Say NO to Noreply Email If You are a Smart Email Marketer

Noreply email is a quick shortcut process for an email marketer. Many organizations employ a noreply email address to run an email campaign or other emails. Although using a noreply email address is like inviting someone into your cafe but not taking orders from them. In that circumstance, individuals can get pretty disappointed. In the same way, when a marketer emails someone using a noreply email address, the receiver gets frustrated. But why does this happen? To know this, you must read this article to the end.

What is a noreply email address?

Companies use a noreply email address (also known as a ‘do not reply’ email address) to send company policy emails, email newsletters, or product update information to their customers. When the company uses the ‘noreply’ or ‘no-reply’ tags in its email domain, it is generally referred to as a ‘do not reply’ email. A ‘do not reply’ email address format is like – “[email protected].” Many companies use this type of email address when sending e-newsletters to their customers, which discourages the recipients from sending any response. In addition, the company sets some pre-rules automatically that will give the recipients “an address not found” or “a blocking message,” which is indeed irritating for any email recipient.

A ‘do not reply’ email address usually has some preset rules, which is why nobody can reply to that address. When anyone wants to respond to a noreply email address, their sent message gets blocked, and they may receive a sending error message (as in the above picture). 

Why using a noreply email address is a bad practice

You may plan to use a noreply email address to minimize many customers’ replies. Stop right there! Yes, a noreply email address might save your time to some extent. But it will have a horrible impact on your overall business. Let’s find out the outcomes of the effect by considering these five facts. –

1Negative impact on email deliverability rate

Email deliverability rate is one of the biggest concerns when using a noreply email address. But you may wonder how it will affect the email deliverability rate. You already understand the characteristics of a noreply email address. The sender with the ‘do not reply’ email approach always sends a lot of information using a noreply email address. But the email receiver may not be able to respond to the email. In that case, most email receivers block the email sender to stop this annoying email marketing. Eventually, the spam report will increase. Whenever many spam complaints are recorded against a ‘do not reply’ email domain frequently, the ISP or ESP easily tracks it and puts that email address on a spam list. Ultimately the company’s email deliverability rate was negatively affected.

2Increase the chance of unsubscribing and spam rate

Noreply email is a disturbing thing for any customer. When anyone receives a ‘do not reply’ email, they cannot even send a reply to it. It is evident that anyone may have some questions after getting an email from a ‘do not reply’ email address. When the email receiver can not send a reply regarding their queries, they will surely get frustrated. Moreover, the worst-case scenario is that a noreply email usually does not have an opt-out (unsubscribe) button. In that situation, an email receiver reports that noreply email and places them into their spam folder. 

3A barrier to two-way communication

Maintaining two-way communication is the most sensitive matter for a company. Customers are the main priority for any company. In terms of emailing them, the company also has to consider maintaining healthy communication. But when a company uses a noreply email address to provide company updates, promotions, or information to their customers, they do not offer a way for communication back in the ‘do not reply’ email chat. Instead, the company designed an auto-response against the noreply address we already know. By doing so, the company loses customer trust and ignores many customers’ valuable feedback and suggestions. 

4Affect overall customer experience

A noreply email can undoubtedly affect the overall customer experience. Nowadays, customers are becoming more aware and intelligent. Many email receivers do not even check out the emails when they see it has come from a noreply email address. They straightforwardly ignore the email. All of these were happening because of the bad experience of noreply email. When a company sends an email from a ‘do not reply’ address, it means they are not concerned about the customer’s feedback or question. Because they do not allow the email receiver to send a reply email to that noreply email address. This is how the noreply email strategy is gradually destroying the customer experience.

5Noreply email may not be legally compliant

Apart from all the above effects, using a noreply email address to communicate with customers is quite rude. The ‘do not reply’ email approach also technically breaks the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and CAN-SPAM Act. A few things will be associated with a ‘do not reply’ email. Such as:

• Most of the time, noreply email does not have opt-out options.
• Companies used to send noreply emails to anyone who visited their website.
• The noreply email approach prevents the email receiver from communicating with the company or email sender. Therefore, it encourages the email receiver to mark it as spam.

