Skip to main content
All CollectionsContactsContact features
Contact Spotlight - Filtering out invalid contacts from your database
Contact Spotlight - Filtering out invalid contacts from your database

Upload your database of email addresses and easily get rid of non-existent, invalid or hard bounce addresses or spam traps.

Kateřina Irová avatar
Written by Kateřina Irová
Updated over 2 years ago

With the Contact Spotlight function, you have the ability to verify the quality of your database before you send the first mailing to your contacts and remove all invalid, non-existent, inactive, spam traps and hard bounce addresses from your email recipient database. This is done with 97% accuracy. Contact spotlight is a paid function.

This validation does not check for compliance with GDPR, which needs to be checked before importing any contacts into Ecomail.

In this article, you will learn

How to use the Contact Spotlight function

I don't have any contacts imported in Ecomail yet

If your account has no contacts imported yet, you can check your contacts before the first import to ensure that only relevant contacts are uploaded to the app.

To do this, just follow these steps:

  1. The option to upload the database and have it checked can be found in the "More" section in the top menu. Then, select Verify emails.

  2. Once you have clicked through to Contact Spotlight, you can click on "Check contact database" to upload a file with the contacts you plan to upload to Ecomail.

  3. Upload the database as a CSV file, including the file header (i.e. the line where each column is named). Once uploaded, the amount to be paid will be automatically calculated.

  4. You will then have an option to confirm and order a database check

  5. After the payment is made, the contact file will be checked. You will be notified by a notification (in the app, by email) when the check is complete.

The final price is calculated based on the number of rows in your file. Thus, leave in only the rows with email addresses in the file (no empty rows).

I already have a database within Ecomail

If you already have a database in Ecomail that you wish to check, you need to export your database first. Here's how to do it:

  1. Open your Contact list and export Active addresses.

  2. Once your file arrives to your mailbox, you can download it. The file is already in the .CSV format.

  3. Select the option "More" in the top menu. Then, select Verify emails.

  4. Once you have clicked through to Contact Spotlight, you can click on "Check contact database" to upload a file with the contacts you plan to upload to Ecomail.

  5. Upload the downloaded file with contacts exported from Ecomail. Once uploaded, the amount to be paid will be automatically calculated.

  7. After the payment is made, the contact file will be checked. You will be notified by a notification (in the app, by email) when the check is complete.

After the check is finished

Once the verification process is finished, you will receive a notification in your Mailbox.

Open the Email Verification tab in Ecomail app. There is an "Archive" section in the app where you can find all the Verifications that took place. Select the one you wish to see (the most recent one) and click "Detail".

There you will see the results of the check process. You have the option to download:

  • a Checked database (i.e. contacts that have passed the check, are valid and you can send them an e-mail) = this file will (ideally) be used when importing into Ecomail

  • the original file (i.e. the original database, if you access the check after some time and need to download the original file)

  • a PDF report (showing the reasons for not passing the check (status) and the number of addresses that passed the status)

The results are archived and available for download for six months after the check has been run.

Status explanation

OK
​

Everything is fine. The server reports that it is ready to accept email to this address and no errors have been detected.

ok_for_all

The server of recipient responds email check. It means the address exists, but this may not be true. Therefore, we do not recommend sending emails to such an address.

error
​

The server says delivery failed, no details. The e-mail appears to exist.

smtp_error
​

The SMTP response is invalid or the destination server has reported an internal error.

smtp_protocol
​

The destination server allowed us to connect, but the SMTP session was terminated before the email could be authenticated.

unknown_email
​

The server reported that delivery failed and that the email address did not exist.

attempt_rejected
​

Delivery failed, the attempt was rejected.

relay_error
​

Delivery failed due to a transmission problem.

antispam_system
​

Antispam technology blocks the verification process.

email_disabled
​

The email is suspended, disabled or restricted and therefore cannot receive emails.

domain_error
​

The e-mail server for the entire domain is not installed or is faulty, so no e-mails can be delivered.

dead_server

The e-mail server is inactive and no connection can be made to it.

syntax_error

There is a syntax error in the email address.

unknown
​

The email delivery failed, but no reason was given.

accept_all
​

The server is set up to receive all emails on a specific domain. These domains accept all emails you send to them.

disposable
​

An email address is a temporary address for receiving emails and expires after a certain period of time.

spamtrap
​

The email address is managed by the ISP or a third party that does not click or open emails.

How to upload the clean database to your Ecomail account

Once you have the file ready, you can upload it to your account. If you haven't had your database uploaded in Ecomail, it is easy. Simply create a new Contact list and upload the Checked database.

If you already had your contacts in the app, we suggest importing the file into your contact list and adding them a tag. This way you can later on segment your database and unsubscribe those, who don't have the tag.

When importing contacts, make sure to select "Update data for all existing contacts". This way, the contacts will really be updated. Also, select the "Tag subscribers" and fill in a tag that will apply to all the checked contacts.

Once the import is finished, you will have the verified contacts tagged.

If you wish to unsubscribe those, who aren't verified and therefore do not have the tag "Checked", you can do so using segments. Simply open your Contact list and select Segments in the left menu. There create a new segment. The condition of segment will, in this case, be "Tags > Does not have tag > Checked".

The name of the tag is relevant to the name you selected when importing your contacts. Use the exact same notation.

Once you have your segment ready, click "Save and preview". Then you can unsubscribe those contacts.

Did this answer your question?