No-Reply Emails: The Brick Wall Of Email Communication

Automated emails – what’s not to love?  Email marketing campaigns sent out for customer birthdays, transactional email receipts, and really just about any email campaign you could think of could be automated to streamline any business. 

While there is a myriad of things that can go wrong with your automated email campaign, we feel like there is one in particular that gets overlooked more than most — using no-reply email addresses.

No-Reply emails discourage communication

Unfortunately, no-reply emails aren’t the wonderful catch-all that people would like for them to be. The original intention makes sense in that you want to help streamline communication channels for things like confirmation emails. However, often times it ends up feeling like you’re talking to a brick wall or worse, this: 

There is something to be said about two-way communication, and email was built for that. When you set up an email campaign to use a no-reply address for the majority of your sending, you’re actively discouraging your customers from talking to you.

Isn’t that the point?

Now you might be thinking that discouraging replies is the entire purpose of no-reply email addresses. We agree with you, that is the point, and that point is killing your reputation. 

ISPs (and email service providers too) generally frown on the use of no-reply emails, and if you pair that with the wrong content, you’re bound to hit spam filters or attract spam complaints. More spam complaints mean your less likely to land in the inbox. Plus, you’re actively putting down the best kind of engagement — email replies! You want replies because they’re the most genuine form on engagement, and they allow you to build a better brand by providing great customer care. It’s also worth asking…

Do no-reply emails even work?

Outside of how it affects your reputation, no-reply don’t exactly keep people from replying. Sure, it discourages them from replying back, but that can’t stop them if they really feel like replying back. 

When you get right down to it, people will generally seek out the correct channel for communication instead of replying to the first email string they see. For example, a marketing email from you could remind them that they need to call customer service in regards to a recent order. The actual number of replies you get to the wrong email inbox is relatively low, and there is a way to solve for it. 

Building a better brand

Instead of turning to a no-reply email solution for your customer service needs, consider a more proactive approach with different subdomains and inboxes in order to better organize your email flows. Whether or not you make a new email address or subdomain largely depends on your sending volume, so be sure you have the right set up before you get sending. 

We also cannot stress enough how helpful routes are in this situation. You can set up different routes and send messages to different locations based on just about anything, like a certain subject line match or header match. From there you can stop messages, route them to your support address, send them all to the same box, the routing world is your oyster.

Better communication means happier customers

It’s a no-brainer really — people like to talk to real people. ISPs love it too because genuine communication doesn’t belong in the spam folder, which means you get to better your email deliverability. 

So, if you’re using a no-reply email right now, don’t worry! Making the change isn’t as painful as it might seem, and it’s a great time to check that you’ve got a clean email list and are in compliance with CAN-SPAM as well. If you’re confused as to how else you can better your email experience for your customers, we’re always here to help.  Ready to get started with Mailgun?