In a nutshell, a ‘do not reply’ email approach will not be customer-friendly. And none of the laws support a less customer-friendly email approach at all.

What to do instead of using a noreply email address

Hopefully, you may realize that using a noreply email address is undoubtedly a bad practice. But now you may think, what will be the alternative solution then? You must follow a few alternatives instead of the noreply email. –

Use the real email address

First and foremost, you must use a real and dedicated email address instead of the noreply email address. But the best practice is not to rely on just one dedicated email address. Instead, you can create a few dedicated reply-to email addresses according to your purpose and segmentation. Here are some examples of ideal email address formats. –

1. [email protected] – A noreply email acts like “I don’t want to hear from you,” whereas using the ‘hello’ format email address means exactly the opposite. A company can use it when they connect with their new subscribers or customers for the first time through email.
2. [email protected] – Any business organization has a responsibility to help its customers whenever they need it. Thus, a company’s support team must utilize a dedicated email address since the customer can have many questions.
3. [email protected] – Rather than using a ‘do not reply’ automated email, the company can use this email address format to promote its newsletter. In this email address format, the company uses its brand name or employee’s first name in the “first name” section.
4. [email protected] – A company can also use this format as an email address when they want a fast response from their customers. Companies might utilize this email address format for sending emails whenever they need their customer’s feedback or opinion.
5. [email protected] – This is a must-use email address format for any e-commerce website. All types of order, shipping, and delivery-related conversations should be sent through this type of dedicated email address.

In a nutshell, you can make your custom email domain depending on your service type and goal and use these sorts of email addresses. But remember, you have to establish two-way communication with your email recipients. Therefore, you should connect with your customers by a real email address that is ‘ready to get replies.’

Track your unsubscribes

Unsubscribing from email newsletters is not good, but honoring your customer’s choices is necessary. Tracking unsubscribing requests can significantly hamper if you use a noreply emailing strategy. Instead of using the unsubscribe link, some people may ask to be removed themselves by replying directly to your email. You should honor their request to maintain your brand reputation. But if you use a noreply email address to connect with your customer. Then there is a high chance that many unsubscribing requests do not even reach you. Ultimately, your brand image will fall.

Furthermore, if you send unnecessary promotional emails without the recipient’s permission from a noreply email domain, then your domain may get blacklisted quickly. Because it is undoubtedly a bad strategy, but when that email sends from a “noreply email address,” it becomes worse.

So to avoid all of these risks and maintain a good brand image, you should use an actual “ready to reply” email address to connect with your audience.

Bonus: You may wonder how to track all the unsubscribe numbers of your email campaign after following a good email approach. No worries, as like many email marketing tools, our MailBluster can be your best buddy with providing your every email campaign’s unsubscribing reports.

Update your FAQ page frequently

Last, you should update your FAQ page from time to time with every new and typical customer query. Moreover, you should add all the guidelines and demos regarding your business on the FAQ page more frequently. One of the reasons for using a noreply emailing strategy for a company is to avoid repetitive customer questions. Then why not update your FAQ page often and let the audience find the solution themselves? Furthermore, when they ask for a solution in the reply section, you can send them the specific FAQ page link.

The Takeaway

Long story short, the only takeaway of this article is to STOP using the noreply email address to communicate with your audience. If you do not take it seriously, it will badly affect your overall email marketing KPIs. The ‘do not reply’ email is a slow poison for email marketing. It will not affect you shortly, but the noreply emailing strategy will undoubtedly crush your email marketing progress in the long run.  

Therefore, be a wise marketer and avoid sending noreply emails to your customers. Instead, you should use a replayable email address instead of the noreply email address. Every feedback from your customer is precious to enhance your future business plan. So, practice the alternative tips of ‘do not reply’ emails and maintain a healthy customer relationship.