How can I justify the cost of email verification before a migration?

Summary

The experts, marketers, and documentation overwhelmingly agree that the cost of email verification before a migration is justifiable. Email verification provides a tangible ROI by reducing bounce rates, improving sender reputation and deliverability, minimizing the risk of damaging sender reputation, protecting brand reputation, and improving engagement metrics. Email verification prevents paying for unusable contacts in the new system and prevents deliverability issues like spam, silent deletion and being blocked by ISPs, all of which can impact revenue. Email verification also prevents hitting spam traps, which can significantly damage sender reputation. Investing in email verification is framed as a cost-effective measure compared to the potential damage to sender reputation and business revenue caused by poor deliverability.

Key findings

  • ROI Justification: Email verification provides a tangible ROI by reducing bounce rates, improving sender reputation, and increasing deliverability.
  • Cost Savings: Verification leads to cost savings by eliminating sending to invalid addresses and lowering associated expenses.
  • Risk Mitigation: Email verification minimizes the risk of damaging sender reputation and facing deliverability issues that can be expensive to resolve.
  • Brand Protection: Verification is crucial for maintaining a positive brand reputation by preventing spam complaints and blacklisting.
  • Engagement Improvement: Cleaning email lists leads to better engagement metrics and increased ROI from email marketing efforts.
  • Cost Avoidance: Email verification prevents paying for unusable contacts in the new system.
  • Deliverability Protection: Verification avoids deliverability issues like spam or silent deletion, which impact revenue.
  • Reputation Management: Cleaning lists safeguards sender reputation, crucial for reaching the inbox.
  • Spam Trap Avoidance: Cleaning your list prevents sending to spam traps, which severely damage sending reputation.

Key considerations

  • Revenue Impact: Calculate potential revenue loss from deliverability issues to demonstrate the financial impact of not verifying email addresses.
  • Contact Costs: Consider the costs associated with storing and sending to inactive or invalid contacts on the new platform.
  • ISP Impact: Assess the potential financial losses from major ISP blocks due to a poor sender reputation.
  • Brand Reputation: Understand the long-term effects of damaged brand reputation caused by sending emails to bad addresses.
  • Proactive Prevention: Recognize that prevention through email verification is more cost-effective than fixing deliverability problems after a migration.
  • Vendor Pricing: Consider whether the new vendor charges per contact and the cost of migrating unusable addresses.
  • Hidden Costs: Recognize the potential hidden costs associated with poor deliverability and a damaged sender reputation.
  • Spam Traps: Understand the consequences of hitting spam traps due to a dirty list, impacting deliverability and overall email program health.
  • AWS Pinpoint: Leverage services like Amazon Pinpoint to validate email addresses and prevent sending to non-existent addresses.
  • Lifetime Value: Obtain the average lifetime value of an email subscriber and use ISP breakdowns to demonstrate the potential financial losses from ISP blocks.

What email marketers say
11Marketer opinions

The provided answers consistently highlight that the cost of email verification before a migration is justified by several factors. Primarily, verification minimizes the risk of damaging sender reputation and deliverability by removing invalid, risky, and inactive email addresses. This reduces bounce rates, improves engagement metrics, and avoids potential blacklisting, ultimately leading to better ROI and cost savings from email marketing campaigns. Several responses emphasize calculating potential revenue loss from deliverability issues, the savings from reduced sending volume, and the avoidance of paying for unusable contacts on the new platform. Protecting brand reputation and preventing expensive deliverability problems are also significant considerations.

Key opinions

  • ROI Justification: Email verification offers a tangible ROI by reducing bounce rates, improving sender reputation, and increasing deliverability.
  • Cost Savings: Verification leads to cost savings by eliminating sending to invalid addresses and lowering associated expenses.
  • Risk Mitigation: Email verification minimizes the risk of damaging sender reputation and facing deliverability issues that can be expensive to resolve.
  • Brand Protection: Verification is crucial for maintaining a positive brand reputation by preventing spam complaints and blacklisting.
  • Engagement Improvement: Cleaning email lists leads to better engagement metrics and increased ROI from email marketing efforts.

