What are the benefits of Validity Certification for email senders?

Summary

Validity Certification aims to improve email deliverability by enhancing sender reputation, bypassing spam filters, and providing valuable data insights and monitoring tools. This leads to increased inbox placement, better engagement rates, conversions, and ultimately, improved ROI. Certified senders often receive preferential treatment from ISPs. However, it's not a guaranteed solution and requires adherence to email marketing best practices. The value lies in proactive issue resolution via better data, not a mechanical delivery lift. Cost-effectiveness depends on the sender's email volume and potential revenue gains. Implementing email authentication standards like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is essential for demonstrating legitimacy to mailbox providers and prevent domain spoofing.

Key findings

  • Improved Deliverability: Enhances inbox placement, reduces bounce rates, and improves sender reputation.
  • Data-Driven Optimization: Provides valuable data insights and monitoring tools to identify and address deliverability issues.
  • Increased Engagement & ROI: Higher inbox placement leads to better engagement, conversions, and improved ROI.
  • Competitive Advantage: Leads to better inboxing rates, so more customers see your emails than competitors.
  • Preferential Treatment: Certified senders often receive preferential treatment from ISPs.

Key considerations

  • Best Practices Essential: Requires adherence to email marketing best practices for optimal results.
  • Not a Guaranteed Solution: Not a silver bullet; benefits stem from adherence to best practices and data-driven improvements.
  • Cost-Effectiveness Varies: Cost-effectiveness depends on email volume and potential revenue gains.
  • Authentication Required: Email authentication methods (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) are crucial for demonstrating legitimacy.
  • No Guaranteed ISP Benefit: Lack of guaranteed ISP benefit, potential for suspension, and added cost impacting ROI

What email marketers say
14Marketer opinions

Validity Certification offers several benefits for email senders, including improved inbox placement, reduced bounce rates, and enhanced sender reputation with major ISPs. It provides valuable data insights and monitoring tools, enabling senders to proactively identify and address deliverability issues. Certification helps bypass spam filters, leading to higher engagement rates, conversions, and increased ROI. However, it is not a silver bullet and requires adherence to best practices. Its cost-effectiveness depends on email volume and potential revenue gains.

Key opinions

  • Improved Deliverability: Validity Certification enhances inbox placement and reduces bounce rates.
  • Enhanced Reputation: Certification boosts sender reputation with ISPs, helping emails avoid spam folders.
  • Data Insights: Valuable data insights and monitoring tools enable senders to identify and fix deliverability problems.
  • Increased Engagement: Higher inbox placement leads to better engagement rates and conversions.
  • ROI Improvement: Improved deliverability and engagement ultimately drive marketing performance and increase ROI.
  • Competitive Advantage: Better inboxing rates mean more customers see your emails than competitors

Key considerations

  • Not a Silver Bullet: Certification is not a guaranteed fix and requires adherence to best practices.
  • Cost-Effectiveness: The cost-effectiveness depends on factors such as email volume and potential revenue gains.
  • Best Practices Required: Certification requires following good email practices
  • Data Driven Action: Certification provides more data to identify and resolve issues
Marketer view

Email marketer from Litmus shares that increased inbox placement ensures marketing messages reach the intended audience, leading to higher engagement rates and conversions.

June 2021 - Litmus
Marketer view

Email marketer from Quora user DeliveryGuru shares that Validity Certification enhances sender reputation with major ISPs, helping your emails avoid spam folders and reach the intended recipients.

December 2023 - Quora
Marketer view

Email marketer from CampaignMonitor explains that implementing email authentication standards such as SPF and DKIM is essential for demonstrating the legitimacy of your email campaigns to mailbox providers.

January 2023 - CampaignMonitor.com
Marketer view

Email marketer from EmailGeekAnswers.com says that certification provides competitive advantage through better inboxing rates, meaning that more customers see your emails than competitors

February 2022 - EmailGeekAnswers.com
Marketer view

Email marketer from EmailStandards.org shares that improving deliverability drives marketing performance which improves ROI.

November 2024 - EmailStandards.org
Marketer view

Email marketer from Reddit user EmailPro shares Validity Certification helps bypass spam filters resulting in higher inbox placement and better engagement, positively impacting your marketing campaigns.

June 2021 - Reddit
Marketer view

Email marketer from Validity.com shares that Validity Certification improves inbox placement, reduces bounce rates, and provides valuable data insights, leading to better deliverability and increased ROI for email senders.

February 2025 - Validity.com
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum user EmailExpert shares that Validity Certification provides monitoring tools and reporting, enabling senders to identify and address deliverability issues promptly.

