Understanding the Email Confidence Score

The Email Confidence Score evaluates how likely an email address is to be accurate. Our software utilizes artificial intelligence to verify the authenticity of email addresses. We assign scores based on the criteria displayed in the chart below.

The scores we assign are estimates. In other words, email addresses that receive scores lower than 40 are not necessarily defunct. But it does provide a baseline estimate with which you can evaluate the strength of the data. 

What does the Email Confidence Score tell you?

The Email Confidence Score tells you whether a contact can be reached by the listed email. A contact that receives a low Email Confidence Score may still be contacted by the phone numbers provided. You may even be able to guess their current email address by viewing their coworkers' in the database. If multiple employees at their company are using the same email scheme (i.e. john@sparkmedia.com) you can apply the same format to guess their email. If you don't have time to investigate further - and aren't keen on contacting leads by phone - you can simply eliminate these leads from your list and focus on finding new ones.

To prospect strategically, consider using the Confidence Score to eliminate leads that are difficult to contact. For example, if you're interested in contacting the marketing department at Spark Media, eliminate the employees with a low score and reach out to the ones with a high score. This will give you a better chance of making contact.

Notably, our software allows you to set a baseline score before you search. If you're only interested in viewing contacts with a score of 60 or above, make sure you set this parameter before you hit search. To do this:

1. Go to our Who to Contact database.

2. Click on Advanced Search.

3. Apply filters for Industry, Location, Employee, etc. 

4. Click on List Criteria and check the box for Email Confidence Score.

5. Drag the circle to set the baseline for your score. If, for example, you want the results limited to contacts with a score of 60 or above, drag the circle until it says 60.

6. Click Search.

Now that you've set this parameter, all of your results will score 60 or above. Contacts that receive a lower score will be excluded from your results. 

Fortunately, our Email Confidence Score is backed by a guarantee for an Automatic Refund. If you click on a contact that has a Real-Time Email Confidence Score that is lower than 40, we will automatically refund your contact credit.  You can then decide whether or not to reach out to this contact. Simply put, there is no risk to clicking on contacts with low scores. 

Curious about our Who to Contact data? Read more about it here. 

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