Boost Email Hygiene and Campaign Engagement with ZeroBounce’s Real-Time Email Validation System

TL; DR: ZeroBounce’s catch-all email validation service helps businesses in nearly 200 countries achieve higher email deliverability while protecting customer data with a military-grade security infrastructure. The system detects fraudulent and risky email accounts, spam traps, and even typos to assist users in cleaning up their contact lists. With a commitment to the highest levels of accuracy, ZeroBounce is providing customers with the insights they need to improve and maintain good sending reputations.

Mobile messaging and chat applications have become increasingly popular in recent years, but when it comes to business communication, nothing beats email.

In a recent study, the majority of U.S. adults surveyed (72%) said they prefer communication with companies to occur via email, rather than phone calls, physical mail, text messaging, and social media, among other outlets.

It follows that email marketing has grown tremendously as an industry over the past few years. In 2017, for instance, global spend reached $2.81 billion, according to Forrester.

“We see that organizations understand the power of email and continue to contribute to its growth,” Liviu Tanase, Founder and CEO of ZeroBounce, told us. “At the same time, they realize how much data quality influences the return on investment of email campaigns.”

Liviu said effective email marketing starts with accurate email databases and a good sender reputation. When founding ZeroBounce in 2017, the company aimed to support senders in achieving these goals, which result in genuine, long-term audience relationships and a consistent ROI.

Today, ZeroBounce provides more than 60,000 businesses in nearly 200 countries with an award-winning email verification service dedicated to improving email deliverability. The system flags nonexistent and abusive accounts, spam traps, risky email addresses, and typos, ensuring users can maintain good sending reputations.

ZeroBounce also ensures that customer data is protected by operating a military-grade security infrastructure. Ultimately, the company’s commitment to data privacy and the highest levels of accuracy provide marketers with the insights they need to validate their mission-critical email lists.

ZeroBounce’s five years of experience in the quickly evolving email validation space has given the company a broad perspective on how to best serve the needs of customers.

“I view automation as one of the most important shifts in our space,’ Liviu said. “Marketers have a lot on their plates, so they’re taking every chance they get to save time and be productive. We’re aware of their pain points and are constantly working on developing tools and features to make their lives easier.”

For example, the company’s bulk email verification and email scoring APIs allow marketers to automate the validation process and instead focus on their daily tasks. Liviu said integrations are also vital for ensuring efficiency and ease of use.

“We had to move fast to make integrations available quickly because our customers expected them,” he said. “Now, ZeroBounce has more than 45 integrations with the most popular platforms in the world. It’s easy for anyone to import their email databases, validate them, then export them back onto the platform of their choice.”

Liviu told us he appreciates the fact that the industry’s ever-changing challenges keep the ZeroBounce team on its toes. “It pushes us to constantly innovate and strive to be better every day,” he said.

The company certainly keeps its standards high, guaranteeing customers 98% accurate email verification outcomes. Such attention to detail has helped the company expand. In 2019, ZeroBounce was included in the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the United States.

ZeroBounce has focused on two main differentiators — accuracy and security — from the very beginning.

“Our customers come to us with outdated, obsolete data that causes high bounce rates, a poor sender score, and low inbox placement,” Liviu said. “Once they verify their data, they know it’s safe to use and will reach more people.”

Another aspect that sets ZeroBounce apart is the fact that the company offers around-the-clock customer support. Liviu said some competitors have begun to include this feature in their packages, but it’s far from the standard.

“At the time of our launch, I don’t remember any other email verification company offering 24/7 support,” he added.

The ZeroBounce platform also includes a good list of features — from an invalid address remover and spam trap to validation services and an API. ZeroBounce A.I., the company’s email address scoring system, leverages artificial intelligence to rate the value of email addresses on a granular level. The tool expresses the reachability of an email address from 0 to 10 using a proprietary algorithm, with 10 indicating the highest quality.

“ZeroBounce is now more than an email validation service,” Liviu said. “It has evolved into a go-to platform that organizations can rely on, 365 days a year, to keep up with their email hygiene and boost campaign engagement. All of our features accomplish critical tasks in this process.”

Liviu told us that ZeroBounce’s variety of features and consistently accurate results have helped the company build trust. Beyond that, the company’s stellar team — including the developers who built the system and those who interact with users daily — attracts and retains customers.

“Think about a brand you love and trust: what has caused you to say you love and trust it?” he said. “It’s probably all the little things that make that brand, from the quality it guarantees to its customer service and the way it responds in a crisis. The same goes for ZeroBounce.”

The company delivers several benefits to users, from dollars and hours saved to lower bounce rates and higher conversions. But Liviu said the greatest benefit to customers is the ability to turn to a single platform for every feature they need to send emails with confidence. The feedback ZeroBounce’s customers share is frequently centered on this perk.

“One customer, Bruce Herwig of Image Source, reduced his company’s email bounce rate from 19% to almost zero,” he said. “Their sender reputation has improved, and they’re very happy with their email marketing results now. Also, he’s been telling us how much he enjoys being able to reach out to our support team at any time of day.”

When it comes to internal development, ZeroBounce leans on both feedback from customers and the company’s own market expertise.

“It’s a combination,” Liviu said. “On one hand, our customers trust us to provide the best email validation service for their needs. So, a natural part of that is we have to continually refine our current offerings, innovate, and provide new solutions for potential opportunities and problems.”

On the other hand, ZeroBounce was born out of necessity by customers of previous validation services.

“We weren’t getting the tools and services we felt necessary for email validation,” Liviu said. “As a result, we take our customers’ feedback and suggestions into our development strategy because, in the end, if we are not solving their problems, we’re not relevant.”

ZeroBounce recently launched a deliverability toolkit, which includes an email server tester and an inbox placement tester. These additions were designed to give customers access to an entire suite of services that help them be more effective in their business and marketing communications.

“We’re so excited about the email deliverability tools we’ve just launched,” Liviu said. “Our entire team has been working hard in the past few months to integrate them into ZeroBounce. For a busy marketer or salesperson, it feels great to know they can not only validate their email list but also score it and add missing info to it.”

The company’s email server tester analyzes email headers to ensure the user’s mail server is configured correctly, while the inbox placement tester gauges whether emails will make it to their recipient’s inbox.
Both tools are available at no charge with a freemium account, which provides one of each test for free every month.

“The email server tester allows you to check if your email server is configured correctly, so you can fix any issues before you send,” Liviu said. “Then, the inbox placement tester gives you perspective on where your email is going to be delivered — inbox, spam, or nowhere at all. If you get too many ‘spam’ or ‘not delivered’ results, you have a chance to double-check your subject lines, images, or links and make adjustments.”

Moving forward, Liviu told us he will continue to depend on ZeroBounce’s experienced and hardworking team. Liviu runs the company’s Santa Barbara office, while its engineers, programmers, developers, and sales team work out of Boca Raton, Florida. The ZeroBounce support team and our European sales team are located in Bucharest, Romania. Other employees work remotely from Utah and Georgia.

“So many CEOs would probably say this, but I do feel like our team is the best,” he said. “Although we’re spread out across the U.S. and Europe, we manage to be so close because everyone is open, flexible, and eager to be an active part of our company.”

Like many companies across the globe, the team recently transitioned into a remote workforce to abide by shelter in place recommendations. And they did so seamlessly.

“We communicate constantly, and we can count on our colleagues because they delivered in the past and will continue to do so,” Liviu said.