Experian Email Validation User Guide

Initial Setup:

Before using the application, Eloqua Admins will need to create the contact fields the Experian application will use to write data to. 

1. Log into Eloqua
2. Click the Settings gear on the top right of the page
   
3. Click 'Fields and Views' under the Database Setup section 
   
4. On the next page, click the plus sign on the bottom left and click 'Add Contact Field'
   
   
5. This will pull up edit screen for the new Contact Field. Input 'Email Validation - Comment' in the 'Display name' field. The fields should look as follows:
   
6. Once completed, click the 'Save' button on the bottom right. 
7. Repeat steps 2-6 to create 3 additional Contact Fields for the Experian application. Here are names of the new Contact Fields the application will use:
   • Email Validation - Comment
   • Email Validation - Is Valid?
   • Email Validation - Verbose Output
   • Email Validation - Correction

Eloqua is now configured to use the application.

Using the Experian Application in an Eloqua Campaign:

First begin by logging into Eloqua. 

1. Click the 'Create a Multi-Step Campaign' button on Eloqua's main homepage
   
2. Open up a Blank Campaign
3. Click the arrow next to 'Campaign Steps' on the top left of the page. This will collapse all campaign steps in the menu
   
4. Drag and drop a Segment Member step onto the campaign canvas
5. Choose the segment of contacts to be processed by the application
6. Drag and drop the Experian Data Quality Email Validation application onto the campaign canvas
   
7. Drag and drop a 'Wait' step onto the campaign canvas below the Experian application. Specify a wait time.
8. Connect all three steps together, like so:
   
9. Double click the Experian step, and then click the 'edit' pencil icon:
   
10. This will open up a configuration screen for the Experian application. Title the campaign in the 'Description' field, then choose the Eloqua Credentials in the next drop-down menu. Next, map the following four dropdown menus to the designated Contact Fields previously created (these dropdowns are simply pulling a list of Eloqua contact fields). NOTE: Having the 'Friendly Results' checkbox checked will slightly expand on the one word validation comment written to the contact field
    
    
    
    
    NOTE: This data may be mapped into a Custom Data Object inside of Eloqua.Select the 'CDO Mapping Fields' checkbox, select the CDO where the data will be stored, and then map the fields
    
    
    
    
    
11. Once the configuration is complete, click 'Submit' at the bottom. A green Success message will confirm the config has saved. Click out of the configuration screen. 
12. The user may now drop contacts into the campaign and have them run through the Experian application. As they go through the step, the application will process the email address and write the validation comment to the 'Email Validation Comment' contact field you created.

Validation Responses / Experian Checks and Filters

Experian Validation Responses

• verified - The address appears to be deliverable, and not a trap (as far as we know), disposable account, etc.
• undeliverable - The address is not deliverable--it doesn't exist, it's suspended, or its mailbox is full.
• unknown - The address doesn't appear to be a trap (as far as we know), but we can't determine if it's deliverable or not.
• unreachable - "Invalid domain"; either no DNS records, invalid ones, or there isn't a mail server listening.
• illegitimate - Known trap, monitoring domain, blackhole, role account, etc.
• disposable - Belongs to a disposable email address provider, like mailinator.com.

Required Eloqua Fields

• Comment - the one word validation response will be written here
• Is Valid - this field will simplify the results to either 'True' or 'False', telling you whether or not you can definitively send an email to this contact
• Verbose Output - this field will be used to expand on extraneous validation results
• Corrections - if the Experian service has a guess as to what they believe the email address is (if there's a recognizable typo, for instance) that correction will be written here

Experian Processing Checklist

1. Is the email address well-formed?
2. Does the domain belong to a known provider of disposable email addresses (e.g.mailinator.com)?
3. Is it a monitoring domain, technical role account, an abuse-reporting or similar mailbox (e.g.spamcop.net, abuse@yahoo.com)?
4. Does the domain exist?
5. Does the domain have MX records? Failing that, does it have A records?
6. Are there mail servers listening at the IP addresses advertised in the DNS records?