If you've ever sent a big email campaign and watched half your messages bounce, you know the pain of dirty CRM data. Outdated or fake email addresses clog up your system, waste your team’s time, and can even get your domain blacklisted. If you’re running a sales, marketing, or support team and want to avoid those headaches, this guide is for you.
The good news: you don’t have to clean up your CRM by hand. With the right setup, you can schedule regular email checks that keep your lists in shape automatically. In this guide, I’ll walk through how to do it with Usebouncer, an email verification tool that actually does what it says on the tin.
Let’s get your CRM cleaned up—and keep it that way.
Why Bother with Regular Email Checks?
You might think, “I already verified emails when I imported them—why bother doing it again?” Here’s what most CRM users learn the hard way:
- People change jobs, switch email providers, or mistype their address.
- Purchased, scraped, or old lists are riddled with garbage emails.
- Every bounced email hurts your sender reputation (and, in bulk, can get you blocked).
A one-time clean isn’t enough. If you’re adding contacts or collecting leads regularly, you need an ongoing process. That’s where scheduling comes in.
Step 1: Get Real About Your Current CRM Data
Before automating anything, take a hard look at what you’re working with.
What to check:
- How many contacts are in your CRM?
- How often are new emails added?
- Are you mostly dealing with B2B (company domains) or B2C (Gmail, Yahoo)?
- Has your bounce rate been creeping up?
Pro tip:
Export a sample of your contacts and run them through a free email verification tool. If more than 5% come up invalid or risky, you’ve probably got a problem.
Step 2: Choose the Right Tool for the Job
There are dozens of email verification tools out there. Some look slick but fall apart at scale, others nickel-and-dime you for every check.
Usebouncer is a solid choice because:
- It’s straightforward—no bloated features you’ll never use.
- The API is fast and reliable.
- Pricing is fair and easy to understand.
- You can automate checks, not just do manual uploads.
What doesn’t matter as much:
Don’t get distracted by fancy dashboards or “AI-powered” promises. Email verification is a pretty well-solved problem. Accuracy, speed, and ease of automation matter most.
Step 3: Set Up Usebouncer and Connect Your CRM
This is where a lot of folks get stuck. Here’s how to keep it simple:
a) Sign Up and Get API Access
- Create your Usebouncer account.
- Visit the dashboard and grab your API key.
- Don’t share your API key with anyone you don’t trust.
b) Decide How You’ll Sync Data
You’ve got a few options:
- Manual CSV uploads: Fine for a one-off, but not scalable.
- CRM integrations: Some platforms (like HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce) can connect directly or via middleware tools like Zapier, Make (formerly Integromat), or n8n.
- Custom scripts: If you’ve got dev resources, you can call the Usebouncer API directly to check emails as they’re added or updated.
What works best:
If your CRM is mainstream, use Zapier or Make to automate the process. No dev time needed, and you can set up schedules or triggers.
What to ignore:
Don’t bother with “all-in-one” data hygiene platforms unless you’re running a giant enterprise. They’re overkill for most teams.
Step 4: Schedule Regular Email Checks
Here’s the heart of the process—making sure you’re not just cleaning once and calling it a day.
a) Decide How Often to Check
- Weekly: Good for fast-moving teams or big lead volumes.
- Monthly: Fine for steady-state or smaller lists.
- On-entry: Best if you want to catch junk emails before they hit your CRM.
Pro tip:
Start with monthly checks. If you notice lots of bad emails slipping through, dial up the frequency.
b) Automate the Flow
If Using Zapier/Make/n8n:
- Export new or updated contacts from your CRM.
- Most tools let you filter by “Date Added” or “Date Modified.”
- Send email addresses to Usebouncer’s API.
- Use the “Verify Email Address” action.
- Tag, update, or remove invalid emails.
- You can mark them as “Invalid,” move them to a separate list, or even delete them, depending on your workflow.
- Schedule the workflow to run automatically.
- Set the frequency to match your needs.
If Using Custom Scripts:
- Write a script to pull emails from your CRM via API.
- Batch them (don’t send thousands at once—Usebouncer has rate limits).
- Push results back to your CRM, tagging or removing as needed.
- Use a scheduler like cron to run it on autopilot.
What doesn’t work:
One-off cleans or running checks only when someone remembers. You need automation. Otherwise, dirty data creeps back in.
Step 5: Build a Simple Process for Handling Bad Emails
It’s not enough to find bad emails—you need to decide what to do with them.
Your options:
- Mark as Invalid: Tag them in your CRM so your team doesn’t waste time.
- Remove Automatically: If you’re confident in the results, just delete them.
- Send to Review: For high-value contacts, have someone double-check before removing.
What works:
Automate tagging and suppressing for bulk records, but sanity-check anything that looks odd or high-stakes. If a client’s CEO suddenly shows up as “invalid,” maybe give it a look before nuking their record.
Step 6: Monitor, Adjust, and Keep It Simple
No process is perfect out of the box. Plan to check in every few months:
- Review how many emails are being flagged.
- Spot-check Usebouncer’s results—no tool is 100% perfect.
- If you’re still getting bounces, increase check frequency or look for gaps in your process.
What to ignore:
Don’t chase zero bounces. Some emails will always slip through—focus on keeping your bounce rate low enough to protect your sender reputation and keep your team happy.
A Few Honest Caveats
- Some “catch-all” domains will always be a gray area. No tool can perfectly verify those.
- Verification costs money. Don’t waste checks on stale or obviously fake records.
- No tool will fix a messy sales process. If your team is adding junk emails to hit KPIs, fix that first.
Wrapping Up: Don’t Overthink It
Keeping your CRM clean isn’t rocket science, but it does take a bit of discipline and the right tools. Set up a regular, automated check with Usebouncer, decide what to do with bad emails, and tweak as you go. Don’t get distracted by shiny new features or over-engineer the process. Start simple, iterate, and you’ll save yourself hours of cleanup—and a lot of headaches—down the road.