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List Cleaning | 4 Tips to clean your lists

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List Cleaning | 4 Tips to clean your lists 

Do you know how much of the data you receive is accurate? Or, more importantly – how much is inaccurate?

Once you have a list of contacts, there is lots to be done to ensure that all the information on your list is valid, safe and up to date.

Simply put.

The more accurate data you have, the fewer resources are wasted in reaching out to non-existent connections.

Each contact must go through a verification process that determines which information is correct, which needs updating and which could pose a threat to your system.

1.Field validation

A contact might contain missing or incorrect contact information on the signing up process.  It’s important to check required fields, such as first or last name, title, address, etc. This can be picked up by a form validation tool. The tool has access to public services and online databases, with an auto-correct for errors and auto-completion for missing fields.

2.Email and phone verification

Two thirds of companies have had problems with email deliverability over the last year. Passing your email addresses through a verification system is a good idea.  It will not only save you time, but also help you maintain a good sender reputation. Each address is matched with its mail server and domain to confirm that it is valid. Phone verification is also possible, but can be rather slow as each phone has to be checked in real time.

3.Bot leads

Most spam leads come from bot networks. These bots exist to transmit spam and viruses over the internet, and a sudden surge in contact could end up being a false trail. There are also destructive bots that could try to eliminate your existing leads. An important part of lead cleaning is to implement powerful filters that not only prevent bots from targeting your server, but also clean up any spam bots that may have already entered your system in the past.

4.Threat scans

Even once a lead has been verified as valid, it could still pose a threat to your system. There are dozens of different checks and scans that can be run to detect emails that may have been created solely for spam. Many of which involve tapping into the network of databases that run email blacklists.

If you don’t clean those contacts, they could cause great damage to the reputation of your mail server. Harder to spot are contacts that contain fraud threats. Millions of law enforcement officers around the world report contacts that are complicit even in attempted fraud scams. The purpose is to catch emails that have previously been involved in any level of fraudulent activity. You can run more scans to detect any deviation from the standards set by email transmission systems, such as those leads with temporary domains, or invalid address formats.

There will always be a small risk that during the list cleaning process, some authentic and valid contacts may be discarded along with the “bad eggs”. In the bigger picture, however, the consequences of not conducting a thorough and reliable clean of your leads could be devastating – your leads can never be too clean.

Are you unsure about the validity of your contacts? For assistance in managing your database of leads, contact Optinize, which offers a money-saving clean-up of your lists and contacts, also allowing you to track your contacts’ behavior.

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