Email validation is the process of verifying that an email address is real, active, and deliverable before you send to it. Running validation before launching a campaign protects your sender reputation, reduces bounce rates, and keeps your account in good standing with email providers.
Why Email Validation Matters
Every email that bounces is a signal to email providers that your sending practices may be poor. Too many bounces — especially hard bounces — can result in your account being flagged, throttled, or blacklisted.
Hard bounce: The email address does not exist or the domain is invalid. Always remove these.
Soft bounce: A temporary delivery issue (e.g., full inbox). Less critical but worth monitoring.
A healthy campaign should maintain a bounce rate below 2%.
Step 1: Validate Leads Before Adding to a Campaign
Go to Cold Email Outreach → Email Validation from the left sidebar, or access it from within your campaign setup.
Click Validate a List.
Upload your lead list as a CSV — or select a saved list from Lead Explorer.
Click Start Validation.
Step 2: Review Validation Results
Status | Meaning | What to do |
Valid | Email is verified and deliverable | Safe to send |
Invalid | Email address does not exist or domain is inactive | Remove from campaign |
Catch-All | Domain accepts all emails regardless of whether the address exists | Use with caution — send at your own risk |
Unknown | Could not be verified either way | Remove or treat as risky |
Disposable | A temporary or throwaway email address | Remove from campaign |
Step 3: Export or Filter the Cleaned List
After validation, click Filter by Status.
Select Valid only to get your clean, sendable list.
Click Export to download the clean list as a CSV — or click Send to Campaign to push the validated leads directly into a campaign.
Validation Within a Campaign
Open your campaign and go to the Leads tab.
Click Validate All Emails.
SalesTarget.ai will flag any leads with invalid or risky email addresses.
Use the Filter option to show only problematic leads.
Remove or skip them before launching.
Best Practices
Always validate before a new campaign — especially for lists sourced from outside Lead Explorer
Re-validate old lists — email addresses go stale over time; a list from 6+ months ago should be re-validated before use
Remove Catch-All and Unknown addresses from high-volume campaigns — they're not worth the deliverability risk
Never send to Invalid addresses — even a small number of hard bounces can damage your sender reputation quickly