How to Avoid Emailing Outdated Contacts

“Email less to avoid unsubscribes.” How many times have you heard that advice? Here’s the reality: It’s not about sending fewer emails. It’s about sending the right emails. I worked with a client who cut their email volume by 40% after a deliverability scare. Their engagement improved briefly, but revenue plummeted. What they missed was this: volume wasn’t the issue. Their list quality was. We implemented a simple shift: - We aggressively cleaned their list, removing unengaged and invalid contacts. - We doubled down on their high-intent segments, sending more personalized emails to the people who actually cared. Result? Revenue jumped 25%, and their unsubscribe rate stayed flat. Don’t email less, clean more. Then, email the right people as much as they can handle.

Trust, But Verify and Verify—Especially With Your Data In today’s world of burned domains and blocked emails, trusting your data without verifying it is risky business. Just the other day, I ran a focus list with 294 contacts—supposedly all verified. But when I ran it through FullEnrich, 72 of them came back with invalid emails. Imagine if I had dumped that list straight into a sequence. That’s 72 missed inboxes—and over time, that kind of oversight can damage your domain reputation. Moral of the story? Trust your data, but always verify. Use tools like FullEnrich or other email validation platforms before you hit send. It’s not just about sending—it’s about making sure your message gets delivered. More clean data = more conversations = more booked meetings. #prospecting #coldemail

Two months ago, I found 1265 email addresses that were 100% valid (deliverable). 🚨Guess how many aren't valid anymore. Here's what I did: 1. I created a list of software industry professionals based in North America. 2. I found their email addresses and only kept the 100% valid ones. 3. I re-verified these email addresses every week for two months. After 4 weeks, 2.8% were no longer valid. After 8 weeks, 3.7% were no longer valid. Why is this important? Because if I sent an email campaign to these recipients, my bounce rate would be higher than acceptable. Just two months after creating my list. Solution: Regularly re-verify email addresses in your CRM/mailing list to: 1. Make sure you reach your prospects and 2. Keep your bounce rate low (important for deliverability.)

3 lessons I’ve learned about data quality for cold outbound. And why you need to fix them, now. You’re investing time and effort in your outbound.  But your data provider is letting you down. Without the right contacts, the entire strategy will fall flat.  Fix your data before your scripts. Here are 3 reasons why (and what to do instead): 1️⃣ Your provider is outdated Apollo, ZoomInfo, whatever you use. The gap is real. Most are 6 months behind LinkedIn, missing job changers. 2️⃣ Your contacts are wrong Many providers guess your prospect’s details. Unverified data means sky-high bounce rates. 3️⃣ You’re using only one provider Different tools catch different contacts. Use a waterfall enrichment tool for max accuracy. At TC9, we use BetterContact to win the data game. → It’s triggered on demand, and check the latest info on LinkedIn → It verifies contacts (and charges you only if it's valid) → It combines data sources (and prioritizes them) Results:  → 80% valid contacts on average → Bounce rate below 1%, every time Data isn’t an afterthought. It’s the core of your outbound engine!

Your email list might be killing your performance. Here’s how we fixed it for three different dispensaries using AIQ.com (Alpine IQ) by cleaning out the junk. Most stores send to outdated, bloated lists. That means fake emails, failed deliveries, and people who haven’t engaged in years. The result? Higher costs, spam folder placement, and distorted metrics. Email hygiene is simple: > Remove invalid addresses > Suppress past failures > Exclude non-engagers One dispensary in California had 101,751 email opt-ins. We found 24,000 were invalid and failed every time they were sending mass blasts. They had been collecting fake emails for 5+ years and never cleaned their list. It crushed their Gmail reputation. Another had 57,219 emails and we removed 4,721 bad contacts. Another had 19,598, and we cleared out 2,182 invalid emails. We also removed over 4,000 customers that never opened a single email. Once cleaned, open rates went up (duh). Click rates improved. They paid less to send. No more wasting platform credits on emails no one sees. They even sent more messages to the people that engage and shop the most. When was the last time your list was cleaned? If you’re unsure, it’s time. We’ll audit your email health and show you how a real Retention System starts with who you send to, not just what you send.

