Clean your Salesforce list
Export your contacts from Salesforce as a CSV, verify every address, then import the valid file back and keep the risky one out of your first send. Verification finds addresses that cannot receive mail. It cannot tell who will read or welcome your email, and an address it cannot confirm is called risky, never valid.
Export steps and bounce rules read from Salesforce's own pages, checked 23 Oct 2026.
1. Export the CSV from Salesforce
- Open your contacts report from the Reports tab.
- Click the arrow next to Edit, then click Export.
- Choose Details Only, set Format to Comma Delimited .csv, and click Export.
Details Only exports are not capped at 100,000 rows the way formatted exports are.
Source: Salesforce help. The shorter version is on the Salesforce export page.
2. Salesforce's bounce rule: no number published
Salesforce's help pages on bounces in Marketing Cloud Engagement and Account Engagement describe how hard and soft bounces are handled and suppressed but, in the pages we read, state no account-level bounce percentage that triggers action. Check the article for your specific product before relying on any figure.
Source: Salesforce Help: bounces in Marketing Cloud Engagement, read 23 Oct 2026.
Where a platform does not publish a number, we say so rather than quote a blog. Plan as if the line were 2%.
Other platforms' lines are in bounce rate limits by platform.
3. What verification can and cannot tell you
It can tell you
- The address is malformed or the domain has no mail servers.
- The mailbox does not exist, where the provider answers the check.
- The domain is disposable.
- The domain accepts all mail, so the address cannot be confirmed.
It cannot tell you
- Whether the person reads your email or agreed to receive it.
- Whether the address is a spam trap.
- Whether a risky address is real. Catch-all domains and providers that hide mailbox status stay unconfirmed.
- Whether the contact still works at that company.
Unconfirmed always means risky, never valid. You get three files back, valid, risky and invalid, with your original Salesforce columns kept.
4. Import the clean file back
- Keep the columns as they came out of Salesforce, so the file maps back to the same fields on import.
- Import the valid file into Salesforce or the tool you send from. Use Salesforce's own import help for the exact screens.
- Hold the risky file back. If you send to it, send small batches later and watch the bounce rate against the rule above.
- Drop the invalid file, or mark those contacts as bad email in Salesforce so they are not mailed again.
Check a Salesforce address, then your list
Type any address. It gets the same check the paid plans run: syntax, the domain’s mail servers and, where the provider allows it, a live mailbox check. Nothing is sent to the address.
Five checks a minute, no account needed. Nothing is sent to the address — we ask its mail server whether the mailbox exists, then disconnect.
Have a list? Sign in with Google and the first 100 addresses are checked free, with results to download. No card.
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Common questions
- How do I export my contacts from Salesforce?
- Open your contacts report from the Reports tab. Click the arrow next to Edit, then click Export. Choose Details Only, set Format to Comma Delimited .csv, and click Export. Details Only exports are not capped at 100,000 rows the way formatted exports are.
- What bounce rate does Salesforce allow?
- Salesforce's help pages on bounces in Marketing Cloud Engagement and Account Engagement describe how hard and soft bounces are handled and suppressed but, in the pages we read, state no account-level bounce percentage that triggers action. Check the article for your specific product before relying on any figure. Source: Salesforce Help: bounces in Marketing Cloud Engagement, read 23 Oct 2026.
- Does a "valid" result mean the person will read my email?
- No. Verification tells you whether an address can receive mail, not whether the person reads it, wants it or agreed to it. It cannot detect spam traps either.
- What does a risky result mean?
- A risky address could not be confirmed as a real mailbox, usually because the domain accepts all mail (catch-all) or the provider will not say. Unconfirmed addresses are never reported as valid. Keep them out of your first send and mail them later, in small batches.
- Is there a free way to try this on my Salesforce list?
- Yes. Sign in with Google and the first 100 addresses are checked free, with results to download and no card. After that, verification is $29.99 a month on the Pro plan.