Validating catch-all email addresses presents unique challenges, but several methods and tools can help improve the accuracy of email verification. But first, its important to know what a Catch All email address is and what it is not.
Firstly, the vast majority of companies have Catch All email domains for security or customer service reasons. That means these companies will not allow for traditional email validation via SMTP negotiation. That is why we added an few extra steps to validate / invalidate Catch All email addresses:
- Email Delivery: We receive the delivery status of millions of email addresses used in marketing campaigns. The opens and clicks are promoted to Valid. Hard bounces are demoted to the Invalid status.
- Web Source Emails: RampedUp scans hundreds of millions of corporate web pages each month for business intelligence. When we find an email address from a Catch All Server, we give it the Deterministic status and provide the link where we scanned it.
- Authentication: Microsoft and Google provide the ability to authenticate users for their Office and Workspace products. We search their Active Directory to associate a Valid or Invalid signal.
In conclusion, while perfect validation of catch-all emails remains challenging, using a combination of specialized tools and best practices can significantly improve your email list quality and campaign performance. That's why we employ all 3 in addition to validating 3,000,000 emails via SMTP every day!