, Author at verify550.com

Email list cleaning format and sizes

Email list cleaning needs to be robust and move mountains. When an email marketer cleans their list, they send to it immediately, so the timing is essential plus the size of the file needs to be just right for the correct conditions. Many email marketing systems use different formats so every email marketer should own parsers and appending software to manipulate their databases so there are not errors when it comes to sending mail.

Delimiters

Email cleaning companies and service providers use several different delimiters for their system. The average is comma with semicolon in second place. Some use pipe delimiters and colon but comma is what most email list validation service uses. Separating your data is so important. Many use a semi colon because some data uses comma only to separate data inside one cell. In example, some data has/have sentences with periods. In this case, using a comma to separate is a bad idea, therefore semi-colon is the right choice.

Multiple Columns

It’s rare to find email verification free, let alone a company that will not support multiple columns. Most data comes with name, email, phone and hundreds of other combinations. These are called “headers” and with that comes multiple columns. If an Email list cleaning company does not support multiple columns, then that is a red flag. Professional systems should support at least a million records and with multiple columns.

Size

There should be no reason to scrub any more than 1 million records at a time. We have clients upload hundreds of files into our FTP utilizing our batch API and can get the files out quickly. A typical file with 1 million records and multiple columns can be up to 250 mb. Anything over that is not necessary since most lists are not as big as that anymore. There was a time, ten years ago, where these lists were needed cleaned, but hygiene and email marketing has changed since then. Most lists are now smaller and targeted versus the shotgun approach.

Excel

Excel can open up to 1.2 million records. Anything over that, it will show an error. Use excel as a rule of thumb on sizes of files you need scrubbed. If your database is larger and you need to open it up to cut it down, TextPad for windows works well and BBEdit if you use MAC. Both applications can open up at least 1 gb files.

Why is email list verification so expensive?

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Email list verification is one of the most challenging parts of email list hygiene. Everyone want their email list cleaning free, but in this case, you really get what you pay for. Out of the dozens of competitors in this field, all of them know that it’s not easy to verify if an email is a catch-all, soft bounce or hard, and on top of that, report back the exact details of the “kind” of bounce it really is. In order to verify an email, several things need to occur. There are approximately 30,000 internet service providers worldwide and each one sets their own mail parameters using blacklists to monitor and block spam. Each one is unique, therefore the approach must be handled delicately in order to not be blocked, blacklisted or worse, have false positives sent back during the exchange. (more…)

How to find an email list cleaner free

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Email list cleaner free is going to be a challenge. Validation is cheaper than verification so if you want it done for free, the only choice is to find a validation company. Not one verification company is going to scrub your list for free because verification requires either highly sensitive data from data sources or an actual SMPT handshake and offering this service for free does not make any business sense since the typical charge for verification is .001 per record. With that being said, you will need to look for some signs for a validation company and what they are offering. Free, doesn’t mean free. So if you upload your database into a free program, you better watch out for these signs. (more…)

Email list cleaning and the pitfalls of giving up your data

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Email list cleaning is a spendy process. It’s more expensive than sending email itself with your own MTA. It requires validating if they email is a threat like a trap or litigator or verify if they email is deliverable, catch-all or bounce. The process that goes into our own validation and verification sends your list through 9 GB of suppressions and 3 SMTP handshakes for each email where we pick the best 2 out of 3 for reporting. Verify550 is not a data aggregator nor does it email advertisements or sell data. We just clean lists. We are not interested in doing anything with our client’s data because our process is in real time. That is why we charge $1,000 per million. To get accurate results and to not touch our client’s databases. (more…)

Difference between email verification services and email address validation

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Email verification services and email address validation are two completely different things. The way we like to explain it is validation is everything before the @ sign and verification is everything after the @ sign. Now, this may not be the most technical way to explain it, it works with beginners and helps to explain more quickly. But let’s dive into the real explanation so you understand the differences technically. An email verification service charges more than an email address validation service and here’s why. (more…)

Email Validation Services – A Thorough Walk Through

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Email validation services, unlike email verification, focuses on the threats outside of the email itself. Email validation removes spamtraps, complainers, litigators, botclickers, roles/departmental and seeds while fixing the email removing syntax errors, unicode/latin characters and lastly checks the mx and domain for setup issues. Email validation is the first step in max scrubbing before you use an email verification software to remove bounces. Here are a list of all the modules inside our validation process:
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Email address verification – What is it exactly?

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Email address verification mainly focuses on verifying if the email address exists or not and if it does not, why. There are dozens of email list hygiene companies to choose from and most say they do verification, but do they? A lot of services who offer to scrub email list free are actually validation companies that do not do verification. They simply cannot remove bounces. The reason is, they offer a free service for it, is because their cost to match and remove emails versus doing an SMTP handshake is way less so they can make those kinds of offers. This article focuses on email address verification and how to spot companies that simply cannot do it so you don’t waste your money. (more…)

The right and wrong way to do email list verification

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We have explained the differences between validation and email list verification in previous posts. In short, validation does not remove bounces nor does it do an smtp handshake. Many validation companies do, however, mx checking where it checks certain steps if the mail exchange is setup properly. But they do not do smtp handshakes. In order to understand verification and to choose the right company, it’s important to look for clear signs of authentication as most verification companies miss many steps in order to save money.