Key considerations

  • Revenue Impact: Calculate potential revenue loss from deliverability issues to demonstrate the financial impact of not verifying email addresses.
  • Contact Costs: Consider the costs associated with storing and sending to inactive or invalid contacts on the new platform.
  • ISP Impact: Assess the potential financial losses from major ISP blocks due to a poor sender reputation.
  • Brand Reputation: Understand the long-term effects of damaged brand reputation caused by sending emails to bad addresses.
  • Proactive Prevention: Recognize that prevention through email verification is more cost-effective than fixing deliverability problems after a migration.
Marketer view

Email marketer from Reddit user u/EmailExpert shares that the risk of not verifying a list, especially before a migration, far outweighs the cost. They suggest a bad list can lead to deliverability problems that are expensive to fix and that prevention is much cheaper in the long run.

June 2023 - Reddit
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains that using email verification tools before a migration can prevent transferring 'dead weight' to the new system. They also note the advantage of avoiding paying for inactive or invalid contacts on the new platform.

May 2021 - Email Marketing Forum
Marketer view

Email marketer from NeverBounce Blog explains that email verification provides a tangible ROI by reducing bounce rates, improving sender reputation, and increasing deliverability. They highlight that the cost of verification is often less than the cost of sending emails to invalid addresses and the subsequent damage to sender reputation.

March 2024 - NeverBounce Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email on Acid responds that email verification is critical for maintaining a positive brand reputation. Sending to bad addresses can lead to spam complaints and blacklisting, damaging the brand's credibility and deliverability over time.

July 2024 - Email on Acid Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from ZeroBounce Blog shares that email verification helps in cost savings by eliminating sending to invalid, risky, or inactive email addresses, thus lowering bounce rates and improving engagement metrics. This leads to reduced costs associated with email sending and better ROI from email marketing campaigns.

July 2022 - ZeroBounce Blog
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks says their clients find the projected savings from email verification to be quite compelling.

November 2022 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks shares a strategy to justify email verification costs by calculating potential revenue loss from deliverability issues caused by bad addresses during migration, also shares insight in calculating cost savings based on reduced send volume expenses. She highlights that the upfront investment in verification ensures money isn't wasted on non-engaging addresses that could negatively impact the reach of viable subscribers.

September 2021 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from LinkedIn user JohnSmith highlights the hidden costs of maintaining a dirty email list, including wasted marketing spend, decreased engagement, and potential blacklisting. They advocate for verification to avoid these pitfalls and maximize ROI.

November 2023 - LinkedIn
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks suggests obtaining the average lifetime value of an email subscriber and using ISP-specific breakdowns to demonstrate the potential financial losses from major ISP blocks. While 3rd party hygiene isn't the only factor in avoiding blocks, it reduces unnecessary bounces and the overall risk.

July 2021 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Hippo Blog responds that email verification is justified by minimizing the risk of damaging sender reputation, which is crucial for deliverability. They emphasize that a good sender reputation translates to more emails reaching the inbox, leading to better engagement and conversions.

September 2021 - Email Hippo Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from HubSpot Blog explains that email verification improves deliverability rates by reducing bounce rates and increasing engagement. They share that a clean list leads to better sender reputation, which makes it more likely that emails will reach the inbox.

June 2024 - HubSpot Blog

What the experts say
3Expert opinions

The experts emphasize the importance of email verification as a key aspect of list hygiene before migrating to a new vendor. They highlight that by cleaning the list, you avoid paying for and migrating unusable contacts, prevent deliverability issues like spam or silent deletion, and protect your sender reputation. Investing in verification is framed as a cost-effective measure compared to the potential damage to sender reputation and business revenue caused by poor deliverability and hitting spam traps.

Key opinions

  • Cost Avoidance: Email verification prevents paying for unusable contacts in the new system.
  • Deliverability Protection: Verification avoids deliverability issues like spam or silent deletion, which impact revenue.
  • Reputation Management: Cleaning lists safeguards sender reputation, crucial for reaching the inbox.
  • Proactive Hygiene: Regular list cleaning, including verification, is essential for a healthy email program.
  • Spam Trap Avoidance: Cleaning your list prevents sending to spam traps, which severely damage sending reputation.

