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

1. Sign up for a ZeroBounce account
2. Purchase validation credits
3. Copy your API key from ZeroBounce dashboard
4. Go to Settings / Integrations
5. Find the ZeroBounce section
6. Paste your API key
7. Click Save

Creating a Validation Automation

1. Open a job's Workflow tab
2. Click the bolt icon on the stage after enrichment
3. Add Validate Candidate's Emails automation
4. 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

1. Sourced - Candidates added from LinkedIn
2. Enriching - Find personal emails (enrichment automation)
3. Validating - Validate found emails (ZeroBounce automation)
4. Ready for Outreach - Only validated candidates reach this stage
5. 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

Related screenshots

These screenshots show the 100Hires areas used in this workflow.

Updated on: 18/06/2026