If your marketing emails are bouncing left and right, you’re not just wasting money—you’re hurting your sender reputation, too. This guide is for anyone who’s tired of seeing “undeliverable” pile up, whether you run newsletters, sales campaigns, or transactional emails. We’ll break down how to actually use Truemail’s features to clean up your list before you hit send, cut those bounce rates, and keep your emails landing where they should.
Let’s skip the fluff and get practical.
Why Bounce Rates Matter (and What’s Really Going On)
First, a quick reality check: a high bounce rate means a chunk of your emails aren’t even reaching inboxes. That’s bad for a few reasons:
- Wasted effort. You’re writing and designing emails that never get seen.
- Damaged reputation. Email providers notice when you send to dead addresses. Too many bounces? Your emails might go straight to spam—even for real subscribers.
- Wasted money. Some platforms charge based on list size or sends. Why pay for ghosts?
Bounces happen for several reasons: - Typos or fake addresses - Abandoned inboxes - Mailboxes that are full, or server issues - People signing up with “burner” emails
Some of these you can’t control, but most you can avoid—with the right validation.
What Truemail Actually Does (And What It Doesn’t)
Truemail is an email validation tool. In plain English: it checks if an email address is legit before you send to it.
Here’s what Truemail’s core features do:
- Syntax check: Spots obvious typos (like @gmal.com).
- Domain check: Makes sure the domain exists and can receive mail.
- Mailbox check: Verifies if the specific inbox is set up and accepting messages.
- Catch-all detection: Alerts you if a domain accepts all emails (could be a black hole).
- Disposable email detection: Flags one-off or temporary email addresses.
- Role-based detection: Highlights emails like info@, which rarely engage.
What Truemail doesn’t do: guarantee 100% accuracy. No email validator can. Some servers block verification attempts, and some mailboxes go dead between your check and your send. But clean data beats dirty data every time.
Step 1: Audit Your Current List
Before you even sign up for anything, take a hard look at your email list.
- How old is it? Lists decay fast. If you haven’t cleaned yours in a year (or ever), expect lots of bounces.
- Where did these addresses come from? Purchased or scraped lists are usually garbage. Even opt-ins can rot over time.
- Are you seeing a spike in bounces? That’s your warning sign.
Pro tip: Prioritize cleaning active campaign lists first. No need to validate every address you’ve ever collected if you’re never emailing them.
Step 2: Upload Your List to Truemail
Once you’re ready, export your email list as a CSV or TXT file. Most email platforms make this easy.
- Go to Truemail and create your account.
- Upload your file. (Don’t worry, you’re not sending anything yet—just scanning.)
- Start the validation process.
Depending on your list size, this could take a few minutes to a couple of hours. You’ll get back a report with each address marked as valid, invalid, disposable, catch-all, or unknown.
Heads up: No tool can verify every inbox definitively. Some may show up as “unknown”—that’s normal.
Step 3: Analyze the Results (Don’t Just Hit ‘Delete’)
You’ll see several categories in your results. Here’s how to handle each:
- Valid: Safe to keep. These should be real, working inboxes.
- Invalid: Remove these immediately. They’re bouncing for sure.
- Disposable: These are throwaways. Unless you have a very good reason, cut them.
- Catch-all: Some domains accept mail to any address, but that doesn’t mean anyone’s reading it. Test a few if you’re unsure, or treat with caution.
- Role-based:
admin@,info@, etc. These rarely engage and can trigger spam filters. Up to you if you want to keep them. - Unknown: Sometimes, servers don’t play ball. If you have a big chunk in this category, try validating again later. Otherwise, keep them, but watch for bounces.
Don’t get greedy: Cutting dead weight helps your sender score, even if your list gets smaller. Bigger isn’t better—engaged is better.
Step 4: Remove the Junk (and Keep Your List Clean)
Now, actually scrub your list.
- Download the list of “valid” emails from Truemail.
- Import that list back into your email platform.
- Archive or delete the rest. Don’t just “unsubscribe” them—they’re not real people anyway.
If you’re nervous about losing subscribers, remember: dead emails never bought anything. They never will.
Pro tip: Set a reminder to clean your list every 3-6 months. Data gets stale faster than you think.
Step 5: Add Real-Time Validation to Your Sign-Up Forms
No point cleaning your list if you keep letting junk slip in. Truemail offers real-time API validation. Here’s how to use it:
- Integrate Truemail’s API or form plugin with your website or app.
- When someone enters their email, Truemail checks it before you accept it.
- Block obvious fakes, typos, or disposables right away.
This won’t stop every bad sign-up (people can always use their old spam accounts), but it’ll screen out most garbage before it hits your database.
What to skip: Don’t pester users with endless “Are you sure?” popups. Just quietly block obvious mistakes and let real people through.
Step 6: Monitor Deliverability (Not Just Bounce Rate)
Once your list is clean, keep an eye on your real results:
- Bounce rate: Should drop, ideally below 2%. If it doesn’t, something’s up.
- Open rate: Clean lists often see a bump here, since fewer emails are wasted.
- Spam complaints: Shouldn’t increase. If they do, your content or targeting might be the problem, not your list.
Email is never set-and-forget. Keep checking your stats, and if you see issues creeping back, repeat the cleaning process.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
- Works: Batch cleaning old lists, and adding real-time validation to stop junk at the door.
- Doesn’t work: Hoping bounces will fix themselves. They won’t.
- Ignore: Anyone who says validation is a “one and done” fix. Emails go stale. Servers change. Lists decay.
Also, don’t fall for “guaranteed” deliverability claims. Even the best tools can’t overcome bad content, spammy subject lines, or sending to people who never wanted your emails in the first place.
Keep it Simple—And Repeat
Cutting bounce rates isn’t magic. Validate your list, remove dead weight, and keep validation running quietly in the background. Don’t chase every shiny tool—just make sure you’re sending to real people who actually want to hear from you. If you make this routine, you’ll spend less time fighting bounces and more time getting your message to the right inboxes.
Simple. Effective. And way less stressful.