If you use ZeroBounce, you will know how useful this tool can be from a marketing point of view. ZeroBounce is a great asset for cleaning email lists. Getting rid of outdated, invalid, or risky email addresses helps to keep the quality of your email marketing campaigns high. That is so important in the long run, as regularly marketing to invalid or risky emails can damage your reputation. To practice the best email hygiene, getting rid of invalid email addresses is so important.
However, when it comes to ZeroBounce, one feature that needs to be considered is how it verifies or validates catch-all emails. Proper verification can avoid problems like falling for spam traps or sending marketing content to an invalid email domain. Gathering as many valid email addresses as you can widens the net of your marketing campaign.
By contrast, though, sending too many emails to invalid catch-all domains will lead to a negative email reputation. Therefore, you should use an email verifier like ZeroBounce to try to reduce the number of invalid email addresses you target.
A catch-all address is used to, as the name implies, catch all incoming emails sent to a specific web domain. If someone were to message any email address with your @businessname.xyz address, having a catch-all address set up ensures that nothing is missed. For example, someone might look to contact your ‘sales@businessname.xyz’ address, but they misspell the ‘sales’ part of the address.
Without an accept-all email setup, this email would never be seen – it would simply fall through the cracks, never to be delivered. With accept-all emails set up properly, though, this means that the email is still received. Most companies that use an accept-all email address setup will have someone who (irregularly) checks for catch-all emails arriving. So, they can be useful from a marketing perspective.
When used in a marketing campaign, catch-all emails have the potential to be high-risk and low-reward. They might land you a chance to connect with someone at that business, or the email might bounce. By verifying the email address, though, we make it much easier to use that address with greater confidence.
Why Are Catch-All Emails Worth Using In Marketing Campaigns?
Verification is crucial when using catch-all emails (or accept-all emails). These emails can be a great tool for your email marketing campaigns. Whether you have self-identified catch-all emails in your list or purchased an email list with catch-all addresses included, verification should be your top priority. Why? Because catch-all addresses can be problematic. They can be damaging to email campaigns that fail to validate properly.
Without verification, though, you risk sending out a lot of emails that do nothing except bounce. This harms your sender’s reputation, impacts statistics, and dampens campaign quality.
With that in mind, many users today will use tools like ZeroBounce to try to reduce the number of invalid email addresses. That can be very useful, naturally, because you can quickly rule out email addresses that might have caused you problems down the line. It also means that you know that you have a higher number of email addresses to market to, boosting potential lead generation.
However, there are some issues with how ZeroBounce validates catch-all emails included in your list. It is important to understand this because many people take ZeroBounce’s scoring metric as gospel. While it can be accurate, it is not always right, and trusting it too much can lead to either throwing away good catch-all email addresses or contacting ‘good’ email addresses that then bounce.
How ZeroBounce Scores Catch-All Emails: Does It Work?
The first issue to raise is that ZeroBounce uses an artificial intelligence (AI) scoring algorithm to determine the validity of a catch-all email address. Zero bounce A.I. is getting a lot of positive traction, as are many AI tools, but there is a worry that some believe these tools are infallible. Like any AI tool, they can make mistakes, produce false negatives or false positives, and thus cause some problems.
These AI scores are just that—scores. They are not a direct validation or invalidation of the email address in question. They use a metric scoring system from 0 to 10, giving the email address a quality score based on how likely they think the address is to be valid. So, an email address with a score of 8 out of 10, for example, is viewed as being around 80% likely to be valid and thus safe to include in marketing.
It is important to understand, though, that this is an estimate based on a wide range of in-house metrics. There is no actual testing of whether the email is valid.
If you want to find out if an email is valid, you have two options:
1. Email the address yourself and see if it bounces or is sent to the address normally
2. Use a tool like Scrubby, which allows you to validate by sending an email to you
Basically, ZeroBounce is all about giving you a risk indicator rather than actually verifying the email outright. Unlike Scrubby, no email is sent to give you a guaranteed answer about validation. While that AI score is useful, and a high or low score does likely mean the email address is/is not valid/invalid, it is not perfect. You still need to take an element of risk if you choose to believe what the report says.
Can ZeroBounce A.I. Be Relied Upon?
Yes, in general, this email scoring system works well and does provide suitable insight into the validity of a catch-all email address. However, you still need to take a risk, so you need to determine if you are happy to take that chance. Many times, you are relying on an educated guess informed by AI. You then have to decide how comfortable—or not—you are with that and whether that works for you.
You have to decide on the risks of AI scoring when it comes to using an email validation service. A failure to take that into account could mean that you run the risk of:
· Removing otherwise valid email addresses due to ‘false negative’ low scores
· Contacting emails that end up bouncing en masse due to ‘false positive’ high scores
· Trusting the deliverability score, sending emails out that end up being 100% invalid
Such problems can become expensive to your reputation and make it harder for future campaigns to get off the ground. It can also harm your sender’s reputation significantly.
Since you aren’t given much detail about how that score was reached, you have to take a bit of a leap of faith with the ZeroBounce A.I. scoring indicator. It gives you a rough idea of how risky or safe that email address might be, but it is then up to you to determine if you wish to contact it. If you are worried about impacting the sender’s reputation with high bounce rates, you might be unsure.
That is totally natural and makes complete sense. ZeroBounce is an excellent tool that is filled with useful features, but it relies on an AI-based scoring metric for email safety or risk. It is then your personal choice whether you wish to trust that AI scoring or look to use an alternative tool—like Scrubby—to try and find a more definitive answer.
