You don’t need me to tell you that an incorrectly spelt email address will not make it through to your intended recipient. Yet, I’d be surprised if you didn’t find a typo or three in your own data list – check it later.

Anyone can make typos but, when it comes to Email, you really must do everything you can to make sure that you don’t. Apart from not getting through to the right person, you run the risk of getting blacklisted by unintentionally spamming people.

It often amazes me, when provided with databases from clients, the number of email address errors we see. It’s a pet hate of mine (probably because of the business I’m in) and if it was my business, I’d be none too delighted. But if it was my business, I’d probably train the staff properly to do it.

Here’s a selection of common errors:

• Full stop at end of address
• Commas instead of full stops
• Semi-colon or apostrophe instead of @
• Spaces in middle or at end of address
• Bracketed note in field – eg. (office)
• Double periods

Some common misspellings:

• Googlemail – Gogglemail, googlmail, goglemail
• Hotmail – Hotmial, Hotmal, Hoitmail, Homail, Hotrmail, Hotmil, Hotmaill
• Ntlworld – Ntlwolrd, ntlword, ntl.world, ntlwrold
• Tiscali – Tiscale, tiscalli, Tiscally, Tiscaly
• Btinternet – Btinterent, btinternt
• Yahoo – Yaho, Uahoo, ayhoo

Why not try checking your own database now? Let me know what you find.

Data cleansing is part of 2ndimpression’s Email Marketing service.