The secret behind every successful relationship is good communication. And it's the same for email marketing as well.
Email marketing is essentially a relationship built out of trust between you and your subscribers. They have trusted you and permitted you to send them emails, thereby starting a conversation with them.
By sending emails using a no reply email address, you are making it a one-sided conversation with only you conversing with your audience without any response from them.
And that's not fair.
To build a long-lasting connection with your subscribers, you need to hear their side of the conversation as well.
So, in this article, we'll discuss why you should be using no reply email ids and some of the alternatives you can use instead.
Table of contents
- What is a no reply email address?
- Why shouldn’t you use a no reply email?
- Alternatives for no reply email address
- Wrap up
What is a no reply email address?
A no reply email address is an email id created using the format "no reply@domain.com" and is used to block any replies from your subscribers when you send an email to them. These email addresses can't receive any emails, and any reply sent by subscribers will not reach the email address.
So what happens if you reply to a no reply email?
If you reply to a no reply email, your email will be ignored, and you'll be notified by your email provider that the email was not delivered.
Why shouldn’t you use a no reply email?
Most businesses use this no reply email id to discourage their subscribers from replying to their transactional emails or other email campaigns. But, this is not a good idea, here's why:
• Your subscribers would feel like their opinions don't matter.
As we discussed early, communication is the key to building good relationships, and the same applies to the relationship between you and your subscribers. And, by using no reply email id, you deny your subscribers the ability to converse with you.
This one-sided communication can make your subscribers feel that their opinions or feedback don't matter. This can cause a rift in the trust between you and your subscribers and even make them unsubscribe from your list.
And honestly, you can't blame them; after all, how can you trust someone you can't talk to? So, if you seek to build trust, the only way is to engage with your subscribers. Yes, it might be daunting if you are a large brand. But, you have to make it a part of your email marketing strategy.
• You will miss out on valuable feedback from your readers
Most people don't respond to any transactional emails unless there is a mistake or something important to say.
For example, they might have a question about the product, constructive feedback, or even a comment about how they love the product.
And if you deny them the chance to express themselves and miss out on crucial feedback that could help you become better as a brand. Of course, you could get feedback using market surveys, Facebook polls, etc., but you need to invest time for those, which is not the case for email replies.
Apart from these reasons, people might want to reply to your emails to tell you if there are some technical errors in the campaign you have sent, like:
Download link that doesn't work.
Missing unsubscribe link
Formatting error in your email.
And if they can't reach you with this feedback, you won't be able to find and rectify your mistakes.
Read about - Feedback Email Series for E-commerce and D2C Brands
• You could end up hurting your email marketing efforts
A no reply email address diminishes the trust between you and your subscribers, and it can lead to them not wanting to engage with your emails. When people find out they can't reply to you, they might stop reading your emails or even opening your emails. The lack of engagement can hurt your reputation, deliverability rate and can even lead to you being marked as spam.
Also, apart from people marking you as spam, ISPs, network spam filters can label you as spam and send your no reply emails directly to the junk folder. And, if you are not yet certain, let me inform you that it's illegal to send emails with an email address that can't receive replies.
Alternatives for no reply email address
By now, it is evident that using a no reply email in your email marketing to save time answering replies is a harmful notion. And, you might wonder what you can use instead of it.
Here are a few alternatives to the no reply email address.
1. hello@companyname.com
A no reply email address can be rude and mean "I don't want to hear from you," but "hello" means the exact opposite. It shows that you provide a friendly greeting and invite people to interact with you.
2. firstname@companyname.com
People are more inclined to connect with your company if they feel like someone personally sends the email. And, they will also feel less intimidated to reply to the person if the email is sent from an email address with a person's name in it.
The name can be of anyone in your company, like CEO, Manager, company mascot, colleague, or even yourself. You can A/B test your emails to determine which name gets the best open rates and choose according to it.
Also, ensure that you have included your company name in the "From" section of the email. Because if it's shown as an email from "Maya," your subscriber won't have an idea about who it's from. You can use "Maya from Mailcharts," which makes it clear to know who it's from and builds brand recognition.
3. hello@fullname.com
If you don't have a company name and are a celebrity, influencer, or industry thought leader then, you can use this alternative. When you send an email with your full name, it shows your branding and makes it easy for readers to recognize your emails.
4. companydivision@companyname.com
This email address is a good alternative for a large company with multiple departments that send people emails.
Using this format, you can send shipping and delivery information from an email id like "orders@companyname.com" or send customer support emails from "support@companyname.com."
But, when using such ids, make sure to write appropriate sender names like "Orders at Company" or "Support at Company." This type of email clarifies who is sending the emails and from which department.
Wrap up
Using a no reply address to send your email marketing campaign is like writing your eulogy at this point due to its ability to have a seriously negative influence on your email deliverability.
So we recommend that you use any one of the above-given alternatives and focus on creating engaging email campaigns rather than wanting to avoid engaging with your customers.
And, if you cater your emails specifically to your customers and put their needs first, you will automatically get better engagement and deeper customer loyalty.