Social networks (the wrong way)

Ask your email list cleaning company how they do verification. Get them to be specific. Ask them if they do email list cleaning free of social networks. For a while, email marketers requested that emails be patched against social media email accounts. For a year or two, this verification method worked well because emails that were used for social networking were authentic, however, bots and fake profiles started filling up Facebook and Twitter therefore, you cannot use these as the best method for verification.

Appending (the wrong way)

Ask the email list Verification Company if they append date/time stamp emails that were verified during a special date appointment. In example, to save money, many verification companies will save the date and time stamp of when the email was verified. They then will not mail to that specific email until a set date is specified to save money. This idea works in theory but is not real time verification as some set dates of up to 30 – 90 days. Waiting this long to verify if an email is verified is not going to be accurate.

Scoring (the wrong way)

Like appending and social networking above combined, many verification companies will offer a technical term of scoring as their reporting feature. They offer the email on a scale of 0 – 10 (0 as good and 10 as bad). Most, if not all, email verification companies started as email marketers. Scoring works by tracking the date/time and when the email was sent last. It also connects to social networks. In example, if the email wasn’t sent for 90 days and does not have a social network profile, it can be scored as a 10.

SMTP Connection (the right way)

In order for an email to be verified correctly, without skipping steps, it has to be delivered. ISP’s have certain thresholds to allow a number of emails in from an IP range. Yahoo may allow only 3,000 from an IP per 24 hours or gmail 300. Verification companies must be deliverability experts by understand all ISP threhsholds.

Real time (the right away)

With an smtp connection comes real time reporting. In order to get the maximum bang for your buck, the email must be checked in real time and that means as the list is scrubbing, the system is sending an smtp handshake. Verify550 does this 3 times for each email in real time and picks the best two out of three in their reports.

Email verification services are a must for neglected optin lists

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Email verification services are not crucial if your list is familiar with you. In order for you to email market without any incident, everyone in your list must know the domain name they signed up with. Email marketers must never let their lists sit more than 30 days without sending to them. According to an article in Time magazine, “people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds”. If you disconnect yourself from your audience for more than a few weeks, odds are they may not remember signing up to your service.

Many things happen during a company’s lifespan. Ups and downs, neglect and slothfulness. We may sometimes ignore our email list for up to 4 weeks. This is a no no. Why, you ask? Well, there are several things. Your list is like a living entity. You know the old saying, “out of sight, out of mind?” This is means you soon forget things or people that are no longer present or visible. An email list needs weekly visitations if not bi-weekly. Neglect can cause complaints which lead to traps.

We have witnessed hundreds of email marketers with double optin lists that were neglected for a month or so and immediately they were kicked off their ESP. What’s worse is their domains were listed on blacklists. Temporary, yes, but the damage has been done. Not all blacklists do the same thing. Some act as if you committed a crime and will keep your domain on their block list forever sending back false positives.

This is why email verification services are a must for neglected optin lists. Complainers can lead to traps. Bounces can lead to traps. And expired domains can lead to traps. That is why every email marketer must have an email list cleaner free from the traps, complainers and bounces. Email address verification cleans your list back up to where it was before you abandoned your list for whatever period of time or for whatever reason.

Difference between an email verification tool and a service

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An email verification tool is an application hosted on your desktop whether mac, windows, free bsd or linux (operating system). Basically an application or software executable that you have full control over with features, bells and whistles. Some are plain and some are not. Most will purchase a desktop application so they can have full control over cleaning their own lists. This is fine and works well, however, you are only cleaning against your own suppressions. There are some desktop cleaning applications that offer suppressions and update them on a daily basis. The advantages of a desktop email list hygiene tool is that you are not sharing your data with anyone. Or are you?

A desktop email list cleaning application can be misleading. The program itself can easily upload your data to their servers without you even knowing it. Most executables are not easily openable. You have to be a programmer to take it apart to see if they do not touch your data. If the email cleaning desktop application does not have an agreement with you, they can do anything they wish. Just because they package the deal as safe, does not mean it is. Speed on a desktop application is a factor. Verify550 uses 12 quad core servers with 128 gb of ram. A desktop application is at the mercy of your tower. Use wisdom and discernment when choosing a desktop email cleaning system.

Online email validation services or verification (or both) has advantages over desktop apps. Speed, accuracy and proper agreements in place can make a world of difference. Also, desktop features cannot do API’s and most of our clients use API’s for online forms, ESP’s and for batched data. A typical user of a desktop application would be a small company with small lists. Anyone with large lists, managing several databases, may not think the desktop application for scrubbing emails is efficient. The cost may be cheaper, but the benefits are not there for professional mailers. Again, email list validation services works well with small lists on desktops and better for large lists online.

So in conclusion, small lists are perfect for a desktop email cleaning service. If you have large lists, care about your security, want speed and no risks, then an online service is the better way to go. Everyone wants to perfect email verification tool but they are not going to get it without doing their homework. We have witnessed so many horror stories of companies that steal data and we do everything we can to do things in real time thus deleting the data when complete to keep our clients’ data safe. Verify550 is an online email verification tool that does validation as well which is fast, secure, safe and well worth the investment.