About this video

This video uses sample data, not real ContactOut data. Field names come from the ContactOut API docs and may differ from CSV headers. BillionVerify is not affiliated with or endorsed by ContactOut. File verification needs a paid account.

Video transcript

1. 00:00What ContactOut returns

   ContactOut's docs put work emails in three groups, and one group ends in an unknown SMTP result. Here's how to clean that list. Start with the fields. ContactOut's API returns work emails and personal emails in separate arrays. Then there's a work_email_status, verified or unverified. Your CSV headers may read differently. ContactOut's support article sorts work emails into three groups. Some have open signals. Some are engineered, then verified with an SMTP check. The last group is engineered too, but the check didn't settle it. API users have one more thing to watch. On the contact endpoint, the real-time check only runs when you ask for work emails by name. Leave that out, and no real-time check runs. Now the personal side. The docs describe a status for work emails, and none for personal ones. So an empty status there tells you nothing, good or bad. And a verified work email is still a past result. People leave. Inboxes close. The sooner you export before sending, the less can change.

2. 01:05Export and split

   In your ContactOut dashboard, click Export leads. You can take selected leads, one folder, or everything. Pick CSV as the location, not Greenhouse or Salesforce, so the list stops here first. We check one email column per file. So put work and personal addresses in separate files. You'll want to treat them differently anyway.

3. 01:24Verify the file

   Drop the work file into File List Verify. Before anything runs, it shows the email column it found, how many unique addresses are in there, and the credits it may use. Start it, and the job carries on without you. An email tells you when it's finished.

4. 01:37Read the results

   ContactOut also has a verifier API, and its labels line up with ours almost one to one. The one that changes name is accept all, which we call catch-all. Read how ContactOut defines it. Valid, but the server takes any address. So a Verified row in your export can land in our catch-all group. Neither tool is wrong. That server just won't confirm one mailbox. Your download keeps ContactOut's columns and adds ours at the end. So the old status and the new result share a row.

5. 02:06Route and import

   Now sort it. Valid goes to your CRM or sequence. Catch-all goes out separately, at lower volume. Role needs a message for a shared inbox. Unknown waits for a decision. Invalid and disposable go on your suppression file. Sending from ContactOut's own campaigns? Use Upload CSV, not Import from ContactOut, which pulls your saved leads instead of the clean file. The upload wants a specific format, so start from its template.

6. 02:34What it costs

   Credits are simple on our side. A result costs one credit, catch-all and role included. We don't charge for unknown, bad syntax or disposable. Uploading files takes a paid account, and a credit purchase of any size opens that up.

7. 02:48Get started free

   20 free credits every day you use your account, up to 600 a month. No credit card required. Start at billionverify.com.

Featured in this video