How to validate B2B contacts before sending?
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You've pulled a list of contacts from a data broker or internal CRM. Before you hit send, take an afternoon to validate them. Even small improvements in list quality pay dividends in deliverability and response rates.
Start with technical validation. Run your addresses through an email validation service. This catches syntax errors, typos, and invalid domains. You'll also want to flag disposable email providers (like Temp Mail) and catch-all domains where delivery is uncertain. Most validation tools do this automatically.
Then verify the person is real. Check LinkedIn or the company's website to confirm they still work there. Job titles change fast, especially in sales and recruiting. If someone left the company six months ago, that email will likely bounce. Look for recent activity or posting to spot stale records. (Most of the bad data in purchased lists is simply outdated.)
Filter for relevance. Does their role actually connect to what you're selling? A contact list with everyone from a company isn't helpful if you're trying to reach CFOs. Compare their title against your ICP (ideal customer profile). If someone's job doesn't match, move them out. You'll get better engagement and waste less of your sending reputation.
Check suppression lists. Compare your new list against previous bounces, unsubscribes, and complaints. If someone bounced hard last month, don't send again. If they unsubscribed, definitely skip them. Many ESPs make this easy to automate, but if you're pulling from multiple sources, build a master suppression file and check against it before every send.
Target benchmark. A bounce rate above 2 percent on cold B2B email signals poor list quality. If you're seeing higher bounces, pause the campaign and re-validate. Talk to your data source about where the decay is happening.
Next step. Pick one validation tool and run a test batch of 500 contacts. See how many get flagged as invalid or catch-all. If the percentage is high, negotiate with your data broker or find a new source.
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