Think verifying your list once is enough? Think again. Email addresses decay constantly, and pre-campaign cleaning is the key to consistently high performance.
The Reality of Email Decay
Email lists decay at approximately 22-30% per year. That means nearly a quarter of your list becomes invalid every year due to:
- Job changes (people leave company email behind)
- Abandoned personal accounts
- Provider account deletions (like Google's inactive account policy)
- Domain expirations
- Typos and fake signups you missed
Why Pre-Campaign Cleaning Works
Cleaning your list right before sending ensures you catch the most recent changes. An address that was valid last month might bounce today.
Immediate Benefits
- Lower bounce rates – Remove invalid addresses before they bounce
- Better deliverability – Protect your sender reputation
- Accurate metrics – Open/click rates reflect actual engagement
- Cost savings – Don't pay to send to invalid addresses
When Pre-Campaign Cleaning is Critical
- Large campaigns – More emails = more potential damage from bounces
- Important campaigns – Product launches, sales events, announcements
- Cold lists – Segments you haven't emailed in 3+ months
- Acquired lists – After mergers, acquisitions, or list purchases
The Process
- Export your campaign list
- Upload to MailVeri for verification
- Remove or quarantine invalid addresses
- Decide what to do with risky addresses (catch-all, role-based)
- Send with confidence
Cost vs. Benefit
A common objection is that verification costs money. But consider:
- MailVeri costs $0.00059 per verification at 100K scale
- Most ESPs charge $0.001-0.003 per email sent
- A damaged sender reputation can take months to recover
- ESP account suspensions cost you everything
The math is clear: verification is always cheaper than the alternative.
Conclusion
Make pre-campaign list cleaning a standard part of your email workflow. The small investment in verification pays massive dividends in deliverability, engagement, and peace of mind.