How Email Validation Helps Protect Your Sending Reputation

Use this article to understand email validation and how it can help protect your Patch account from invalid addresses and avoidable bounces.

In this article

• What email validation does
• What email validation does not do
• When to use validation
• How to review validation results
• How to use validation with segments
• What to do after validation

What email validation does

Email validation helps identify email addresses that may be invalid, risky, mistyped, or likely to bounce. It is a list quality tool that helps you decide which contacts are safer to email.

Validation is especially helpful before large sends, imports, re-engagement campaigns, or sends to older contacts.

What email validation does not do

Email validation does not guarantee inbox placement. It also does not create consent.

An email can be valid and still be a bad marketing contact if the person did not give permission, does not know your business, or has not engaged in a long time.

Use validation together with consent, segmentation, and engagement history.

When to use validation

Use email validation before:

• Sending to a newly imported list
• Sending to a list that is more than 6–12 months old
• Reactivating old contacts
• Launching a large Blast
• Turning on a high-volume Automation
• Sending after a period of low email activity

If you are unsure whether validation is needed, validate first or send to a smaller engaged segment.

How to review validation results

After validation runs, review the results before sending.

• Valid: Usually safer to send if consent and relevance are clear.
• Invalid: Do not send marketing email.
• Risky or unknown: Use caution. Consider excluding from large sends.

Do not treat all non-invalid contacts as equal. Engagement and consent still matter.

How to use validation with segments

1. Create or open the segment you plan to email.
2. Filter out invalid email addresses by using Email + Contains + <Invalid Text>. Examples of invalid text are "gnail.com", "test", etc.
3. Consider filtering out risky or unknown addresses for large campaigns.
4. Prioritize contacts with recent engagement.
5. Save the final sending segment.

This gives you a cleaner audience before the email is sent.

What to do after validation

Use the validation results to improve your contact database.

• Exclude invalid emails from sends.
• Correct obvious typos only when you are confident.
• Ask customers to update their email address when appropriate.
• Use double opt-in for future signups.
• Review collection sources that are creating bad emails.

Validation is most useful when it leads to better list habits.

Customer Support

If you need help or are not sure which step to take next, contact Patch Customer Support at success@patchretention.com or 888.605.4429.