Maintaining a clean and healthy contact list is essential to protecting your sender reputation and improving email deliverability. The List Hygiene (Threat Checks) add-on automatically validates your contacts and assigns risk-based flags, making it easy to identify and manage potentially harmful email addresses. With this feature, you can proactively prevent bounces, reduce spam complaints, and ensure your emails reach the inbox.
Before You Begin
Before using Advanced Email Validation, make sure the following requirements are met:
The List Hygiene / Threat Checks add-on is enabled on your account
You have permission to access Settings, Add-ons, and Audience
Contacts are already imported or ready to be validated
Step-by-Step Instructions
Accessing Threat Checks
Click the profile icon in the navigation bar
Select Settings from the drop-down menu
Click on team billing
Select Add addon
Select Threat Checks from the list of enabled add-ons
Configuring Threat Checks
In the Threat Checks section, click Settings
Enable automatic validation by selecting Validate new contacts automatically
This ensures all newly imported contacts are checked instantly
Alternatively, you can choose to manually validate existing lists, tags, or segments when needed
Validating Contacts (Manual Validation)
In the navigation bar, click Analytics under the Threat Checks section
Click Validate Now in the All-time contact overview
Note: Only contacts without prior validation will be processed
Click Cancel if you need to stop the validation process
Validating Contacts Using a List
Go to Audience in the navigation bar
Select Lists
Click the list icon for the desired list
Open the three-dot menu next to the list
Select List Hygiene
Review the number of contacts that will be validated
Click Continue to proceed
Viewing Notifications
Click the bell icon in the navigation bar
View validation completion details in the Notification Center
Close the panel by clicking the X icon
Viewing the Latest Validation Results
Click the profile icon
Select Settings
Navigate to Add-ons
Select Threat Checks
Click Analytics to review the latest validation insights
Contact Statuses Explained
After validation, contacts are categorized into the following statuses:
Clean – Contacts that passed all checks and are safe to email
Reputation – Contacts that may negatively impact sender reputation
Fraud – Contacts associated with fraudulent or suspicious activity
Delivery – Contacts likely to cause bounces or delivery failures
Conversion – Contacts with low engagement or conversion-related risks
Beta – Contacts flagged during beta testing or experimental checks
These labels help you make informed decisions about who to include—or exclude—from your campaigns.
Tips & Best Practices
Enable automatic validation to prevent risky contacts from entering your list
Regularly validate older lists before launching new campaigns
Remove or suppress Reputation, Fraud, and Delivery risk contacts
Use clean lists during warm-up to protect your domain and IP reputation
Conclusion
Advanced Email Validation through the Threat Checks add-on helps you proactively protect your sender reputation. By identifying risky contacts early and maintaining a clean audience, you reduce bounces, improve inbox placement, and create a more reliable email marketing foundation. Once set up, your list stays protected—allowing you to send with confidence and achieve healthier long-term deliverability.