Find out the best practices to avoid invalid emails and how to make sure they aren't cluttering up your marketing contacts.
We've all been there – a missed letter here, a random full stop there. Typos happen, and they can be more than just a minor annoyance. In HubSpot, even small email errors can significantly impact your marketing contact health. Don't let dirty data creep into your portal and compromise your communication efforts.
Let's dive into how you can stay on top of those pesky invalid emails and keep your contact data squeaky clean.
1. Make sure you give people a chance to correct their mistakes
The first thing you want to do is make sure people have a chance to correct their error or typo. On all our 'Thank you pages' we have a form where people have the chance to update their email. Like the image below, if you want to know how to set up the form then follow this hack.
2. If all else fails
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. The same goes for fixing email errors in HubSpot. Sometimes, those typos just don't get fixed, or the email was never right in the first place.
If these contacts are clogging up your marketing lists, you're wasting valuable space (and potentially hurting your email deliverability). It's time for a clean-up! Start by creating a list of all the contacts with invalid emails. This helps you track your progress and see how many you'll be setting to "non-marketing."
You will then need to create two static lists to use later on.
3. Automation time
Once you have set this up, it's time to create your workflow like the image below.
Now, you could simply stop here – but why settle for the bare minimum? Those contacts you've just marked as Non-marketing represent a hidden opportunity. They might be potential leads waiting to be nurtured, or contacts that need closer evaluation to determine their true value.
Instead of leaving them in limbo, take a strategic approach. Identify which contacts are worth pursuing and which should be redirected. By doing so, you'll ensure that each contact finds its way to the right team for proper handling.
Here are the steps to do that:
- Create an if/then branched based off of "Email subscription" or "Legitimate interest", one branch for yes/no.
- After this select the step to add these contacts to the static lists you created earlier. If "legitimate interest = No" then send them to the "Review and Delete" list. If "legitimate interest = Yes" then send them to the "Manually enrich" list. From here you can use whatever enrichment tool your business might be using to check the email addresses and build out your contact's profile.
- Once you have done this, then set up an internal notification to whoever needs to review the contacts so they are aware there are contacts sat within their lists. This means no contact gets left behind and no credits used for no reason.
Like the image below.
4. Monitor
Beyond simply identifying invalid emails, your newly created list becomes a powerful diagnostic tool. Use it to track emerging trends and detect any unusual spikes in incorrect email addresses. If you notice an abnormal volume of invalid contacts, it's time to dig deeper and understand the root cause.
Remember, contacts aren't just names in a database – they represent potential resources and costs. Every contact that doesn't provide value to your marketing or sales team, and isn't actively engaged in a deal or nurture sequence, is essentially taking up valuable space and potentially impacting your platform's efficiency.
As a marketer, managing this digital real estate is your first line of defence.
