What is valid(ESP) vs. valid (Digital)?

We are often asked what the difference is between a contact record marked as Valid (ESP) vs. Valid (Digital).

A valid (ESP) record has been verified via a third-party email verification application like Emailoversight.

Keep in mind this doesn't mean the email is valid as there are limitations to how email verification tools verify an email.

For an in-depth overview of how email verification works, please read this article.

https://salesprophet.io/definitive-guide-to-email-verification/

A valid (Digital) is where we have seen this email delivered and opened. Sales Prophet belongs to a data coop, and the advantage to being part of a coop is each member of the coop agrees to share their exhaust data (Log files) on emails sent, which will tell us with more certainty that the email is valid or invalid.

The idea is that over time the database will self hygiene itself.

Why is this important?

Over 60% of all emails are catchalls or accept all emails. This means they are unverifiable using email verification methods. The mail servers have been configured to accept any email as long as the domain is correct.

For example, if you try to verify Santa@microsoft.com using any email verification solution, the mail server sends back a code saying it will take (accept) the email. It's not until you send an email to Santa@microsoft.com that you will find that the email is no good.

This is an industry wide problem, not specific to Sales Prophet.