This article was created and first published by a colleague of mine at BriteVerify, Damien Fellows. BriteVerify’s email verification service is available in the DataTools Kleber platform via the DataTools.Verify.Email.BriteVerify.VerifyEmail method.
For a while many CRM and Marketing teams debated on the necessity of verifying email addresses, especially when they adhered strongly to the best email practices and guidelines. It would always be a question of “should we” or “should we not”invest in a service to clean and verify our emails addresses.
More recently it is not really a matter of “should” we invest but rather “How” to invest and ensure that we get the maximum return on investment.
Verifying lists of emails has always been a consideration for emails that have been bought or found in some redundant database but this is never a financial investment to achieve great return of investment, rather a necessity to ensure that we do not upset our Email Service Provider in delivering these emails. Not to say that verifying your list is a waste of time and money but it is a bit of a gamble when trying to boost revenue. Nevertheless, it would cost far more to repair a polluted IP address from sending a batch of unverified emails with a high bounce rate.
Value and more importantly, return on your investment, is truly noticed when integrating a good email verification service into your capture points. Having the power to convert an invalid email address into a valid (and may I also note, one with actual value) address without any disruption to the UI or customer experience really can speak pounds and dollars. This can be calculated in the example below:
This example is based on a service that has a pay as you go model (Pay per verification), which seems to be both the most popular and easiest way to work out your RoI prior to any commitment. To clarify, around 7% of entries on a web form are mistyped and this can rise up to 15% on mobile devices. These are just the typing errors. Bot attacks and fraud attempts can add a further 10% on top; that is nearly a quarter to a third of your audience that would result in bounced emails.
Is email marketing really worth it?
The short answer is yes. In essence, it is the third most successful channel (for conversion) with direct telephone canvassing/marketing being the most effective. It also has the highest RoI and is the least intrusive. Though this is taking for granted you are using best practices. A comparison can be seen below.
With little doubt, email marketing is worth investing your time in. It is quick, cheap and when done right, provides a good conversion with the best RoI %.
Final thoughts
So to conclude:
- You can get a return on investment of over 500% by integrating a good verification service to your capture points
- Email verification does keep both your IP and Sender score well above industry standards saving any money spent on repairing damage to these scores
- Email Marketing is “worth it” with High RoI’s, good conversion and is, by comparison, quick and inexpensive to set up and maintain