Validate work email on lead forms

The term ‘junk leads’ gets thrown around a lot in B2B marketing:

For good reason.

A junk lead (or rubbish as we know it in Ireland) is generally one that’s unrecognisable, uncontactable or just has fake details.

LinkedIn Ads is generally the platform you choose when you want to collect leads that are the least ‘junk’, but at times, it can be just as bad as the other platforms if it’s not set up correctly.

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One small change can make a huge improvement in quality.

Validating work emails.

On lead forms, you have two options for collecting emails:

↳ Personal email

↳ Work email

For B2B, you should nearly always be collecting work email, as personal emails tend to have a far lower response rate.

However, even with the work email field, the member can put in an unvalidated personal email, and the lead gen form will be completed.

The 'validate work email' tickbox creates a barrier for any gmail/outlook inputs and requires the member to validate the work email.

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But does this create friction and impact performance?

We’ve tested it, and generally, we've seen little on lead form completion when combining data sets across clients. And the quality tends to be worth any cost rises.

There are some anomalies, but overall it’s a field that will capture leads that are:

→ Easier to contact

→ More engaged

→ Better quality

For us, it's a small change that can have a huge impact at scale.