How can I verify active email addresses for teachers to improve deliverability?

Summary

To improve email deliverability to teachers, a multi-faceted approach is recommended. This includes proactive list hygiene practices such as regularly removing inactive subscribers, validating email addresses, and implementing double opt-in. Utilizing email verification services and tools like Kickbox, NeverBounce, and SendGrid's Email Validation API can identify invalid or risky addresses before sending. Setting up bounce processing and leveraging feedback loops in platforms like Amazon SES helps automatically remove problematic addresses. Maintaining consistent sending habits, segmenting lists, and warming up new IPs are crucial for reputation. Considering the unique environment of schools and the challenges of reaching teachers during the summer is also important.

Key findings

  • List Hygiene: Regularly clean email lists by removing inactive subscribers and validating email addresses.
  • Email Verification Services: Utilize services like Kickbox, NeverBounce, and SendGrid to identify invalid or risky email addresses.
  • Double Opt-In: Implement double opt-in to ensure genuine interest and valid email addresses.
  • Bounce Processing: Set up bounce processing to automatically remove invalid email addresses.
  • Feedback Loops: Leverage feedback loops (e.g., Amazon SES) to monitor bounces and complaints.
  • Consistent Sending: Maintain consistent sending habits to build a good sender reputation.
  • Segmentation: Segment email lists for improved deliverability and engagement.
  • IP Warmup: Warm up new IPs gradually to establish a positive sending reputation.

Key considerations

  • School Environment: Consider the unique email infrastructure and patterns within schools.
  • Teacher Availability: Account for potential challenges in reaching teachers during the summer months.
  • Activity Intelligence: Activity Intelligence Reports can help, but they are not a perfect solution.
  • SMTP Error Codes: Analyze SMTP error codes to understand the reasons for delivery failures.

What email marketers say
9Marketer opinions

To verify active email addresses for teachers and improve deliverability, several strategies are recommended. Employing email verification services to identify invalid or risky addresses before sending campaigns is a popular method. Regularly cleaning email lists by removing inactive subscribers who haven't engaged can also significantly improve sender reputation. Implementing double opt-in ensures that subscribers are genuinely interested and that their email addresses are valid from the start. Maintaining consistent sending habits and segmenting email lists are also recommended for deliverability. Finally, when using new IP addresses, slowly warming up is a key consideration.

Key opinions

  • Email Verification: Using email verification services can identify invalid, risky, and inactive email addresses.
  • List Cleaning: Regularly removing inactive subscribers improves sender reputation and deliverability.
  • Double Opt-In: Implementing double opt-in ensures genuine interest and valid email addresses from the start.
  • Segmentation: Segmenting email lists and sending to smaller chunks can improve reputation and deliverability.
  • Consistent Sending: Maintaining consistent sending habits and reviewing your lists regularly can improve deliverability.
  • IP Warmup: If you have a new IP address, you need to 'warm up' your IP slowly by initially sending low volumes of emails and gradually increasing.

Key considerations

  • Activity Intelligence: Activity Intelligence Reports are available to identify deceleration in email address activity, but are not perfect solutions.
  • Teacher's Schedule: Consider the challenges of reaching teachers, especially during summer when they may be less responsive.
  • Constant Monitoring: After implementing these strategies, monitor your stats to check deliverability.
Marketer view

Email marketer from GMass explains segmenting the email list and sending to smaller chunks to improve reputation and deliverability.

May 2021 - GMass
Marketer view

Email marketer from Mailjet explains checking and being consistent with your sending habits to help teacher active users. Mailjet recommend you regularly review your lists to remove unengaged contacts, you stay consistent with your sending schedule, this helps maintain good sender reputation.

July 2024 - Mailjet
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks offers a free test of their Activity Intelligence Report to identify deceleration in email address activity, noting it's not a perfect solution but may be helpful.

June 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks shares his experience with the challenges of getting teachers to respond to verification requests, especially during the summer when they may no longer be at the same school or ignore emails.

September 2021 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from Reddit shares that they have had success in reducing bounce rates for their email campaign by incorporating an email verification service into their workflow. Before sending out emails, they use the tool to weed out potentially problematic addresses, thereby improving deliverability.

May 2022 - Reddit
Marketer view

Email marketer from ZeroBounce Blog responds recommending implementing double opt-in to ensure subscribers are genuinely interested and that the email address is valid from the start. They note this helps build a clean and engaged email list.

May 2021 - ZeroBounce Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from MailerCheck Blog explains the importance of regularly cleaning email lists to improve deliverability. They suggest removing inactive subscribers, those who haven't opened or clicked in a while, as they can negatively impact your sender reputation.

