Struggling to get your emails into your customers’ inboxes? Learn how email validation helps you boost email deliverability – and why abiding by the law is a must if you want your email marketing to last.
Guest Post written by ZeroBounce
So much of your email marketing success depends on your ability to reach prospects’ inboxes. Email data decay and failure to comply with regulations (like CAN-SPAM) lead to email deliverability challenges – along with significant legal issues. With your campaigns going to spam, there’s little chance to increase engagement metrics and conversions.
Your entire behavior as an email sender influences your deliverability. However, two key areas you need to be aware of are:
- Addressing email data decay and practicing routine email validation
- Complying with strict data privacy laws and industry regulations.
Here’s how to improve your list hygiene and maximize email deliverability through these essential practices.
What is email deliverability?
Email deliverability is the measure of your ability to deliver emails to your subscribers’ inboxes. Several factors determine deliverability, including your sender reputation, email content, and engagement rates.
However, a critical factor is the quality and health of your email list. Sending emails to invalid or inactive addresses increases your bounce rates and harms your sender reputation. That translates into more emails landing in the spam folder instead of going to the inbox.
How email validation works
Email validation is the process of verifying the accuracy and validity of email addresses before sending emails. This practice helps you ensure that your emails are going to real, active addresses.
With popular email providers like Google and Yahoo enforcing stricter sending guidelines, keeping your bounce rate at a minimum is vital to your deliverability. Additionally, email databases degrade at an average yearly pace of 25.74%. Without a proactive approach, it’s hard to keep up with data decay – unless you make email validation a routine practice.
Trustworthy email validation services check several aspects of an email address and the domain it’s associated with. Here are the main steps of email verification:
- Syntax check: This step ensures that the email address is formatted correctly. For example, an address should have the correct placement of the “@” symbol and a valid domain. An email validation tool will detect any incorrect formats and mark that contact as invalid.
- Domain check: This step verifies that the domain of the email address exists and can receive emails. If the domain is invalid or inactive, your email will never reach your subscriber.
- Mailbox check: This step checks if the specific email mailbox exists and is active. Thus, you know that the email address is not only correct and has a valid domain but also belongs to an active user.
Did you know?
Your spam complaint rate affects your inbox placement significantly. To protect your sender reputation and help your emails land in the inbox, keep your spam reports under 0.1% (one complaint per 1,000 emails). Consider a suppression list management tool to ensure you avoid reaching out to subscribers who have unsubscribed from your marketing messages or reported your messages as spam, saving you possible spam reports as well as costly fines.
How email validation boosts deliverability
If it’s been a while since your last email cleaning, you’re probably noticing lower engagement rates. Obsolete data alone can cause your emails to land in the junk folder, so to get them back into the inbox, consider weeding out invalid contacts.
You’ll experience a boost in your email marketing campaigns, specifically:
- A better sender reputation. Spam reports and bounce rates higher than 2% damage your sender reputation, making it harder for your emails to bypass spam filters. Email validation helps maintain a solid sender reputation.
- Higher email deliverability. A more positive sender reputation directly influences how many of your emails reach the inbox.
- Increased engagement. Sending emails to valid and active addresses leads to higher open and click-through rates, ultimately driving better results for your campaigns.
- Cost savings. By removing outdated contacts, you won’t have to pay to store this data in your database and CRM system.
Compliance with email regulations: what you need to know
Email gives your business a direct line of communication with your prospects and customers, but you have to play by the rules. Several laws govern email marketing, and failing to comply can result in penalties and damages to your company’s reputation.
Here are some of the most important regulations your email marketing should comply with:
- CAN-SPAM Act (United States): This law sets rules for commercial email, including requirements for subject lines, opt-out protocols, and an obligation to provide your business physical address, among other guidelines. Senders who don’t comply with these regulations can receive hefty fines of up to $51,744 per email sent in violation. For a full rundown of CAN-SPAM’s main requirements, read The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: A 2024 Overview.
- GDPR (European Union): The General Data Protection Regulation requires businesses to obtain explicit consent from subscribers before sending them marketing emails. This is another reason to never add any addresses to your list without asking for permission.
- CASL (Canada): The Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation also requires businesses to obtain consent before reaching out to people with commercial emails. CASL also mandates that you have an unsubscribe link in every email you send. Not abiding by CASL regulations can result in substantial penalties.
How to ensure email compliance
Making sure your email marketing follows the law isn’t difficult. What’s more, by enforcing data protection and permission marketing, these laws and regulations actually work in your favor. You’ll see better results from your campaigns when you send emails ethically.
Here are some best practices to keep in mind:
- Ask for permission. It’s a privilege to be in someone’s inbox, and every sender should ask for permission and consent. Use double opt-in to confirm your subscribers’ intent and document that they expressed interest in receiving emails from you.
- Honor unsubscribes swiftly. CAN-SPAM requires opt-outs to be honored within 10 business days, and Google and Yahoo now mandate that senders remove unsubscribes from their lists within two days. That implies, of course, that you have an unsubscribe link in all your email marketing emails. If you have trouble handling opt-outs, OPTIZMO’s tools help streamline and automate suppression list management and help you generate unsubscribe links.
- Use a trustworthy email service provider. Choose a platform that complies with email regulations and makes it easy for you to automate list management and data protection. Email deliverability largely depends on your sending habits, but the quality of your email marketing platform also plays an important role.
Validate your email list and follow the law
Spam filters are getting increasingly more difficult to bypass, and even legitimate senders can find their emails caught in spam. To achieve the highest email deliverability rates, remember to clean your database regularly. Also, you can never be too cautious about complying with relevant regulations. By doing so, your email engagement will increase, and you’ll build a stronger connection with your audience.
Need help managing your email compliance and getting your campaigns to the inbox? Reach out to OPTIZMO to talk to an expert.
About the Author
Corina Leslie is the PR Manager at ZeroBounce, an Inc. 5000 email validation, deliverability, and email finding company. She has 17 years of media experience and loves helping entrepreneurs and startups boost their visibility through PR. Connect with Corina on LinkedIn.
