Improving Email Validation Strategies to Reduce Bounce Rates

Dave S. · 2025-03-06 21:06:44.801849+00

I am noticing a pretty high bounce rate in Smartlead on the emails I found using clay’s SMB find work email waterfall (that uses zerobounce for validation). I’m assuming this is because zerobounce alone isn’t sufficient validation. I was thinking about using additional verification services on top of that (e.g., possibly using debounce in addition). Does any have any recommendations on a good approach here?

Improving Email Validation Strategies to Reduce Bounce Rates | Clay

12 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Channeled
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To reduce high bounce rates with Clay's email waterfall, here are two key approaches you can take: 1. Adjust your ZeroBounce settings: • Enable the "only mark safe to send" option in your email waterfall configuration to exclude catch-all emails from your valid email list. This more conservative approach helps ensure higher quality email validation. 2. Add additional verification services: • You can use Debounce as an additional verification layer. Debounce integrates with Clay and offers similar features to reduce bounces and protect sender reputation. • NeverBounce is another available option that validates work emails to ensure they're safe, helping reduce bounces and protect sender reputation. When using Debounce specifically, you can: ** Enable the "Safe to Send" option to only get emails classified as safe by Debounce ** Choose to exclude free email domains (like @gmail.com) if desired * Take advantage of auto-updates every 24 hours to maintain list accuracy
Sources: Enrich People (Waterfalls) [Automated Outbound] - Clay University Debounce integration overview | Documentation | Clay University Neverbounce integration overview | Documentation | Clay University
Dave S.
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Is there an easy way to integrate debounce on top of zerobounce in the find work email waterfall so that it checks each email return by different email finding services and moves onto the next one if it fails either zerobounce or debounce?
Channeled
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While Clay's email waterfall process already includes email validation using ZeroBounce by default, you can see the validation results and process by unhiding the validation columns in your table. The waterfall process is designed to continue running even after finding an email if that email fails the validation check. This means if an email is found by a data provider but fails ZeroBounce validation, the waterfall will automatically move on to try finding and validating the next possible email. To make your validation more conservative, you can enable the "only mark safe to send" option in your current setup, which will exclude catch-all emails from your valid email list. However, based on the available documentation, there isn't currently a built-in way to chain multiple validation services (like Debounce and ZeroBounce) together in the email waterfall process. You may want to request human support to explore custom workflow options for this use case.
Sources: Enrich People (Waterfalls) [Clay 101] - Clay University Enrich People (Waterfalls) [Automated Outbound] - Clay University Enrich People (Waterfalls) [Clay 101] - Clay University
Dave S.
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I could use some help in building a custom workflow
Dave S.
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https://app.clay.com/workspaces/476916/workbooks/wb_tZmJqaGqwWbf/tables/t_WVhCrQ9ojWVg/views/gv_FVWRpkCja3Zr
David G.
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Hey Dave, have you tried Kitt out? It's been pretty good.
Dave S.
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I have not! I’ll check it out
LuisArturo
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Hey there Dave thanks for reaching out, to clarify you are trying to use more than once validator at a time in a table correct? What you could do here is after an initial waterfall runs its course and gives you a list of valid emails you can then use a validator on the final results column as well.
Dave S.
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Thanks, LuisArturo. I was wondering if there was a way to integrate more than one validation tool into the waterfall flow (because it would trigger other find email integrations to run if one earlier in the flow didn’t pass the 2nd validation tool)…how would I go about doing that?
LuisArturo
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At this moment it's not possible to have more than one validation option in a waterfall at any given time. This is something the team has discussed however there are currently no plans to incorporate this in the future.
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LuisArturo
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At this moment it's not possible to have more than one validation option in a waterfall at any given time. This is something the team has discussed however there are currently no ETA on when this can be released.
Channeled
APP
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Loading comments

Channeled
APP
·
·
To reduce high bounce rates with Clay's email waterfall, here are two key approaches you can take: 1. Adjust your ZeroBounce settings: • Enable the "only mark safe to send" option in your email waterfall configuration to exclude catch-all emails from your valid email list. This more conservative approach helps ensure higher quality email validation. 2. Add additional verification services: • You can use Debounce as an additional verification layer. Debounce integrates with Clay and offers similar features to reduce bounces and protect sender reputation. • NeverBounce is another available option that validates work emails to ensure they're safe, helping reduce bounces and protect sender reputation. When using Debounce specifically, you can: ** Enable the "Safe to Send" option to only get emails classified as safe by Debounce ** Choose to exclude free email domains (like @gmail.com) if desired * Take advantage of auto-updates every 24 hours to maintain list accuracy
Sources: Enrich People (Waterfalls) [Automated Outbound] - Clay University Debounce integration overview | Documentation | Clay University Neverbounce integration overview | Documentation | Clay University
Dave S.
·
·
Is there an easy way to integrate debounce on top of zerobounce in the find work email waterfall so that it checks each email return by different email finding services and moves onto the next one if it fails either zerobounce or debounce?
Channeled
APP
·
·
While Clay's email waterfall process already includes email validation using ZeroBounce by default, you can see the validation results and process by unhiding the validation columns in your table. The waterfall process is designed to continue running even after finding an email if that email fails the validation check. This means if an email is found by a data provider but fails ZeroBounce validation, the waterfall will automatically move on to try finding and validating the next possible email. To make your validation more conservative, you can enable the "only mark safe to send" option in your current setup, which will exclude catch-all emails from your valid email list. However, based on the available documentation, there isn't currently a built-in way to chain multiple validation services (like Debounce and ZeroBounce) together in the email waterfall process. You may want to request human support to explore custom workflow options for this use case.
Sources: Enrich People (Waterfalls) [Clay 101] - Clay University Enrich People (Waterfalls) [Automated Outbound] - Clay University Enrich People (Waterfalls) [Clay 101] - Clay University
Dave S.
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·
I could use some help in building a custom workflow
Dave S.
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·
https://app.clay.com/workspaces/476916/workbooks/wb_tZmJqaGqwWbf/tables/t_WVhCrQ9ojWVg/views/gv_FVWRpkCja3Zr
David G.
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Hey Dave, have you tried Kitt out? It's been pretty good.
Dave S.
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I have not! I’ll check it out
LuisArturo
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·
Hey there Dave thanks for reaching out, to clarify you are trying to use more than once validator at a time in a table correct? What you could do here is after an initial waterfall runs its course and gives you a list of valid emails you can then use a validator on the final results column as well.
Dave S.
·
·
Thanks, LuisArturo. I was wondering if there was a way to integrate more than one validation tool into the waterfall flow (because it would trigger other find email integrations to run if one earlier in the flow didn’t pass the 2nd validation tool)…how would I go about doing that?
LuisArturo
·
·
At this moment it's not possible to have more than one validation option in a waterfall at any given time. This is something the team has discussed however there are currently no plans to incorporate this in the future.
1
LuisArturo
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·
At this moment it's not possible to have more than one validation option in a waterfall at any given time. This is something the team has discussed however there are currently no ETA on when this can be released.
Channeled
APP
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