Overview
Email verification is key to the success of every email campaign you run. Apollo has its own built-in email verification tool to increase your email reach when prospecting and help keep your domain reputation safe. This means that when you purchase a contact's data in Apollo, Apollo checks the validity and accuracy of the email address before you send any messages to the contact.
Refer to the sections below for more details about the process and accuracy rates of the built-in Apollo email verification tool.
The Apollo Email Verification Process
As a B2B database provider, lead data is the bread and butter of Apollo's business. Providing accurate data and verifying emails is integral to the success of all Apollo users. To maintain the highest level of data consistency and accuracy, Apollo has a 7-step email verification process in place. This process takes advantage of Apollo's large datasets.
Apollo Datasets
Apollo collects and verifies data against multiple data sources to identify the best source of truth. Data sources include, but are not limited to:
- The Apollo data contributor network
- Public data crawling
- Carefully vetted third-party data providers
By running checks against its large datasets, Apollo can effectively verify emails in real-time, handle catch-all domains, predict email bounces, and automatically clean emails. Third-party email verification tools are unable to leverage such insights to gain the same level of accuracy and granularity when verifying emails.
For more information about how third-party email verification tools work and what catch-all emails are, please refer to the "Email Verification: A Brief Introduction" article.
The 7-Step Process
Apollo does not solely rely on SMTP tickling to confirm that an account may or may not exist. Apollo goes one step further when verifying your emails.
A large number of users email prospects daily through Apollo to find and contact qualified leads and track the deliverability and success of their sequences. This means that Apollo does not only use advanced technologies to run syntax, domain, and email checks to determine the validity of each email. Apollo also leverages its insightful data to check and confirm if a real person is actively using an email. Within the 7-step email verification process, Apollo can:
- Check and validate emails against Apollo-connected inboxes, CRMs, and CSV uploads
- Track email delivery statistics
- Monitor email bounce-rates
Therefore, when you request and spend 1 credit on a verified email in Apollo, you can be sure of 2 important points:
- Apollo can provide greater email coverage for contacts in comparison to third-party email verification services because we do not eliminate a valid email just because it belongs to a catch-all domain.
- Apollo has gathered ample evidence that the email does exist and will reach an actual person's inbox
For more information about how credits work in Apollo, please refer to the "What Are Credits?" article.
Email Accuracy Rates
Apollo-verified emails have an accuracy rate of 91%.
Fear not, for fair play reigns free at Apollo! If you send an email to an Apollo-verified contact within 30 days of requesting the details and the email bounces, Apollo refunds your email credit. For more information, please refer to the "Check Your Email Credit Refunds" section of the "What Are Credits?" article.
Although it may be impossible to eradicate invalid emails entirely from your prospecting workflow, many factors contribute to Apollo's 9% bounce rate. Due to the thorough, tried-and-tested verification process, invalid emails make up a very small portion of that percentage. Other factors include:
- If the recipient has configured their email settings to block incoming emails
- If the recipient's mailbox is full
- If the recipient's server is temporarily unresponsive
- If you have a negative email domain reputation.
To keep track of your sequences in Apollo, make sure you leverage email analytics to monitor email performance and run A/B testing to keep improving your open, click, and response rates. You can also take advantage of the sequence diagnostics tool to pinpoint any issues and learn more about email best practices.
For inspiration on how to increase your conversion rates, refer to the "How Do I Write Effective Sales Emails?" article for a brief introduction. If you want to increase your open rates but don't know where to start, hop into this blog post for a comprehensive list of effective subject line examples to get your creative juices flowing.
Next Steps
Now that you have read about the Apollo verification process, refer to the Avoid SPAM Filters article for further insights about how to keep your domain healthy and improve your deliverability rates when sending emails through Apollo.
Worried about your domain reputation and hoping for a few helpful tips? You're in the right place, my friend! There are several actions you can take to get your reputation on the straight and narrow! Factors such as low open rates and recipients flagging your emails as SPAM can impact your domain reputation. For more information about how to protect your domain, refer to the domain reputation section of the "Avoid SPAM Filters" article. If you want to find out more about why your email bounce rate may be high, refer to the "Why Do I See Such a High Bounce Rate for Emails from Apollo?" article.