CASE STUDY
A bloated, unvalidated database pushed bounce rates to 15% and stalled growth – until Ikon Technologies rebuilt its email strategy with ZeroBounce.
Email was central to Ikon Technologies’ growth, but it couldn’t deliver the results the team expected. The issue wasn’t hard to spot. A large, aging database had never been validated.
Without a process for email list verification, invalid and outdated contacts kept piling up, driving bounce rates higher and slowly damaging sender reputation.
“No prior marketing person had ever validated the integrity of our large email database,” says Christopher Schouten, VP of Marketing at Ikon Technologies. “So we lacked good hygiene, and that produced a high bounce rate.”
With bounce rates at an alarming 15%, the risk was clear. Sending more emails would likely further damage the company’s already fragile email deliverability.
“It prevented us from scaling our email efforts to a larger number of people, because we feared it would ruin our email reputation and deliverability.”
Being gridlocked kept email from becoming a reliable growth channel for Ikon Technologies.
Ikon Technologies provides GPS solutions that help franchise automotive dealers manage inventory, improve efficiency, mitigate risks, prevent theft, and increase profitability.
Founded: 2017
Number of employees: 200
Primary industries served: Automotive
Monthly email volume: 25,000The shift came when Ikon began purchasing lead lists. Bringing in new data raised an important question: how do you make sure those contacts won’t hurt your sender reputation? Without validation, even a few bad addresses can drag down campaign performance.
“When we purchased several lead lists and needed to independently verify their validity before accepting them, we discovered we could integrate directly with HubSpot to ensure the ongoing integrity of our campaigns.”
Christopher Schouten, VP of Marketing, had already used ZeroBounce before, so the decision was easy.
“I found the system easy to work with and cost-effective.”
Instead of relying on manual cleanup, the team at Ikon was simply able to place email validation directly into their HubSpot workflow.
Automating email verification certifies that every new address is checked before it can affect performance. Schouten explains: “The integration automates email quality scoring for us, so we don’t have to think about it.”
Now the team has a firm standard in place for data quality. “We just make sure every email we send to has a high quality score.”
With validation running in the background, email quality stays consistent – without extra effort from the team.
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When you remove bad data, performance follows. Invalid and risky email addresses drag campaigns down – while clean lists lead to better inbox placement, fewer bounces, and fewer spam complaints.
Schouten reports: “We get 98.5%–99.5% deliverability for all our campaigns.”
Better data also strengthens engagement signals and eliminates many of the issues that once held the team back. As Schouten puts it, using ZeroBounce led to “a lower hard-bounce rate and fewer spam complaints.”
The impact wasn’t just technical – it showed up in real business results. With stronger deliverability, email could finally support outreach and revenue efforts.
Before improving data quality, email wasn’t generating results: “Marketing in this company never delivered a single lead to sales before, and now we are delivering 20–30 per week.”
With clean data in place, Ikon Technologies turned email into a channel the entire company could rely on.
Validating emails removed one of the biggest barriers to growth. With bounce rates under control, Ikon Technologies can now scale campaigns safely and consistently.
“We can now scale our campaigns without fear of a high bounce rate impacting our reputation, so we can focus fully on the quality of our content and not on the mechanics of deliverability.”
With data quality handled, the team no longer has to worry about performance risks. Instead, they can focus on stronger messaging – and see the results.
All industries experience turnover, which makes email list decay unavoidable. Email addresses are like bread, not wine.
“We knew our list was dated and problematic, and we sell to an industry that has high turnover, so it’s an ongoing problem.”
Email lists need routine hygiene, and new data should never be added to the infrastructure without verification. That’s why regular bulk email validation is so crucial to long-term performance.
Ikon Technologies understood that using an email validator makes its list more valuable. Schouten commented: "We were happy to get rid of so many bad addresses!"
Schouten doesn’t beat around the bush with his advice to other marketers. Regardless of what industry you’re in, the fundamentals apply.
“Seriously? Validate your email list or you’re going to mess up your deliverability scores. Not even your legitimate customers are going to get your emails – and it will mess up your numbers.”
Christopher Schouten, VP of Marketing, Ikon Technologies
The benefits outweigh the minimal price. “It’s a no-brainer. Clean your lists so you can profit from all the hard work you do on your campaigns and have accurate stats.”
When you take control of your data quality, results follow. Better data leads to better outcomes: stronger deliverability, more confidence in your campaigns, and better ROI.
With ZeroBounce ONE, you can manage your entire email health in one place. From email validation and activity data to warm-up and blacklist monitoring, everything works together to help you protect your sender reputation and get more from every send.
That’s how you reach the inbox – and stay there.
