Troubleshooting Enrichment Issues with Subdomain Email Addresses

Last Updated: March 20, 2025

 

🔍 Please note: This article is for customers on Standard Bundle and Clearbit Platform plans. 

 

When enriching with Clearbit's HubSpot and Salesforce integrations, you might see less company level enrichment data with email addresses with two periods in the domain, for example example@usf.clearbit.com. The core reason lies in the strict email validation rules that these platform integrations employ. These rules are more stringent compared to the validation used by Clearbit's Enrichment API.

One of the key validation checks in our platform integrations is whether the email subdomain is a valid canonical domain. Put simply, for an email address like matt.swornson@lu.gt.com to be successfully enriched within HubSpot or Salesforce, the domain lu.gt.com itself needs to be a recognized and valid internet domain. This means it should have its own DNS records and be independently resolvable.

In many instances, while an email address might use a subdomain, that subdomain isn't actually a distinct, valid domain on its own. Often, the subdomain part either doesn't resolve to a website or simply redirects to the main top-level domain. Because our platform integrations prioritize data accuracy, they have this stricter validation in place. For example, an email like user@us.example.com might fail to enrich if us.example.com is not a valid, independent domain. However, an email like user@parks.sa.gov.au would likely enrich because parks.sa.gov.au is a valid subdomain with its own canonical domain status.

If you find that records with certain subdomains are not enriching in your HubSpot or Salesforce integrations, the Clearbit Enrichment API offers a less strict validation process and can often successfully enrich these records. As a side note, the Clearbit widget in Salesforce also leverages the Enrichment API and can be used to enrich these records as well.