B2B Quality Scoring

Understand how we score emails for B2B outbound value

B2B Outbound Quality Scoring

Not all valid emails are equally valuable for B2B outbound. Our smart scoring system categorizes emails based on their actual worth for cold outreach.

Quality Levels

High

Personal emails - Real people, decision-makers

✅ Charged: 1 credit

Low

Role-based emails - Generic inboxes

🆓 FREE: 0 credits

None

Invalid/Risky - Don’t exist or unverifiable

🆓 FREE: 0 credits

High Quality Emails (1 credit)

Characteristics:

• Personal name in local part (john, sarah.smith)
• Not a generic role-based address
• Verified mailbox existence
• Not a catch-all domain
• Individual mailbox signal

Examples:

[e-mail]          → High quality ✅
[e-mail]    → High quality ✅
[e-mail]     → High quality ✅

B2B Outbound Value: 🟢 Maximum

• Direct access to individual
• Better for personalized outreach
• More likely to be decision-makers

Low Quality Emails (FREE)

Role-Based Detection:

We automatically identify generic business email addresses:

Category	Examples	Why Low Value
Information	info@, contact@, hello@	Shared inbox, low personalization
Support	support@, help@, service@	Not decision-makers
Sales/Marketing	sales@, marketing@, inquiries@	Bombarded with outreach
Admin	admin@, office@, team@	Generic, no specific owner
HR/Careers	hr@, careers@, jobs@	Wrong department for B2B sales

Complete Role-Based List:

info, contact, hello, support, help, service, sales, marketing,
inquiries, admin, office, team, hr, careers, jobs, press, media,
billing, finance, legal, compliance, privacy, security, abuse,
noreply, no-reply, postmaster, webmaster, hostmaster

Why We Don’t Charge:

• 📬 Shared inbox (multiple people)
• 🤖 Often monitored by junior staff or automation
• 📉 Lower individual attribution than personal emails
• 🗑️ Higher spam report rates
• ⏰ Time-wasting for SDRs

Even though role-based emails are valid and will receive mail, they have poor ROI for outbound campaigns.

Zero Quality Emails (FREE)

Categories:

1. Catch-All Domains

{
  "email": "[e-mail]",
  "result": "risky",
  "b2b_outbound_quality": "none",
  "credits_charged": 0,
  "charge_reason": "Catch-all domain - cannot verify individual mailbox"
}

Why Risky:

• Can’t verify if specific mailbox exists
• Unknown deliverability
• Could bounce in practice
• Wasted sending reputation

2. Invalid Emails

{
  "email": "[e-mail]",
  "result": "invalid",
  "b2b_outbound_quality": "none",
  "credits_charged": 0,
  "charge_reason": "Domain has no MX records"
}

3. Unknown Verification

{
  "email": "[e-mail]",
  "result": "unknown",
  "b2b_outbound_quality": "unknown",
  "credits_charged": 0,
  "charge_reason": "SMTP verification not permitted"
}

Quality Score Examples

Scenario 1: Tech Startup Founder

{
  "email": "[e-mail]",
  "result": "valid",
  "is_role_based": false,
  "is_free_provider": false,
  "b2b_outbound_quality": "high",
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "charge_reason": "Valid personal email with high B2B outbound quality"
}

✅ Charge 1 credit - High-value personal email

Scenario 2: Generic Support Inbox

{
  "email": "[e-mail]",
  "result": "valid_role_based",
  "is_role_based": true,
  "b2b_outbound_quality": "low",
  "credits_charged": 0,
  "charge_reason": "Role-based email - free for low B2B value"
}

🆓 FREE - Low-value shared inbox

Scenario 3: Catch-All Domain

{
  "email": "[e-mail]",
  "result": "risky",
  "is_catchall": true,
  "catchall_confidence": "high",
  "b2b_outbound_quality": "none",
  "credits_charged": 0,
  "charge_reason": "Catch-all domain - cannot verify individual mailbox"
}

🆓 FREE - Can’t verify existence

Credit Behavior Example

For a 1,000-email list with 400 High-Value Validations, 300 role-based emails, 200 catch-all results, and 100 invalid results, the final charge is 400 credits. The role-based, catch-all, invalid, risky, and unknown results are finalized at 0 credits.

Free Provider Detection

We also flag free email providers (but still charge for valid personal emails):

{
  "email": "[e-mail]",
  "is_free_provider": true,
  "free_provider_domains": ["gmail.com", "yahoo.com", "outlook.com"]
}

Common Free Providers:

• Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook/Hotmail
• AOL, iCloud, Proton
• And 50+ others

Free provider emails are still charged if they’re personal (not role-based) since they can be valid B2B contacts (freelancers, small business owners).

API Response Fields

Every validation includes B2B quality metadata:

interface ValidationResult {
  // Core validation
  email: string;
  result: 'valid' | 'valid_role_based' | 'risky' | 'invalid' | 'unknown';

  // B2B quality indicators
  b2b_outbound_quality: 'high' | 'low' | 'none' | 'unknown';
  is_role_based: boolean;
  is_free_provider: boolean;
  is_catchall: boolean;

  // Credit information
  credits_charged: 0 | 1;
  charge_reason: string;
}

Best Practices

For List Cleaning

1. Filter by b2b_outbound_quality: "high" for best results
2. Skip valid_role_based emails unless needed
3. Remove risky emails (catch-all domains)
4. Archive invalid for future reference

For Cost Optimization

1. Deduplicate first before uploading
2. Filter obvious role-based locally (info@, support@)
3. Batch validate to reduce overhead
4. Use test keys during development

For Campaign Success

1. Prioritize high-quality emails in sequences
2. Separate campaigns for role-based vs personal
3. Monitor bounce rates per quality tier
4. A/B test messaging for each quality level

Next Steps

Credit System

Learn how credits work and pricing

Result Categories

Complete list of all validation results