What Is B2B Data Verification? A Practical Guide
What B2B data verification means, which fields to check, how often to do it, and how it differs from data enrichment.
Read articleA high bounce rate is one of the quickest ways to push your emails into spam. The good news is that most bounces are preventable. Here is what causes them and eight fixes that bring the rate down.
Hard bounces vs soft bounces
Hard bounce
A permanent failure: the address or domain does not exist. Remove it straight away.
Soft bounce
A temporary failure, such as a full mailbox or a busy server. Retry, and remove the address if it keeps failing.
As a rule of thumb, keep your total bounce rate under 2%. Rates above that are a sign your list needs attention.
8 fixes that reduce bounces
- Verify before you send. Check every list you have not used recently, and every new import.
- Remove hard bounces immediately. Never send to an address that has already hard bounced.
- Fix common typos. Catch misspelled domains such as gmial.com at the point of entry.
- Use double opt-in for sign-ups. It confirms the address works before it reaches your list.
- Be careful with accept-all and role addresses. Send to them in small numbers and watch the results.
- Warm up new domains and inboxes. Increase volume gradually rather than sending hundreds on day one.
- Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Authentication helps mailbox providers trust and accept your mail.
- Refresh old data. Replace contacts who have left with the current person in the role.
What mailbox providers expect
Since 2024, Gmail and Yahoo have required bulk senders to authenticate their email, make unsubscribing easy and keep spam complaint rates below 0.3%. A clean, verified list makes all three easier to meet.
Check addresses yourself with Domailfix, or have our team clean and refresh your list with email verification. Then test your wording in the Free Cold Email Spam Checker.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good email bounce rate?
Under 2% is a sensible target for B2B email. Well-kept, verified lists often stay well below 1%.
What causes a hard bounce?
The address or domain does not exist, often because the person left the company or the address was mistyped.
Will verification remove every bounce?
It removes most of them. A small number of soft bounces, such as full mailboxes, can still happen at send time.
How can I verify my list?
Check addresses yourself with Domailfix, or ask Achivix to verify and refresh the list for you.
Related service
Email Verification
Achivix email verification checks every address on your list and marks it valid, risky or invalid, so you can cut bounces, protect your sender reputation and reach real people.
