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Why do they Call Email List Cleaning Instead of Email Aggregation?

Business , July 10, 2018

Email list cleaning sounds spammy and the term really needs to be changed in this industry. Since most email marketers are using large scale ESP’s now to mail to their opens and clicks, every email marketer needs an email list cleaner free from the slander. I propose we change the phrases “Email List Cleaning” or “Email Hygiene” to “Email Aggregation”.

Why not? I have coined many phrases in this industry. In example, what people used to call screamers and complainers, now they are called “Protestors”. And what was called “Traps” have now been changed to “Advisories” and “Sleeper Cells”. Why not remove the cleaning element out all together and just call it email aggregation?

Email marketing is getting more expensive and the spam fighters will not let go of the bone. The best email list cleaner free from slander will be the one who changes the way we do business. By changing industry terms to more friendly and non-aggressiveways, the better we stay in this industry. There is no need for ego, greed and lack of empathy here, If email marketing is still a low cost way to spread the word, then we as the advertisers need to be better as people.

Email aggregation sounds better. It says we are taking large files and manipulating it. That is exactly what we do. We take large databases and match/remove bad information. We also clean up and remove syntax errors and characters that do not belong in email. eHygienics, our flagship product can aggregate 10 million emails an hour. Now THAT is impressive. 9 GB of data being queried within milliseconds. Why on Earth would we use terms that sounds demeaning when we can do such amazing technological feats?

Knock Knock, Email List Validation Service Humor

Business , July 10, 2018

Email list validation has a humorous side. I have been scrubbing email lists for over 10 years and I think it’s time to share with you the hilarious stories while doing email hygiene services. 10 years is a long time to be doing what you love and it seems fitting to finally disclose the funny moments of email list validation service.

The Senator

Can Spam has no say when it comes to the political field. In comes a very well-known Senator a few years back. I received a call from his campaign manager. It was short and sweet. 1.) I need all the data you have in <state redacted> and 2.) I need all of it cleaned. We don’t supply data but we were able to find it for him. We also do not mail but we consulted with them on where to go. At the end of the day, we tens of thousands of dollars from this campaign and received a phone call from the Senator himself, “Great job guys. You F***ing blew my mind at how fast you put this all together!” I still have the recording.

The Porn Star

I got an email I almost deleted one morning as I was just waking up. It was an email from one of the greatest porn stars in adult film today. I responded back and within a day, she paid us to teach them about how the Can-Spam Act works and what they can and can’t do. We also scrubbed a list of everyone in the industry. I thought it was funny cleaning a list of 100,000 porn stars, producers and directors.

The Harvester

We get at least 2 or 3 of these guys a year, “I have 2 billion records. How much to clean?” One day, a dude Skyped me out of the blue asking me about my email validation services. He told me he received an email list from the black market. It was 12 billion emails and he wanted them all validated. Now the funny part, he only had $2,000. I don’t think so. We never scrubbed his 12 billion, but that was not before he sent me the DVD’s in the mail.

The Millionaire

Without naming names, can you see the face of any of the dozens of guys who films themselves on YouTube showing off their Mansions and Lambos? We consulted for one of them. They showed me the lease receipts for the yachts, mansions and cars. It cost them $100,000 to rent the film crew, locations and set. They made 5 million from gullible people who bought their DVD’s on “How to get rich”.

I Need an Email Verification Tool I can Trust

Business , July 10, 2018

Every email marketer has said this phrase, “I need an email verification tool I can trust”. What they lack are the questions associated with it. In example, an email verify tool needs to be online and not a desktop version. The reason is that your data is still vulnerable to theft even with a desktop version. A company that aggregates data online must have strict policies in place to not touch your data. Especially now after the GDPR has passed. Also, desktop software requires suppressions. We have 9 gb of suppressions so the desktop version will not offer that for you. Basically, the argument that your data is safe is a misnomer. The suppressions are located on an outside server and your data is being uploaded and saved. It’s a good way for them to steal your data.

Another question every email marketer asks about an email verification tool is the speed. Smaller lists of a few thousand are not a priority for scrubbing time. Larger lists of over a million are. Does the email verify tool scrub 1 million records within an hour? Surprisingly, start-ups purchase hundreds of millions of email addresses for purposes of advertising. It’s not the best way to go, but a short cut to get a message out. We have seen it especially in political campaigns where spam is completely legal.

You may have heard Email verification software companies offer appending services. This is a huge red flag. We do it through a third party service and do not store data in this form, however, if an email verification company says they offer appending, you really need to ask how they are getting their data. See, if they are collecting their clientele data, then they have all the data collected and appended. They store the date/time stamp of your data and use it for their customers. Before you even upload your database, ask them to sign non-disclosure documents so your data is safe.

Mailing to your data is the last question you should ask of your email verify tool. How are they verifying the email address? If they are doing an SMTP handshake, then they are doing either 3 things. 1.) Sending a blank email to your data 2.) Sending an advertisement and 3.) Handshake pull-back. The question is, are the email verification company profiting off your data by verifying it? Keep all these questions in mind when you look for a verification company. Your data is your hard work and offering it up without question is absolutely dumb.

Email Verification Services Are More Popular Than Ever

Business , July 10, 2018

Email verification services are on the rise. My last count was 50 companies who claim to clean email marketing lists. Out of those 50, probably half of them ‘white list’ from others. Still, 25 companies that do email list verification is/are a huge number compared to 10 years ago when it was just us 2. Back in 2007, when I started email list hygiene, the only company I knew of that was selling the service was Data Genie. Roger was the tech and Bret (whom passed away) was the sales person. I believe Roger is still scrubbing lists to this day. I remember back when I was managing The Viral Spiral advertising them in my newsletter.

For many years, validation was the only service available. As I have written in several blogs prior, validation removes traps, complainers, litigators and syntax errors. Little did it do verification or an SMTP handshake. The first company, that I was aware of back then, that started verification whom was sold to Experian a while back was called LeadSpend. After that sale, verification companies exploded because of the potential as one of the largest credit bureaus forked over millions for the technology.

Email list verification services have become popular with email service providers. Years ago, they frowned upon cleaning lists because it meant that the lists were being spammed, but now, every ESP refers their customers to hygiene companies because they want to keep the customers active and if they hit a certain complaint or bounce threshold, they lose the business. This means that the large ESP’s are confirmed to be indifferent to spamming. What this also means is list hygiene companies are doing their job and spam fighters are not.

Email list verification free is a term no longer useful in this industry. Because the large ESP’s are using hygiene companies, both entities can continue to charge higher rates because both are working. The day email list hygiene doesn’t pay off is the day email marketing dies. What once was thought to be a dying marketing trend, has only metamorphosed into a different direction and that fork in the road will keep email marketing popular, more expensive, but popular.