The verification email technique is one of the most valuable email marketing practices. It keeps your database healthy that is necessary for meeting your goals. In this article, I try to explain what it means and its consequences if you don’t.
Perhaps you already heard this statement: A valid email is critical for any email marketing strategy. Therefore it is in your best interest to have only valid emails in your database. Why? It is the most straightforward idea: Invalid emails do not sell. Once there is impossible to deliver your email message to the recipient (due to an unexisting email address), your email marketing can’t be successful.
What happens if I have invalid emails in my database?
Most importantly, an invalid email has no use; it has zero value. Moreover, there might be other consequences of keeping or sending email campaigns to those.
Higher price of the emailing tools
Many emailing tools charge you for the number of emails stored in your database. Why would you pay for emails if there is no use for them?
Lower sender reputation
Sending campaigns to invalid emails results in the “bounce” in your email statistics. Bounced emails are those to which were impossible to deliver your message. Suppose servers repeatedly detect your attempt to send a message to many invalid email addresses (like spammers do). In that case, it can lower your sender’s reputation, which might next time lead to placing your emails (emails sent by the same sender) in a spam folder. This scenario is a nightmare for all email marketing specialists.
Common issues with email addresses
There are many reasons why some email addresses might become useless.
- One of the most common problems is misspelling. It is so easy to leave out a letter and not notice it at all.
- Another problem comes with mixing two addresses: work email (french company) and personal email from Google. For example, this might result in an email address: myname@gmail.fr. But Gmail uses only the “.com” suffix.
- The last example is disputable. Users sometimes give an unexisting email on purpose cause they do not want to be disturbed by your email marketing activity. In an e-commerce shop, a valid email address is suitable for receipts messages or delays in delivering goods messages.
Verify emails before adding them to your active database
Now think about this: What is the most potent source of new email addresses in your database? Is it the purchase, your newsletter subscription, or something else? In most cases, it is some kind of registration in which you give your email address, name, and perhaps some other information. The best time to verify new emails is here: in the registration process.
Verification email process, a.k.a. Double opt-in
Filling out an email address in the registration form is the first opt-in step of the user. When the email address gets into your database, you should send a short verification email to ensure no wanted or unintended mistakes appear. It is good to notify the user on the screen that a verification email has been sent, and it is necessary to confirm that in the user’s mailbox to complete the registration. Once the user opens the verification email and proves it by clicking on a confirmation button or a link, the second opt-in step of the registration is complete – double opt-in.
What is the best verification email template?
Please keep it simple! The only purpose of the verification email is to confirm the user’s email address. There is no need to add any other information. It might be even in plain text and look even like this:
Hello!
To complete the registration, please verify your email by clicking on the button below.
[button: Verify]
On the other hand, it could help the onboarding process imprint your brand into the new user, so some standard header of the email with logo or claim of the company and standard footer in your brand colors should not harm. 😉 Get some inspiration in our pre-made newsletter templates in TOPOL email template builder.
Conclusion
The verification email is an excellent and recommended practice of how to help your email marketing being successful. Some might argue that skipping the verification step in the registration process results in more registered users. If your aim is only the number of registered users, then it makes sense to skip it. On the other hand, if you plan any other activity with those emails, then verification is the best start.
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