January 2024 - Email Marketing Forum
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks shares his experience with multiple certification tools, stating there is a benefit when used correctly for a specific purpose but is not a silver bullet and can't fix bad data and poor practices. Suggests it is beneficial for good senders to help maintain consistancy

October 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from Sender Score shares that certification helps improve sender reputation, which is a key factor in achieving consistent inbox placement.

November 2021 - Senderscore.org
Marketer view

Email marketer from Mailjet says that access to detailed deliverability data helps senders to optimize their email programs continuously and maintain high deliverability rates.

January 2025 - Mailjet
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks shares that the data from Validity is better than anywhere else, and inbox placement at AOL/Yahoo and Hotmail improved, even before all metrics were met. He estimated a significant increase in revenue due to this change.

April 2023 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks explains the catch-22 of needing good practices for certification, but potentially not needing it if already following good practices. Certification could be beneficial to get the shadow of the doubt when things go wrong and that the daily data provided can be invaluable for understanding how your mail is being treated.

January 2023 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from EmailVendorSelection.com says that the benefits of Validity Certification (better deliverability and sender reputation) often outweigh the costs, especially for senders with large email volumes, leading to increased revenue.

December 2023 - EmailVendorSelection.com

What the experts say
3Expert opinions

Validity Certification offers reputation monitoring and alerts, helping senders proactively address deliverability issues. However, it might be redundant for those already following best practices. Its benefits may stem from required adherence to best practices rather than a mechanical lift. There's no guaranteed ISP benefit, potential for suspension, and added cost impacting ROI. The perceived value lies in better data to identify and resolve issues, not a delivery guarantee.

Key opinions

  • Reputation Monitoring: Provides reputation monitoring and alerts for proactive issue resolution.
  • Data-Driven Improvement: Offers valuable data for identifying and addressing deliverability concerns.

Key considerations

  • Redundancy: May be redundant for senders already following best practices.
  • No Guarantees: Doesn't guarantee delivery and has potential suspension risks.
  • Cost Impact: Adds extra costs that could impact email ROI.
  • Perceived Value: The perceived value lies in data, not guaranteed delivery.
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks shares his thoughts on Validity Certification, mentioning its history with AOL/Yahoo/Microsoft, its potential redundancy for senders following best practices, and the possibility that its benefits stem from the required adherence to best practices rather than mechanical lift. He also notes the lack of guaranteed ISP benefit, the potential for suspension, and the added cost impacting ROI.

March 2021 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that Validity Certification provides reputation monitoring and alerts, helping senders proactively address deliverability issues before they impact inbox placement.

February 2024 - Word to the Wise
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise answers that there's a perceived value to paying for Validity Certification, it's not a guarantee of delivery. It has value only in getting better data to work from to identify and resolve issues.

December 2023 - Word to the Wise

What the documentation says
4Technical articles

Validity Certification and similar programs aim to verify legitimate senders, leading to preferential treatment from participating ISPs. This includes bypassing spam filters, enhancing sending reputation, and increasing delivery rates and engagement. A key aspect is the reliance on senders adhering to best practices for email, while implementing industry-standard authentication methods like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC improves email authentication to protect domains from email spoofing, phishing scams, and other malicious email activities.

Key findings

  • Preferential Treatment: Certified senders receive preferential treatment from participating ISPs.
  • Spam Filter Bypass: Certification helps bypass spam filters, increasing delivery rates.
  • Reputation Enhancement: Enhances sending reputation, leading to improved email deliverability.
  • Verification of Legitimacy: Certification programs verify the legitimacy of email senders.

Key considerations

  • Best Practices: Following best practices is crucial for maintaining certification and its benefits.
  • Authentication Implementation: Industry-standard authentication methods protect the organization's domains from malicious email activity.
Technical article

Documentation from SparkPost explains that certification programs, like Validity, aim to verify legitimate senders, providing improved deliverability as participating ISPs grant certified senders more favorable treatment.

January 2025 - SparkPost
Technical article

Documentation from Knowledge.validity.com explains that certified senders get preferential treatment from participating ISPs, bypassing many spam filters, and enhancing their sending reputation. This leads to increased delivery rates and improved engagement.

December 2022 - Knowledge.validity.com
Technical article

Documentation from RFC-Editor shares that implementing industry-standard authentication methods, like SPF, DKIM and DMARC improve email authentication which protects an organizations domains from use in email spoofing, phishing scams, and other malicious email activities.

April 2021 - RFC-Editor.org
Technical article

Documentation from Microsoft details that being on certification lists provides email senders the ability to bypass email filtering. It is contingent on senders following documented best practices with email.

December 2022 - Microsoft