A Beginner's Guide to Email Validation
How can I validate an email address on my list? Learn the step-by-step email validationⓘ process, different rules and techniques for validation, and what to look for in an email validationⓘ service.
Email validation is the process of verifying that an email address adheres to the correct syntax and is associated with an active, deliverable mailbox.
The most accurate way to check if an email is valid is to use an email validationⓘ tool. A dedicated email validationⓘ service will provide comprehensive verification and validation checks, including syntax checks and SMTP pinging, to ensure successful delivery. It also provides the bandwidth and infrastructure to reliably verify the validity of multiple email addresses or entire lists.
Email marketing is the most cost-effective marketing channel. But you can only earn engagement and revenue if your email list is valid.
Sending emails to fake, invalid email addresses only leads to bounces and missed connections.
Fortunately, you can reach your intended audience without worry with email validationⓘ.
Email validationⓘ is a process used to check if an email address is real, in use, and deliverable. The validation tool checks for valid syntax, a valid domain and username, and that the address is configured to receive incoming emails.
Email validation differs from email verification. However, both terms are commonly used interchangeably as both processes work together to ensure that an email address is deliverable.
An email validation service will often combine both terms under the umbrella of "email validation" as both techniques are required to check if an email is valid.
Without a method to check if an email is valid, your email list will inevitably populate with fake, invalid, expired, and bot-generated email addresses. When you send email campaigns to invalid addresses, your communications don't reach the inbox.
Here are a few reasons why your email list often contains invalid data.
Do you still use the same email address you had years ago?
Email users frequently change their mailboxes for various reasons. Our latest study found that 28% of the average email list decays annually. Here's why:
A once-valid email address can become invalid without warning. Without an email validation tool, your email bounce rate increases, your engagement declines, and your revenue suffers. Your emails stop reaching actual contacts.
Your visitors won't always use their actual email address when signing up on your forms. Thanks to scraping tools, bots, and malicious actors, internet users are increasingly skeptical about sharing their email addresses, particularly their business addresses.
Sites like TempMail allow anyone to create a fake disposable email address. They're valid for fifteen minutes before expiring and becoming invalid.
There are a variety of harmful email addresses that you need to avoid, but spam traps can destroy your business's sender reputation.
Spam prevention services often create spam traps, also known as "honeypots," and feed them into mass email lists to catch spammers in the act. However, it also puts mass senders like you, who aren't using email validation services, at risk of deliverability problems.
If you're a bulk email sender (someone who sends 5,000+ emails per day), you're on the hook by internet service providers (ISPs) to follow certain guidelines.
The key rule regarding email validationⓘ is to maintain an email bounce rateⓘ of 2% or lower.
If you don't know how to check if an email is valid, you'll encounter invalid email addresses, spam traps, and other high-risk emails in a matter of time.
Fortunately, email validationⓘ is made simple by using dedicated email validationⓘ services.
There are various ways to check if an email is valid, but only a few are reliable and safe. Here are some recommendations along with the potential drawbacks.
You can check if an email is valid by using email validationⓘ software in the following three steps:
There are additional email validationⓘ techniques recommended for businesses and bulk email senders: bulk email validationⓘ and real-time email validationⓘ via an API.
Here's how to check your email addresses with those methods.
How to validate emails in bulk
How to validate emails in real-time
To check if an email address is valid in real time on your website forms, complete the following steps:
If you lack programming experience or don't have access to the website backend, you can simplify the process by using a dedicated tool like ZeroBounce's JavaScript Widget. This acts as a "plug-and-play" solution to check if an email address is valid as the visitor enters it into your signup form.
These aren't the only ways to check if an email is valid. There are various techniques and tools available, including dedicated JavaScript libraries and basic regular expression checkers. However, these methods aren't preferred as they suffer from accuracy or volume limitations, and won't provide long-term, reliable results for mass senders.
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There are other ways to check if an email address is valid, but some of these options may have drawbacks you'll want to avoid.
Sending an email to the address is the most direct method of email validationⓘ. If the email is delivered, it's valid. If not, your message will bounce back with a message from your ESP.
Here's the problem: a high bounce rate hurts your sender reputation. While a one-off bounce isn't a big deal, if you're a sales rep or a marketer looking to reach out to a bigger list of emails, you can't afford to bounce so many messages.
Furthermore, manually emailing a large list is time-consuming and impractical.
To check if an email is valid, search the web and qualify the results. For example, if you're looking for an executive at Company A, their email address may appear in search results for their company website or other related URLs.
If you choose this method, investigate when the website was last updated. You might also follow through and look for their LinkedIn profile to verify that they're still at the company.
Overall, this method isn't recommended as there is no way to guarantee that the email address is valid and accurate.
You can check if an email is valid by using a regular expression (RegEx) check on your website forms. An email regex contains a string of permissible characters, compares that to the characters entered by the user, and returns a result.
Email RegEx checks are vital for email validationⓘ and are included in every email validationⓘ tool or software. The issue is that a RegEx check alone doesn't verify that the mailbox actually exists or is configured to receive incoming messages.
While it's recommended to protect your forms with a RegEx checker at a minimum, you're better off using a dedicated email validationⓘ API that provides both RegEx checks alongside additional, more sophisticated validation methods.
Email validationⓘ works by performing a series of checks, including the following:
Accurate and dependable email validationⓘ is a technical process that not only includes these steps but may also include proprietary processes to detect better a wider range of email address types, including "disabled" mailboxes, "toxic domains," and other email addresses that can pose a risk to your deliverability.
You should check if an email is valid any time you add a new contact or address to your email list or CRM. Proactive email validationⓘ helps avoid bounced emails, missed communications, and keeps your database clean and up-to-date.
Here are some additional guidelines and recommendations to help you with email validationⓘ timing:
If you're sending emails from your personal address to friends and family, email validationⓘ isn't a requirement. However, know that emailing an invalid email address will cause the message to bounce.
Anyone involved in business outreach, including marketing, PR, sales, or business development, must check if an email is valid – every time.
In this guide on how to check if an email is valid, remember these critical points:
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