If you’re in sales, you already know the pain of chasing leads that never reply—because your emails bounce. Bad data wastes time, hits your sender reputation, and just plain feels dumb. If you’re tired of manual email checks and want to keep your lists clean automatically, this guide is for you. We’ll walk through how to set up automated email validation workflows using Emailable, with some real talk about what’s worth your time (and what isn’t).
Let’s get your pipeline running smoother with less guesswork, and zero hand-cranking.
Why bother automating email validation?
Here’s the deal: Most sales teams have better things to do than scrubbing spreadsheets. Email validation makes sure you’re not blasting messages into the void or getting flagged as spam. Automation takes it a step further—once you set it up, your lists stay fresh on their own. The big wins:
- Fewer bounces: You look more professional and don’t burn your sender reputation.
- Better conversion rates: Real people get your emails. Shocking, I know.
- Less manual work: No more weekly “clean the list” chores.
But, not every automation is worth it. Some are a nightmare to maintain. We’ll focus on the stuff that works and skip the headaches.
Step 1: Get your contacts organized
Before you automate anything, you need to know where your emails live. If your contacts are spread across five spreadsheets, a CRM, and someone’s inbox, automation isn’t going to help—you’ll just automate chaos.
What to do:
- Pick a “single source of truth” for your contacts (CRM, Google Sheet, wherever your team actually uses).
- Clean up duplicates and obvious junk now. Automation can’t fix garbage in, garbage out.
- Decide if you want to validate new contacts as they come in, or your whole database on a schedule (or both).
Pro tip: If your team uses a CRM like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive, Emailable has direct integrations. Otherwise, a shared Google Sheet or CSV export is fine to start.
Step 2: Connect your contact source to Emailable
There are a few ways to get your contacts from wherever they live into Emailable automatically:
Option A: Use a direct integration
Emailable has built-in integrations with popular CRMs and marketing tools. This is the easiest and most reliable way—if your tool is supported.
- Supported platforms: HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Mailchimp, and more.
- Setup: Usually a few clicks and OAuth permissions.
- What works: Automatic syncing, simple to set up.
- What doesn’t: Not every platform is supported. Some integrations can get a little quirky with custom fields—test with a small list first.
How to set it up: 1. Log into Emailable. 2. Go to “Integrations” in the sidebar. 3. Find your tool and click “Connect.” 4. Follow the prompts and select which list(s) to sync.
Pro tip: If you’re worried about breaking something, start with a test list. You can always scale up later.
Option B: Use Zapier or Make for custom workflows
If you’re using a tool that isn’t natively supported, or you want more control, try a no-code automation tool like Zapier or Make (formerly Integromat).
- Setup: Connect your contact source (Google Sheets, Airtable, your CRM) to Emailable’s API via Zapier.
- What works: Flexible, can trigger on new rows, updates, or scheduled runs.
- What doesn’t: Zapier can get expensive at scale. And it’s one more thing to monitor.
How to set it up: 1. Create a new Zap (or scenario in Make). 2. Set the trigger to “New Contact” or “New Row Added.” 3. Add an action for Emailable: “Validate Email.” 4. Map your email field. 5. Send the results wherever you want (update CRM, send a Slack alert, etc.).
Heads up: If you’re validating thousands of emails, expect some lag or rate limits. Zapier’s not magic.
Option C: Bulk CSV imports (not really automation)
You can always upload CSVs directly to Emailable. Honestly, this isn’t automation—but if your team refuses to change, a weekly export/import is better than nothing.
Step 3: Set your validation rules
Now that you’re pulling contacts into Emailable, you need to decide what happens next. Not every “invalid” email needs to be deleted—think before you nuke half your list.
Key things to set:
- Validation frequency: Do you want to validate on every new contact, or do a nightly batch run?
- Real-time is great for form submissions.
- Scheduled is better for big lists.
- What counts as “bad”?: Emailable will flag emails as deliverable, undeliverable, risky, catch-all, etc.
- Deliverable: You want these.
- Undeliverable: Ditch these—they’ll bounce.
- Risky / catch-all: Use your judgment. Sometimes corporate domains are marked risky but are fine.
Pro tip: Don’t auto-delete “risky” emails unless you’ve checked a sample. You can easily lose real leads.
Step 4: Automate the next steps after validation
Validation is only half the battle. The real value is what you do with the results.
Common automations:
- Update your CRM: Mark contacts as valid/invalid, or move them between lists.
- Remove or flag bad emails: Automatically unsubscribe, tag, or hide undeliverable contacts.
- Notify your team: Send an alert (Slack, email, whatever) if a batch of new leads is mostly junk.
How to set this up:
- If using a direct integration, Emailable may do this for you (e.g., updating tags in HubSpot).
- With Zapier/Make, you can add steps to update your records or ping your team.
- For CSV imports, you’ll need to manually re-upload the “clean” list to your CRM or email tool.
What not to do: Don’t build a Rube Goldberg machine. Start simple—just tag or move invalid emails, and expand later if you need fancier automations.
Step 5: Monitor and adjust (don’t set and forget)
No automation is perfect. You’ll want to check periodically that everything’s working—and actually useful.
What to watch:
- Validation accuracy: Are real leads being marked as invalid? Spot-check a few each month.
- Integration errors: Sometimes API connections break or permissions expire. Emailable usually alerts you, but don’t assume.
- Costs: If you’re running thousands of validations a day, keep an eye on your bill. Validate only what matters.
Pro tip: Build a habit: Review your validation results and automation logs monthly. It takes five minutes and saves huge headaches later.
What works, what doesn’t, and what to skip
What works: - Direct integrations with your CRM or email tool—less to break, less to babysit. - Simple automations: tag invalids, flag risky, alert your team for review. - Real-time validation for inbound leads (web forms, chatbots).
What doesn’t: - Overcomplicated, multi-step automations that try to do everything. They’ll break and you’ll hate fixing them. - Blindly deleting every “risky” or “unknown” contact. You’ll lose legit prospects.
What to skip: - Constantly validating your entire database “just in case.” Validate what’s changing, not what’s already been checked. - Fancy dashboards and reports unless you truly need them. Focus on getting invalids out of your sales flow.
Keep it simple and keep improving
Automating email validation with Emailable isn’t rocket science. The hardest part is getting your contacts organized and picking the right level of automation for your team. Start small—connect your main contact list, set up basic rules, and let it run. Check the results, tweak as needed, and don’t overcomplicate things.
Your team’s job is to close deals, not babysit spreadsheets. Set up your workflow, then get back to selling. If something feels like more work than it’s worth, it probably is. Iterate as you go, and don’t be afraid to scrap what isn’t working.
Happy (clean) selling.