If you think email address typos are not something you should worry about, think again. The following study might at least surprise you. According to Email Experience Council earlier this year, the average major retailer loses $6.7 million per year due to email address typos.

Austin C. Bliss offers approaches to drive down the typo rate during email address submission on your Web site.

There are three reasons why email address typos are a tragedy for email marketers:

1. Lost revenues: Wasted marketing dollars and lost profits.
2. Poor customer experience: Prospect register and expect to receive newsletter or offer. If she doesn’t get what she wants, she blame you simply because the typo was unintentional.
3. Poor deliverability: The names and email addresses get into your database, but cause undeliverable messages in future mailings. It can jeopardize email reputation.

It is not hopeless though. Here are ways you could drive down the typo rate:

• Offer value: Offer value in exchange for email address. If it is something they really want to get, they will make sure they entered the correct email and double check.
• Use the address: Deliver the value to their email inboxes. Send the link to the download Web page to their email. Make it clear that you can’t deliver the promise if the address is incorrect.
• Box size: Give room for the input box. Average length of email addresses is 20.3 character.
• Confirm: Use a confirmation page to show what they entered and offer an opportunity for corrections.
• Use technology: Add technology that performs email address validation and correction.

Additionally, enforce double opt-in. Tell the registrants if they don’t receive a confirmation email and confirm it, they have to do so or register again.