Bounced Email Recovery

Clay

When a work email bounces because the person left the company, this single-path workflow recovers them in 12 columns. It pulls a name hint and the old company domain out of the bounced address, searches FullEnrich for people whose employment history includes that domain with a matching name, extracts the best match's current identity, then runs a final enrichment to return their new verified work email and mobile phone for re-outreach.

Bounced email

Name hint + old domain

Search

Best match

New email + phone

Search: Find where the person works now

Turns the bounced email into a search against FullEnrich's employment history, then extracts the best match's current company.

1. Bounced Email (Text input)

Entry point. The bounced work email address you want to recover.

  • Example: frederic@granum.com

  • One email per row, filled manually, via CSV import, or pushed from your bounce list

2. Name Hint (Formula)

Extracts and cleans the name part of the bounced email for fuzzy matching.

  • Example: frederic from frederic@granum.com

3. Old Company Domain (Formula)

Extracts the domain from the bounced email.

  • Example: granum.com from frederic@granum.com

4. FullEnrich Search (HTTP API POST)

Searches FullEnrich's People Search API for people whose employment history includes the old domain, filtered by the name hint.

  • Method: POST

  • Endpoint: https://app.fullenrich.com/api/v2/people/search

  • Auto-run: ON when Old Company Domain is not empty

POST https://app.fullenrich.com/api/v2/people/search
{
  "limit": 3,
  "past_company_domains": [
    { "value": "{{Old Company Domain}}" }
  ],
  "person_names": [
    { "value": "{{Name Hint}}" }
  ]
}

Returns the top 3 matches ranked by relevance. This works because FullEnrich stores employment history, so a person who left the old company still shows it in their past roles.

5. Search Result Formulas (Columns 5 to 11)

A group of formula columns that parse the top (best) match from the search response into clean, usable fields:

  • Name → the recovered person's full name

  • Title → their current job title after the move

  • Company → the company they work at now

  • Domain → their new company's domain

  • LinkedIn → their LinkedIn profile URL

The first result is the best match. These columns feed the final enrichment.

Enrich: Final enrichment

Uses the recovered identity to find the person's new verified work email and mobile phone for re-outreach.

6. Find Work Email (FullEnrich Native)

FullEnrich's native email-finding action, fed with the recovered identity:

  • Full Name{{Name}}

  • Company Domain{{Domain}}

  • LinkedIn URL{{LinkedIn}}

Returns verified emails with a confidence score.

7. Find Mobile Phone (FullEnrich Native)

FullEnrich's native phone-finding action, fed with the same recovered identity. Returns a verified mobile number when available, so re-engagement is not limited to email.

8. Most Probable Email (Formula)

Extracts the highest-confidence email from the enrichment response.

  • Example: frederic@granum.com bounced → recovered frederic@fullenrich.com

The workflow in action: frederic@granum.com bounced → name hint frederic, old domain granum.com → search past_company=granum.com, name~frederic → Frederic Mathieu now CMO at FullEnrich → recovered frederic@fullenrich.com plus his mobile phone.

How to execute this workflow:

  1. Drop your bounced emails into the Bounced Email column

  2. The Name Hint and Old Company Domain formulas parse the address automatically

  3. The FullEnrich Search POST fires on the old domain plus name hint

  4. The Search Result formulas extract the best match's new identity

  5. Find Work Email and Find Mobile Phone run on the recovered identity

  6. Filter on recovered emails and push them back to your CRM or re-engagement sequence

When to use this template:

  • Re-engagement campaigns where contacts went cold because they changed jobs

  • Cleaning bounced lists from old outreach campaigns

  • Account-based sales where a buyer moved to a new company

  • Event follow-ups where attendee emails bounced months later

You need the bounced email address itself, not just a name. Run it quarterly on your bounce list to catch job changes in bulk.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

Search returns 0 matches

The person may not be indexed, or the name hint is too specific. Try loosening the name match, or verify the old domain was parsed correctly.

Wrong person matched

Common first names at large old employers can mismatch. Increase the search limit and add a manual review step on the top 3 results before the final enrichment.

Final email comes back empty

The person was found but their new company email pattern could not be verified. The LinkedIn URL from the search formulas improves match rates, make sure it is populated.

No mobile phone returned

Mobile coverage varies by region and seniority. The work email still recovers independently, the phone is a bonus when available.

API returns 401

Check your FullEnrich API key in the Authorization header. It should be Bearer YOUR_KEY.

Recovery rate lower than expected

Recovery depends on data recency. Recent job-changers recover best. Very old bounces (2 or more years) are harder to match.

If we can't find contact data, no one else can.

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    GDPR & CCPA compliant