If you’re running B2B sales through Salesforce, you already know email is still king—but dirty data can make it feel more like junk mail. Old contacts, typos, and catch-all addresses mean wasted time, blacklisted domains, and annoyed sales reps. This guide is for B2B sales teams and Salesforce admins who want less “mailbox full” and more meetings booked. No fluff, no magic solutions—just practical steps using Salesforce and Debounce to keep your email lists healthy.
Why Bother with Email List Hygiene?
Let’s be honest: Salesforce is only as good as the data you put in. If your email lists are full of dead or bogus addresses, you’ll see:
- Bounced emails and damaged sender reputation
- Wasted rep time chasing ghosts
- Lower open rates and more spam complaints
- Frustration for everyone, especially when campaigns flop
Fixing list hygiene isn’t glamorous, but it works. If you’re serious about outbound, it’s non-negotiable.
What Actually Works (and What Doesn’t)
What Works
- Automated email validation: Tools like Debounce take the grunt work out of checking emails.
- Regular cleaning: Not once a year—think monthly or before every big campaign.
- Clear rules: Decide what counts as “bad” (e.g., catch-alls, role accounts like info@, known spam traps).
What Doesn’t
- Manual spot checks: Nobody has time to do this at scale, and it’s error-prone.
- Assuming Salesforce dedupes everything: It doesn’t. Even with duplicate rules, junk gets through.
- One-and-done cleaning: New junk gets added all the time.
Step-by-Step: Cleaning Salesforce Lists with Debounce
Here’s how to get your Salesforce data cleaned up and keep it that way. We’ll focus on Debounce since it’s easy, affordable, and integrates with exports/imports—no fancy dev work required.
1. Export Your Contact or Lead Emails from Salesforce
You can’t clean what you can’t see. First, get your data out:
- Use Salesforce’s native reports to export a CSV of Leads, Contacts, or whatever object you use for email.
- Include the unique record ID and the email address at minimum.
- Don’t try to clean your entire CRM if you only email certain segments—work smarter, not harder.
Pro tip: Filter out obviously bad or opted-out contacts before exporting. No point cleaning unsubscribes.
2. Run the List Through Debounce
Now, upload your CSV to Debounce. The process is dead simple:
- Create an account on Debounce.
- Upload your exported CSV.
- Let Debounce do its thing. It’ll check for invalid, disposable, catch-all, and role-based emails.
Don’t get seduced by “100% accuracy” claims—no tool is perfect, but Debounce catches most of the junk that matters.
What to ignore: Don’t worry about “risky” emails unless you’re seeing lots of bounces. Focus on the clear-cut invalids first.
3. Review the Results—Don’t Just Hit Delete
Debounce will give you results in categories like:
- Valid
- Invalid
- Catch-All
- Disposable
- Role-Based (info@, sales@, etc.)
What to do next:
- Remove Invalids and Disposables: These are dead weight.
- Mark or review Catch-Alls: Some are real, some aren’t. If you’re risk-averse, suppress these from campaigns but keep them in Salesforce for research.
- Be careful with Role-Based: Sometimes these are legit (especially with small companies), but usually not worth emailing.
4. Update Salesforce—Safely
Don’t just nuke records. Map the cleaned data back to Salesforce:
- Use the unique record ID to match Debounce results to Salesforce records.
- Update or flag emails as “Invalid” or “Do Not Email” using a custom field or standard opt-out field.
- If you’re bulk deleting, export a backup first. Mistakes happen.
Pro tip: Don’t overwrite good emails with blanks. Just mark them so marketing and sales tools can suppress them.
5. Set Up a Regular Hygiene Process
One-off cleaning is pointless if you keep pumping in new junk. Here’s a simple routine:
- Schedule monthly or quarterly exports and cleans, depending on your list growth.
- Build a Salesforce report for new or recently updated emails.
- If you use web forms or imports, validate on entry (Debounce has an API, but this takes dev work).
Ignore “set it and forget it” pitches. Even with automation, you need to check that things don’t slip through the cracks.
Real Talk: Pitfalls and Gotchas
- Validation ≠ Deliverability: A “valid” email can still bounce if the mailbox is full or abandoned.
- Salesforce integrations: Debounce doesn’t have a direct Salesforce integration out of the box. If you want true automation, you’ll need to use Zapier, a middleware tool, or build something custom.
- Data privacy: You’re uploading contacts to a third-party—make sure you’re compliant with your company’s privacy rules.
- Don’t obsess over zero bounces: You’ll never get there. Clean data is an ongoing process, not a one-time achievement.
Pro Tips for B2B Teams
- Segment before cleaning: Prioritize your most active or valuable segments. No need to clean the whole database if you only email a few thousand.
- Train your team: Show reps how to spot junk emails before they enter them.
- Document your process: Even a simple checklist helps when someone new joins or you scale up.
- Monitor results: Track bounce rates after each clean. If they aren’t dropping, something’s off.
What Not to Waste Time On
- Chasing perfection: There will always be a few bad emails. Focus on improvement, not elimination.
- Expensive “AI-powered” solutions: Most are just wrappers on basic validation. The basics get you 90% of the way there.
- Overly complex automations: Start with exports and imports. Add automation later if it makes sense.
Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Email list hygiene isn’t a glamorous project, but it’s the difference between campaigns that work and ones that flop. Don’t overthink it. Start with exports and Debounce, flag the bad stuff, and put a reminder on your calendar to do it again. Stay consistent, and your sales team will spend less time chasing ghosts—and more time closing real deals.