February 2025 - MailerCheck Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum answers that if you have a new IP address you need to 'warm up' your IP slowly by initially sending low volumes of emails and gradually increasing. They shared it is important to monitor the stats to check deliverability

August 2021 - Email Marketing Forum
Marketer view

Email marketer from NeverBounce Blog shares using email verification services before sending campaigns. These services can identify invalid, risky, and inactive email addresses, allowing you to remove them and protect your sender reputation.

January 2025 - NeverBounce Blog

What the experts say
4Expert opinions

To verify active email addresses for teachers and improve deliverability, experts suggest focusing on list hygiene and engagement. Regular list cleaning, including removing unresponsive subscribers and validating email addresses, is crucial. Sending wanted emails, encouraging resubscribes, and sending more frequently to identify bad addresses quickly are also recommended. When contacting teachers, consider the unique environment of schools, which often have their own infrastructure.

Key opinions

  • List Hygiene: Consistently practice list hygiene by removing unresponsive subscribers and validating email addresses.
  • Engagement: Sending wanted emails and encouraging resubscribes helps maintain a healthy list.
  • Frequent Sending: Sending more frequently can help identify bad addresses sooner.
  • Kickbox Verification: Using Kickbox can help verify email addresses.

Key considerations

  • School Infrastructure: Schools often run their own email infrastructure.
  • Context Matters: Keep the list up-to-date.
  • Best Practices: Apply best practices.
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks mentions contacting Kickbox to verify emails. Also states that schools often run their own infrastructure, and a single run with deliverability issues doesn't necessarily mean bad reputation.

February 2022 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that one of the key points to consider is keeping the list up-to-date. By purging invalid e-mail addresses from a list, the organization reduces the bounce rate, which in turn improves the e-mail deliverability.

March 2025 - Word to the Wise
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks says the best hedge against poor deliverability is sending wanted emails and encouraging resubscribes. Suggests encouraging educators to use personal emails and sending more frequently to identify bad addresses sooner, assuming opted-in addresses and regular content.

April 2024 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Spam Resource explains that consistently practicing list hygiene techniques, such as removing unresponsive subscribers and validating email addresses, reduces bounce rates, increases engagement, and ultimately improves email deliverability, which is crucial when reaching out to educators.

March 2021 - Spam Resource

What the documentation says
4Technical articles

Verifying active email addresses for teachers to improve deliverability involves leveraging automated tools and feedback loops. Implementing bounce processing automatically identifies and removes invalid email addresses, maintaining list hygiene. Using Amazon SES's feedback loop monitors bounces and complaints, enabling the removal of problematic addresses. SendGrid's Email Validation API checks email addresses in real-time, identifying invalid or risky addresses before sending. Reviewing SMTP error codes and implementing bounce handling helps understand delivery failures and remove invalid addresses.

Key findings

  • Bounce Processing: Setting up bounce processing automatically identifies and removes invalid email addresses.
  • Feedback Loops: Using feedback loops to monitor bounces and complaints allows removal of problematic addresses.
  • Real-Time Validation: Email Validation APIs check email addresses in real-time before sending.
  • SMTP Error Codes: Reviewing SMTP error codes helps understand why emails are not being delivered.

Key considerations

  • Automation: Automate the process of identifying and removing invalid email addresses.
  • Monitoring: Continuously monitor bounces and complaints.
  • Real-Time Checks: Use real-time validation to prevent sending to invalid addresses.
  • Error Analysis: Analyze SMTP error codes to understand delivery issues.
Technical article

Documentation from SparkPost explains setting up bounce processing to automatically identify and remove invalid email addresses from your list. They say this helps maintain list hygiene and improve deliverability by reducing bounce rates.

August 2023 - SparkPost Documentation
Technical article

Documentation from RFC explains looking at the SMTP error codes and bounce handling, review the SMTP error codes received when sending emails to teachers. These codes provide insight into why emails are not being delivered, such as invalid addresses or server issues. Implement proper bounce handling to automatically process and remove invalid email addresses from your list.

February 2025 - RFC
Technical article

Documentation from AWS explains using Amazon SES's feedback loop to monitor bounces and complaints. It recommends setting up notifications to automatically remove problematic email addresses from your sending list, preventing future deliverability issues.

January 2023 - AWS Documentation
Technical article

Documentation from SendGrid explains using their Email Validation API to check email addresses in real-time before sending. This API identifies invalid or risky email addresses, helping to prevent bounces and improve deliverability.

October 2023 - SendGrid Documentation