Email Scrubbing: How to Clean an Email List

What Is Email Scrubbing and Why Is It Important?

Email scrubbing, also known as email list scrubbing or email list cleanup, is the process of removing invalid, inactive, or otherwise problematic mail addresses from your mail list (the collection of addresses you send marketing or informational messages to).

This activity is typically performed by marketers, organizations, and everyone else who regularly sends bulk messages. Or at least it should be performed because it's very important for several different reasons, including:

• Improved deliverability: By removing invalid or problematic addresses, you're more likely to reach your subscribers' inboxes and prevent messages from going to spam.
• Reduced bounce rate: Likewise, proper email list hygiene helps reduce the number of messages that are returned to you due to invalid or non-existent mail addresses.
• Better sender reputation: As a mail sender, you have a reputation to maintain, and preventing your messages from landing in spam or bouncing back helps improve your standing with mail service providers.
• Increased engagement: A clean mail list means you are targeting active and interested subscribers, which can lead to higher open rates, click-through rates, and overall engagement with your content.
• Cost efficiency: Sending messages to invalid or inactive addresses can be a waste of resources. By doing email list scrubbing, you can focus your budget on reaching active subscribers, making your online marketing efforts more cost-effective.

These and other benefits of email list scrubbing increase your marketing return on investment (ROI).

Signs You Need to Scrub Your Email List

If you've never performed an email list cleanup before, then the time to perform your first one is now, but you don't have to take my word for it because there are certain signs that clearly indicate it's time to scrub your mail list, and I have personal experience with them.

A few years ago, I was managing an mail list for a growing e-commerce business. We were excited about our expanding subscriber base, but something felt off. Our open rates were declining, and our bounce rates were creeping up. That's when I realized we needed to take a closer look at our email hygiene.

Initially, we assumed that our content wasn't resonating, so we tweaked the copy several times, but that didn't help at all. Then the wake-up call arrived in the form of our first spam complaint. It turned out that our mail list contained addresses of people who unsubscribed a long time ago! And not just that. It also contained a bunch of addresses that were very clearly invalid (@gamil.com instead of @gmail.com and so on), and even some spam traps.

So, we scrubbed our list clean of all these problematic addresses, and the business has continued to do so on a regular basis ever since.

How to Achieve and Maintain a VerifiedEmail List

My first experience with email scrubbing, as I described above, involved a lot of boring manual work. We went through each and every address on our list one by one, like we were counting grains of sand on a beach. Unless your mail list is tiny or you're desperately seeking a cure for insomnia, I don't recommend this approach.

What I recommend instead are email list cleanup tools, also called mail scrubbing tools. With their help, you can clean up your mail list in a fraction of the time it would take to do it manually.

The best mail list cleaners can verify email addresses without sending an email, and they can detect everything from typos to inactive addresses to spam traps. You can even integrate them with your existing email marketing tools to automate or at least greatly simplify the whole process.

Best Email Scrubbing Tools

There's a whole arsenal of email list cleanup tools out there, each promising to be the best. I've test-driven more email list cleaners than I care to admit and found that the following three options consistently deliver exceptionally great results.

VerifiedEmail

Price: Starting at $7 for 1,000 messages (one-time verification) or $9/month for daily re-verification

Check if your email is valid with VerifiedEmail.

Verify

Key features:

• Bulk mail list cleaning: Upload lists of any size and clean them efficiently.
• Dashboard and API: Use the easy-to-use dashboard or integrate with the API for larger, more regular jobs.
• Continuous optimization: Automatically sync, clean, and verify your mail lists to maintain good mail hygiene.
• Integration: Seamlessly integrate with your mail provider or in-house CRM for automatic list cleaning.

If email list hygiene were an Olympic sport, VerifiedEmail would be bringing home the gold. It offers bulk email list cleaning with an impressive 99+% precision and goes the extra mile by providing a deliverability score for each message, helping you make informed decisions about your online marketing strategy.

ZeroBounce

Price: $18/month for 2,000 credits (minimum purchase), with prices decreasing for larger volumes

Key features:

• Email activity data: Gain insights into the activity of your mail addresses.
• Email scoring: Assess the quality of your addresses.
• DMARC monitoring: In-depth domain verification and automated reporting.
• Email finder: Find mail addresses associated with specific domains.

ZeroBounce is another excellent option for email list cleanup. It offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to improve your online marketing efforts. ZeroBounce not only verifies mail addresses but also provides additional insights such as mail activity data and mail scoring.

NeverBounce

Price: $8 for 1,000 messages (pay-as-you-go), with discounts for larger volumes and subscriptions available

Key features:

• Real-time email verification: Verify mail addresses in real time.
• Automated list cleaning: Automatically clean your lists to maintain good mail hygiene.
• Integrations: Integrate with over 88 platforms for seamless list cleaning.

NeverBounce is known for its precision, speed, and affordability in mail scrubbing. It provides bulk mail list cleaning and real-time email verification to make sure your list remains healthy, and your opening rate for email marketing is good.

To Sum It Up

Remember, a clean mail list is like a well-tended garden—it needs regular care to flourish. Regardless of which mail scrubbing tool you choose, you need to make it an integral part of your marketing routine to see the fruits of your labor in improved deliverability, engagement, and ultimately, your marketing ROI.