresses marked invalid
- Remove "catch-all" or "unknown" addresses, or send to them in a separate, small campaign, as they bounce more often
- Validate again if a list is more than a month or two old