The quality of an email database is one of the most important factors in successful email marketing campaigns. Email validation identifies invalid, fake, and dead email addresses so you can only send to real people – this ensures higher engagement rates and improved ROI.

When you use a on-premise email verification and reliable email validation tool or service, it can be easy to keep your contact list clean. However, if you have an older database that hasn’t been validated in awhile, it is likely time for a deep clean. Here’s why:

Invalid and risky emails are expensive to send to and damage your reputation. It’s important to periodically clean your database of these addresses to avoid wasting resources and damaging your long-term deliverability.

How Email Risk Scoring Services Protect Your Sender Reputation

Using a database cleansing tool like Blackbaud’s Email Verification, is an effective way to remove old and inaccurate data. The service checks existing email addresses in your database against a group of national consumer databases, identifying whether the address is valid and in use. Blackbaud’s Email Verification also corrects syntax errors to improve the integrity of the email address. Blackbaud’s Email Verification is easily incorporated into your Raiser’s Edge database by importing it in to the Comments section for each Phone Import ID submitted.

It’s important to run email verification against your entire database on a regular basis, especially if you have switched from single opt-in to double opt-in. This helps keep your email reputation high and ensures that the majority of your emails end up in the inbox rather than the spam folder.