How to Validate Candidate Emails with ZeroBounce
Validate enriched email addresses before sending outreach to protect your email reputation and reduce bounces.
Why Validate Emails
- Protect sender reputation: Bounced emails hurt deliverability
- Save time: Don't waste effort on invalid addresses
- Improve metrics: Higher delivery rates mean better campaign performance
- Required for cold outreach: Essential when emailing sourced candidates
Setting Up ZeroBounce
- Sign up for a ZeroBounce account
- Purchase validation credits
- Copy your API key from ZeroBounce dashboard
- Go to Settings / Integrations
- Find the ZeroBounce section
- Paste your API key
- Click Save
Creating a Validation Automation
- Open a job's Workflow tab
- Click the bolt icon on the stage after enrichment
- Add Validate Candidate's Emails automation
- Configure what happens based on validation result:
- Valid: Move to outreach stage
- Invalid: Stay in stage or disqualify
- Unknown: Handle based on your preference
Recommended Sourcing Flow
- Sourced - Candidates added from LinkedIn
- Enriching - Find personal emails (enrichment automation)
- Validating - Validate found emails (ZeroBounce automation)
- Ready for Outreach - Only validated candidates reach this stage
- Outreach - Nurture campaign sends emails
Validation Results
ZeroBounce returns these status types:
- Valid: Safe to send
- Invalid: Don't send (will bounce)
- Catch-all: Server accepts all emails (use with caution)
- Unknown: Could not be verified
- Spamtrap: Known spam trap (never send)
- Abuse: Known complaint address (never send)
- Do not mail: Temporary addresses (not recommended)
Cost
ZeroBounce charges per email validation. Check their pricing page for current rates. Buy credits directly from ZeroBounce.
Tips
- Validate before every outreach campaign
- Re-validate emails older than 3-6 months
- Don't send to invalid or unknown addresses
- Monitor your bounce rates after validation
Updated on: 26/12/2025
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