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Contents

1. About email validation
2. Set up a validation
3. Which addresses are included
4. Run the validation and review the results
5. Why an existing address may be marked invalid

About email validation

Email validation checks whether an address is correctly formatted and can receive messages. It helps keep the customer database clean, protects sender reputation and reduces delivery failures.

Validation is a paid service. Before starting, check the number of addresses and the amount shown in your account’s billing currency. The charge is deducted from the Simla account balance on the day after validation.

Access to this section is controlled by user-group permissions.

Set up a validation

Go to Marketing → Database hygiene and click New validation in the upper-right corner. Enter a name and select which customers to include:

• All customers — starts from all customers in the account, then applies the general eligibility rules described below;
• Segments — includes customers from the selected segments;
• Store and date — includes customers from a selected store and registration period, which is useful for checking recently added addresses.

The estimated number of addresses is displayed at the bottom of the panel.

Which addresses are included

Only non-deleted customers with an email address who are subscribed to at least one active Email subscription category are eligible.

• For a category that subscribes customers automatically, the customer is eligible unless they have explicitly unsubscribed.
• For a category without automatic subscription, the customer must have explicitly subscribed.
• A customer unsubscribed from a system category can still be eligible through another active category.
• A customer unsubscribed from every active category is excluded. Subscription only to an inactive category is not enough.

The selected segment, store and registration dates can reduce the final scope further. If you enable the option to exclude addresses with active correspondence, those addresses are also omitted. The estimated number may therefore be lower than the size of the selected segment.

A subscription category cannot be selected directly in the validation form. To validate a specific category, create a segment with a condition for that category and select the segment in the validation.

Run the validation and review the results

Click Start validation. The check runs in the background and may take some time.

When it is complete, the report shows valid and invalid addresses. The validation status also appears next to the email address in the customer card. The report contains the customer’s name, email address and result, and can be downloaded separately for valid and invalid addresses.

For invalid addresses, you can:

• download the list as an .xlsx file;
• Unsubscribe from email — mark the affected customers as unsubscribed from email campaigns;
• Clear the email field — remove the address from the customer card.

Why an existing address may be marked invalid

An address can exist and even show previous opens while still being classified as risky. Possible reasons include:

• toxic addresses that are associated with a high complaint risk;
• spam traps created to identify unsolicited mail;
• temporary delivery or mail-server errors;
• a full mailbox;
• corporate domains that block external verification requests;
• inclusion in email-service blocklists.

Invalid addresses and addresses associated with spam complaints remain subscribed after the check. We recommend applying Unsubscribe from email before the next campaign.