How it works
Why every list is cleaned
Before anything sends, every address is checked, so only real, working addresses are mailed and typos, dead mailboxes, unsubscribes and spam reports are kept out.
Every email is judged by the mailbox provider that receives it. Sent to a real address, it's delivered, and your sending record stays clean. Sent to a dead one, it bounces, and the provider remembers. Enough bounces and it starts treating all of your mail as suspect, including the mail to people who want it.
So every list is cleaned before it sends, and you never have to do it yourself.
What goes, and what's kept out
| The address | What happens |
|---|---|
| A real, working address | It's mailed |
| A typo, or a broken address | Dropped when the list is uploaded |
| A mailbox that doesn't exist | Kept out, and blacklisted |
| Unsubscribed, or reported as spam | Kept out, on every list |
| A shared inbox like info@ or sales@ | Held back, unless you choose to include it |
How an address is confirmed
Only confirmed addresses are mailed. Most are confirmed by their own mail server. Some servers accept mail for any address at all, so they can't say whether a mailbox is real. Those addresses are probed instead, and mailed only once the probe confirms them. What probing is explains how.
Each address is checked once. The answer is kept, and used again on every list it turns up on, and on every import after.
See how a list was cleaned
Open Lists. Each list shows how many addresses passed (green) and how many were kept out (red).
Open the list, then its Clean tab. It shows how every address was judged.
The verdicts are counted: what's safe to send, and what was blacklisted.
Addresses still waiting on a probe are counted too, and so are the shared inboxes held back.
Every removal carries its reason.
Nothing is deleted. A removed address stays on the list as a record, and is never sent to.
The platform keeps watch while it sends
- Anyone who reports your email as spam is unsubscribed everywhere, and blacklisted.
- Once 1,000 emails have gone out, a campaign pauses itself if 3 in every 100 bounce for good. A campaign that protects itself explains why.
- A sending domain whose mail keeps bouncing at one provider has its sending cut back to where it started.
Why it's worth it
A clean list keeps your record clean, so more of your mail reaches the inbox. Your campaigns keep running instead of pausing. And because each address is checked once, the next list you upload is cleaned faster.
Related
- Upload and clean your listMake a list, upload your contacts as a CSV, check the columns and confirm consent. Every address is cleaned on the way in, then checked with its own mail server.Step by step · 13 steps
- What probing isSome mail servers say yes to every address, so for those a real one-line email checks the mailbox: delivered means it's real, and a bounce keeps it out.How it works
- Unsubscribes, honoured everywhereEvery email has an easy way out: an unsubscribe stops that brand's mail on every list, a spam report stops everything, and both are checked before every email.How it works
- A campaign that protects itselfOnce 1,000 emails have gone out since it last started, a campaign pauses itself if 3 in every 100 bounce hard, and a variant that draws spam reports is paused on its own.How it works