Key considerations

  • Vendor Pricing: Consider whether the new vendor charges per contact and the cost of migrating unusable addresses.
  • Hidden Costs: Recognize the potential hidden costs associated with poor deliverability and a damaged sender reputation.
  • Spam Traps: Understand the consequences of hitting spam traps due to a dirty list, impacting deliverability and overall email program health.
  • Revenue Impact: Evaluate the potential revenue loss from emails being directed to spam or silently deleted.
Expert view

Expert from Spamresource explains that maintaining good email list hygiene, including verification, is crucial for ensuring deliverability and avoiding spam traps. They suggest that the cost of verification is far less than the potential damage to sender reputation and business revenue caused by poor deliverability.

February 2023 - Spamresource
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that cleaning your list regularly is essential for a healthy email program. Email Verification is a major component of list hygiene. If you aren't cleaning your lists, you're sending to spam traps and hurting your sending reputation.

September 2024 - Word to the Wise
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks asks if the new vendor charges per contact, noting the importance of not migrating and paying for unusable contacts. He also highlights the deliverability aspect, explaining that a bad list can lead to spam or silent deletion, resulting in no revenue and potentially misattributing blame to the new tool.

May 2021 - Email Geeks

What the documentation says
5Technical articles

The documentation consistently emphasizes that email verification, as a part of regular list hygiene, is crucial for maintaining a healthy sender reputation and improving deliverability. By removing invalid and inactive addresses, organizations can reduce bounce rates, improve engagement metrics, and protect themselves from being blocked by ISPs. The cost of verification is portrayed as a proactive investment to safeguard deliverability, protect revenue streams, and ensure marketing efforts are focused on engaged and valid email addresses, resulting in better overall campaign performance.

Key findings

  • Reputation Maintenance: Email verification is critical for maintaining a good sender reputation.
  • Deliverability Improvement: Verifying email addresses improves overall deliverability rates.
  • Bounce Reduction: Verification reduces bounce rates, positively impacting sender reputation.
  • Engagement Boost: Cleaning lists improves engagement metrics by focusing on valid addresses.
  • ISP Blocking Prevention: Validating addresses lowers the risk of being blocked by ISPs.

Key considerations

  • Revenue Protection: Consider the potential loss of revenue and wasted marketing efforts due to poor deliverability caused by invalid addresses.
  • Proactive Investment: View email verification as a proactive step to protect deliverability and revenue streams.
  • List Hygiene: Regularly clean your email list as a critical component of email marketing strategy.
  • Campaign Performance: Understand that focusing marketing efforts on engaged and valid addresses leads to better campaign performance.
  • AWS Pinpoint: Leverage services like Amazon Pinpoint to validate email addresses and prevent sending to non-existent addresses.
Technical article

Documentation from SparkPost explains that regular list hygiene, including email verification, is critical for maintaining good sender reputation and deliverability. They suggest removing invalid and inactive email addresses to improve engagement metrics and reduce bounce rates.

April 2024 - SparkPost Documentation
Technical article

Documentation from SendGrid explains that high bounce rates negatively impact sender reputation and can lead to deliverability issues. Verifying email addresses before sending reduces bounces and helps maintain a healthy sender reputation, ensuring emails reach the inbox.

April 2022 - SendGrid Documentation
Technical article

Documentation from Mailjet responds that cleaning email lists reduces bounce rates, improves sender reputation, and boosts overall campaign performance. It's a cost-effective way to ensure that marketing efforts are focused on engaged and valid email addresses, yielding better results.

November 2021 - Mailjet Documentation
Technical article

Documentation from AWS explains that using services like Amazon Pinpoint to validate email addresses prevents sending to non-existent or invalid addresses. This reduces hard bounces, protects sender reputation, and lowers the risk of being blocked by ISPs.

June 2023 - AWS Documentation
Technical article

Documentation from GlockApps Blog explains that poor email deliverability, often caused by sending to invalid addresses, results in lost revenue and wasted marketing efforts. Investing in email verification is a proactive step to safeguard deliverability and protect revenue streams.

November 2022 - GlockApps Blog