How To Verify Catch-All Emails Outside Of ZeroBounce
If you decide to err on the side of caution and not rely on the AI scoring metric, you have other options. The simplest way to find out if an email is valid is to cut to the chase and send an email directly to it. If you use a third-party email address that is not connected to your main email marketing campaign, you can test this email address directly and find out if it bounces, is opened, responded to, etc.
However, that is time-consuming and requires you to have an email address that you can use as a ‘burner’ address. This might work if you only have two or three catch-all email addresses to try and target. What about if you are 20? 100? Or more? That would be a hugely time-consuming process.
Instead, you can use Scrubby. Scrubby allows you to get a direct, clear-cut answer on email validation for catch-all emails. Alongside being able to quickly clean up a large email list with outstanding accuracy, Scrubby uses real testing as described above. All without you having to send the emails yourself or set up burner accounts. This removes the need to rely upon an automated AI score, which is less accurate.
Why Scrubby Is Perfect For Verifying Catch-All Emails
The main reason why Scrubby comes out on top for catch-all email validation is the use of burner accounts. Since they communicate with the email server directly, you get a real answer on whether or not the email was valid. This is far more consistent in creating results, producing accuracy that Scrubby claims exceeds 97%. This ensures that the emails are more consistently validated than relying on scores.
Rather than relying on a quality score that could still damage your sender reputation, Scrubby directly contacts the email account on your behalf. This means that your cold email marketing in particular can be far more effective and accurate.
You can then have a much clearer answer about whether or not an accept-all email address should be included in your marketing campaign. This removes many of the issues regarding ‘false positive’ and ‘false negative’ scoring. If the email bounces, this ensures that the email address is marked invalid. If the email is accepted and sent through, this ensures that the email is valid and can be marketed.
Catch-all email accounts are a very effective marketing tool. They can be the only way to access a potentially beneficial partner, supplier, or future client. Since so many catch-all email addresses are invalid, though, it pays to pre-research using a tool like Scrubby. This makes it much more likely that your emails will avoid bouncing, thus minimizing bounce rates and reducing risk.
Scrubby is useful for all forms of email marketing, but especially cold email campaigns. It is one of the best email verification tools out there for this purpose. By removing items like disposable email addresses, Scrubby makes your cold email campaigns a bit more effective.
If you want to ensure that you maintain good practice when it comes to email list management policies, validating catch-all emails becomes a priority. This gives you a much better idea of what emails you can use and market towards and what emails you should probably avoid including. Instead of relying on a generated AI score, this lets you get much closer to the full picture and continue email marketing.
How Does Scrubby Verify Catch-All Emails?
The process that Scrubby uses is very simple, which is in keeping with the platform’s ease of use. Scrubby can be used easily, and it only takes four quick steps to have your emails validated. To use Scrubby, all you need to do is:
1. Create an account with Scrubby and then log in to your Scrubby account
2. Input your catch-all email address list into Scrubby and have it scan the list
3. Scrubby will then test the emails for you, returning a full report within 48 to 72 hours
4. This gives the emails time to either land in the inbox or bounce, further improving accuracy
So, if you have a list of email addresses from ZeroBounce that have been assigned catch-all status, verify their accuracy here. This will then help you validate which emails are valid and which are risks without having to rely on a potentially uneven AI scoring metric. With the chance to validate as many as one hundred catch-all emails for free, too, Scrubby lets you battle-test its accuracy before paying a penny.
The process is quick and simple, and you only need to give the tool time to work through the email list. Since Scrubby uses respectable burner emails, too, there is no risk of their accounts being rejected at the point of delivery. With Scrubby, you can feel close to 100% certain that the results in their validation report can be trusted and relied upon. This is why it is an industry leader in email marketing validation.
Summing Up
Above, we have covered ZeroBounce’s process for validating catch-all email addresses. We have also discussed how effective ZeroBounce is as a tool and the limits of its AI scoring system. Finally, we have discussed the potential risks associated with using its insights.
We have also provided a clear alternative to using ZeroBounce A.I. to validate and verify your accept-all email listings. This means that you can have a much greater degree of confidence in the results that will come back to you later on. By using Scrubby, you are far more likely to receive feedback that is accurate and fits in exactly with what you were hoping for.
Scrubby, then, uses a scoring system that is far more direct – actually testing the emails – than simply guesstimation powered by AI. For any email marketer who wants confidence in using catch-all email addresses in an email marketing campaign, Scrubby offers one of the best ways to double-check. For that reason, it might be one of the most effective tools to add to your email marketing arsenal.
When used alongside tools like ZeroBounce, Scrubby can be the perfect way to build a comprehensive email list that is clean, effective, easily segmented, and safe to contact when required. We hope that this will make it easier for you to confidently decide on whether (or not) to include these addresses in your marketing material moving forward.
Frequently Asked Questions
· Are catch-all emails the same as accept-all emails? Yes, they are the same – there is no difference. This is simply a difference in terminology in some sectors.
· What is the average bounce rate for catch-all email accounts? It can be as low as 9% and as high as 23% in extreme cases. Read more here.
· What is an accepted bounce rate in the email marketing industry? You should be aiming to keep your bounce rate at around 2% or under. This is considered a safe bounce rate.
· Is it better to just delete catch-all emails from my email marketing list? Not necessarily. Verify them with Scrubby first, and you might find that they are worth contacting after all.
· How useful are catch-all emails in marketing? Extremely! You can use catch-all emails to get in with companies whom you might otherwise have been unable to contact.
· Can I test catch-all emails myself? Yes, you can, but you would need to have a paid sender domain (not Gmail, for example) that you don’t mind potentially burning your reputation with that particular domain.