Overlooked key segment in your email list. >> Bounces << When tracked properly - this segment can help you enter into sales conversations AND provide a ton of insights into your email program. First - you lose roughly 25-30% of your email list each year. Usually due to job changes, getting a new email address, old emails going bad, etc. What I'm about to teach you will help you keep 10-15% of those subscribers. One of the first automations I set up for each client is a bounce management system. Part of the bounce management process is a notification system when an email bounces. When an email bounces - we send an internal notification and assign a task to reach out on LinkedIn. Then we use this message: "Hey [[Name]], Just tried to send you an email, but it looks like it didn't go through. Is [EMAIL ADDRESS]] still a good one for you?" And you'll get 1 of 3 types of responses: 1) No response (shocker - I know) 2) A confirmation - great way to then follow up on the email and start a conversation. 3) An updated email address - update your ESP with the new email address and start a conversation. This all starts by knowing which emails on your list are bouncing. NOTE: I'm using LinkedIn in this example - but the key would be to follow up on a channel your audience uses at least 1x per week. If you choose a channel they don't check often - you run the risk of them missing your message and never responding. We've used this strategy successfully using both X and Instagram. #emailmarketing #emailmarketingstrategy #marketing

Fix these 4 things before you write a single outbound email. Most cold email fails before you even touch the copy. Here’s the checklist I wish I had when I first started cold outbound 10 years ago: 1. Source quality If the list is trash, nothing downstream works. Stop relying on “export and pray.” Standard Apollo filters at BEST give you 40-60% yield of relevant and valid contacts. That’s just the nature of data. Work around it. 2. Companies first, then contacts If you target only large enterprise, pulling CEOs from 15-person companies will mess you up. Don’t trust company-level filters when targeting contacts. Do the work of building a list of relevant companies FIRST. Then pull contacts from ONLY those companies. Seems like double work. Actually halves the spam complaints. 3. Buying window signal Right person. Wrong timing. Dead thread. You’re not gonna get everyone in your TAM with signals. But prioritizing those with buying signals dramatically increases positive response. This isn’t surprising. Just takes more work. Do the work. 4. Email validity No validation = bounce city. (See above on data freshness even in the best providers) And once your domain takes damage… it’s hard to recover. Great copy can’t save bad data. Fix upstream first. Everything else gets that much easier.

4 strategies to keep your CRM aligned with real-world data Studies from Salesforce, HubSpot, and Experian reveal that 20 to 30% of CRM data becomes outdated EVERY YEAR .👀 So, what’s causing this data decay? → Job changes → Contact info updates → Company changes (M&A, growth, downsizing) Data Decay negatively impacts: → Rep trust in CRM → Analytics accuracy for segmentation/scoring → Sales pitch/ Email copy relevancy → Email deliverability and connect rates 4 table-stake strategies to keep your CRM 1:1 with real life: 👉 Consistent Enrichment of Inbound Leads Ensure every signup or demo triggers workflows that enrich, dedupe, and route leads instantly for speed to lead purposes. 👉 Quarterly Batch Enrichment Run enrichment batches on target accounts every quarter. If a company changes domains or grows, you want that data reflected in your CRM asap. 👉 Job Change Tracking With tools like LoneScale, track new hires and role changes to keep an accurate market view. 👉 Empowering Reps to Enrich Records I am a firm believer that reps should have agency in their pipeline. A simple button to update firmographic data or contact info gives reps the power to enrich records. Check out Clay new SFDC button or FullEnrich chrome extension for email/phone data. 🤔 What’s your plan to keep your CRM accurate?

IF your strategy for bf/cm includes “opening the net” to reactivate old unengaged leads.. Pay attention to these recent changes - Microsoft & Gmail is sunsetting emails that have not been used for 2 years. - Yahoo is doing it after 12 months. When these emails “expire,” they can become spam traps and create a hard bounce report. Both will hurt your domain reputation and deliverability that could cripple your holiday. Easy way to avoid it? Use the opt in date with behavioral data and ensure you aren’t reaching too far back. My suggestion is simple: if they have NEVER engaged with any email or sms, it’s not the time to try to engage them. TL;DR: Use this as your reminder to perform list hygiene to your list and engage with those who are engaged with you.