If you’re wrangling lists of emails—whether for sales, recruiting, or marketing—you already know: junk data costs time, money, and your reputation. This guide is for anyone who wants to get the most out of Wiza and make sure their email lists are spotless, accurate, and actually deliverable. No fluff, no hype—just what works.
Why You Need to Clean and Verify Your Email Lists
Let’s be honest: most raw email lists are a mess. You’ll find typos, outdated addresses, duplicates, and stuff that looks like it was written by a cat on a keyboard. If you skip cleaning and verifying, here’s what you’re in for:
- Bounced emails (hurts your sender reputation)
- Spam complaints (hurts your whole domain)
- Wasted outreach (hurts your bottom line)
Cleaning isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s the difference between results and wasted effort.
Step 1: Know What Wiza Can Actually Do For You
Before you dive in, get clear on what Wiza is good at and what it won’t magically fix. Wiza pulls emails from LinkedIn and other sources, then runs them through its own verification filters.
Strengths: - Finds work emails based on real data, not just guesses - Built-in email verification for many addresses - Easy export and list management
Limitations: - Not every email is guaranteed to be 100% accurate—nobody’s is - Some emails will be marked “unverifiable”—treat these with caution - No tool, including Wiza, can catch every typo or oddity in your source data
Pro Tip: Don’t treat “verified” as gospel. Always spot-check a sample if you’re sending something important.
Step 2: Start With a Clean List—Garbage In, Garbage Out
The best verification starts with a good source. Before you even use Wiza, give your raw input some love.
Quick Pre-Clean Checklist
- Remove obvious junk: Anything like “test@test.com”, “asdf@asdf.com”, or emails with weird characters.
- Standardize formats: All lowercase, no extra spaces, use real email structure (e.g., name@domain.com).
- Deduplicate: Get rid of repeated addresses. No sense verifying the same thing twice.
- Watch for role-based emails: Things like “info@”, “sales@”, “admin@”. These often aren’t tied to real people and have lower deliverability.
How to Do It: - Run a quick “Remove Duplicates” in Excel or Google Sheets. - Use “Text to Columns” or formulas to break apart data if the formatting’s a mess. - Filter and delete obvious spammy or placeholder addresses.
What Not to Worry About: - Don’t sweat minor casing or dot variations (e.g., “jane.doe@” vs “janedoe@”)—Wiza will handle most of that.
Step 3: Import Into Wiza and Run the Built-In Verification
Wiza gives you a few ways to get your data in, but most people either pull contacts directly from LinkedIn or upload a CSV.
Importing Best Practices
- Stick to CSV: It’s the cleanest. Avoid .xlsx or .txt if you can.
- Map your fields: Make sure “email” columns are actually tagged as emails.
- Small batches first: If you’re new, start with a small list to see how Wiza handles your data.
Verification in Wiza
Wiza will automatically run verification on most emails it finds or imports. You’ll see results like: - Valid (safe to send) - Invalid (don’t send) - Accept-All (the domain accepts all emails—risky) - Unverifiable (couldn’t confirm—use your judgment)
Pro Tip: “Accept-All” domains are a gray area. If you’re emailing high-value contacts, tread carefully—they might bounce or get flagged.
Step 4: Review and Export Only the Good Stuff
Don’t just trust the output and blast away. Take a minute to filter and check what you’ve got.
Filtering Tips
- Export only “Valid” emails for campaigns where deliverability is crucial.
- Flag or separate “Accept-All” and “Unverifiable”—maybe use them for lower-stakes outreach or follow-up.
- Never use “Invalid” results. Seriously, just delete them.
How to Export: - Use Wiza’s built-in filters before exporting. - Download as CSV and do a final pass in your spreadsheet tool to make sure nothing weird snuck through.
What to Ignore: - Don’t waste time chasing down every unverifiable address. Some will always slip through, and that’s normal.
Step 5: Extra Cleaning—When and How to Go Further
Sometimes, you’ll want to go the extra mile, especially if your list is old, bought, or just looks sketchy. Wiza’s built-in checks are good, but not magic.
When to Add Another Layer
- If the bounce rate is still high after your first campaign
- If you see a lot of “Accept-All” or “Unverifiable” results
- If you’re mixing data from multiple sources (LinkedIn, spreadsheets, scraped lists)
What You Can Do
- Run the exported list through a second verifier. Tools like NeverBounce or ZeroBounce can catch stuff Wiza misses.
- Use email pattern checkers. If you know the company format (like firstname.lastname@company.com), scan for weird outliers.
- Spot-check domains. If you see a lot of emails from the same domain, Google it to make sure it’s real and not a spam trap.
Pro Tip: Don’t bother with super-expensive “guaranteed deliverability” tools unless your list is huge and your risk is high. For most, Wiza plus a second opinion is plenty.
Step 6: Keep Your Lists Fresh—Don’t “Set and Forget”
No matter how good your cleaning, lists get stale. People change jobs, companies rebrand, and domains die.
Set a Schedule
- Re-verify before big sends. Even if you cleaned a few months ago, check again.
- Watch your bounce rates. If they start climbing, your data’s getting old.
- Keep notes. Track when a list was last cleaned and verified.
What Not to Stress: - Don’t obsess over “perfect” data. Aim for “good enough,” and keep iterating.
What Actually Works (and What Doesn’t)
Works: - Manual spot checks—catch weird errors and learn your data’s quirks - Combining Wiza with a backup verifier for mission-critical sends - Regular re-cleaning and version control
Doesn’t Work: - Blindly trusting any tool’s “valid” stamp 100% - Sending to everyone, every time—prune aggressively - Ignoring role-based or generic emails
Ignore the Hype: - No tool is perfect. If anyone claims 100% accuracy, walk away. - The real win is reducing risk and keeping your domain reputation healthy, not chasing mythical zero-bounce rates.
TL;DR: Keep It Simple, Stay Skeptical, and Iterate
Don’t overthink it. Start by cleaning your input, use Wiza’s verification, and double-check anything that seems off. Remember: perfect isn’t possible, but clean, well-maintained lists will give you better results (and fewer headaches). Keep your process lightweight, adapt as you go, and don’t fall for miracle promises—steady beats flashy every time.