No-reply or not reply? In all deliverability advice of Badsender this question will be asked at some point: "How important is the reply-to address? What should you put in your reply-to to guarantee good deliverability?"
L'emailing is a communication channel: an advertiser communicates with a recipient, and the recipient has the opportunity to respond. So far, so good? But some advertisers have forgotten this concept and use the email channel in a one-sided way: "I'm talking to you, but don't talk to me! Well... that's a big mistake! Simply because interactions between sender and recipient are perceived as positive behaviors for your email reputation. That's right! And the more you do, the better your reputation will be!
What is an email reply address?
The reply-to address is the email address that will be used when a recipient clicks on the reply button in their inbox. Generally speaking, it's the advertiser who defines this address in his routing tool (and so it can be customized).
If this is not defined, the sender address (or "to:" address) will be used as the reply address. Its choice is important, as it will have a strong impact on the way your recipients perceive your brand. There's nothing more annoying than when you finally contact a brand (via the reply address) and they don't get back to you... And yes, your recipients have things to say to you 😉
Why process replies to your emails?
As mentioned above, at some point your recipients will have things to say to you, so why not listen to them? They might write back to say:
- Report a technical or customization problem: This would enable you to update the person's profile and therefore improve your targeting in the next campaign.
- To report a dissatisfaction with too much commercial pressure from your e-mails : This would allow you to unsubscribe the person directly or test a more restrictive sales pressure.
- Notify us non-opt-in solicitation and/or irrelevant : This would enable you to avoid a complaint and test other types of content or re-optinize some of the addresses.
- Request additional information to the email received : This will enable you to establish a positive exchange with the person and optimize your content for the next campaign.
Moreover, these exchanges, if they are beneficial (beware, there are unfortunately some madmen), would allow you to establish a lasting dialogue with the person and why not restore the image of your brand to these recipients not always happy.
One thing's for sure: you've got everything to gain! Optimize your targeting, have better content, avoid complaints and send a strong, positive signal to your users (I'm repeating myself, but there's nothing more annoying than talking in a vacuum...).
And the icing on the cake is that these dialogues are a positive signal for your deliverability reputation because you'll be showing ISPs/Webmails that you're having one-to-one exchanges with your recipients (and if they play along and respond, all the better), but they're also sending a strong signal to your recipients.
What are the best practices for your email response address?
The best practices for using and managing a reply-to address are fairly straightforward. But they do require a little gymnastics. We can list 4 main best practices:
- Who will manage the reply-to address? Ideally, it's your customer service department. The one who will be able to answer questions about your products. Nevertheless, it's important to train your customer service team to detect certain questions relating to your email marketing practices.
- Which alias to use in the reply-to address? : the alias is the name before @ of an address. Here, we avoid "nepasrepondre", "noreply", ... At Badsender, we use "yesreply@". Choose an alias in the recipient's language that encourages them to reply to your e-mails.
- What is the technical configuration for your reply-to address? It is crucial to configure the MX server for your reply-to address. Without a mail server, it's impossible to send and receive e-mails. You'll need to contact your IT department.
- Filter, record and respond? You're likely to receive a lot of noise on your reply-to address. This will be the case, for example, with many "out of office" messages. There are solutions that allow you to filter these and categorize other requests so that they can be directed to the right departments.
It's legitimate to find it simpler not to deal with email responses by setting up a noreply@ or nepasreply@ address, but the benefits are such that we recommend you assess the impact of a "yesreply" policy. And if you're not ready yet, it may require changes to your customer service organization. Don't hesitate to plan again in a year's time!
The "noreply" war!!!
In 2012, Jonathan via Badsender launches the #noreplywar ! The aim was to banish the "noreply" alias (noreply@domaine.com) from all e-mail addresses (sender or reply), to enable every consumer to reply to a communication and create a discussion between them and the brand.
This is how the alias "yesreply" was born!
Conclusion: It's not fundamental, but...
Basically, a spam filter won't punish you for using a noreply address. On the other hand, its use, and especially the incentive to reply to your e-mails, could well enable you to boost your reputation (a little) as an e-mail sender.
An undeniable advantage when every point counts!
Frequently asked questions about the email reply address
During the missions of our deliverability consultantsWe're regularly asked questions about reply-to addresses. Here are a few we've shared with you (with answers, of course 😉 ).
About automatic replies: Is it imperative to have a real reply address?
Need help?
Reading content isn't everything. The best way is to talk to us.
The question:
I'm taking the liberty of asking you again because we have a question about the automatic reply address that is set up in the emails: is it imperative to have a real reply address?
In fact, we're looking into the need to create a real response address to manage customer responses. The aim is to create an automatic reply message attached to a reply-to address and whose message content will redirect the customer to the website's contact page.
Our previous editor strongly recommended using an existing address to manage responses. Can you confirm this point?
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
The answer:
It depends 😉 I'm not totally opposed to the answers, but it's essential to avoid side effects.
For example, if one of your recipients has set up an automatic out-of-office e-mail, you could find yourself in an infinite loop:
- BRAND sends newsletter
- The recipient sends an out-of-office message to the reply address
- BRAND sends an email to contact us on its website
- The recipient sends an out-of-office message to the reply address
- BRAND sends an email to contact us on its website
- The recipient sends an out-of-office message to the reply address
- …
So if you have the means (this type of solution exists) to have intelligent automatic responses that take into account the type of email sent by your customer, this is a possible solution.
If this is not the case, I think it's dangerous, and there are only two possible solutions:
- A real address with real customer service behind it: this is clearly the ideal solution for the customer experience.
- A noreply address that encourages people not to reply to your emails: This can be frustrating for your customers.
The question of the response address is not strictly speaking a question of deliverability. It's more a question of user experience.
The main impact this could have on deliverability is to have unsubscribe requests arriving via this channel and not being honored. The consequence could be an increase in dissatisfaction and therefore additional spam complaints.
Perhaps you'd also like to know the current volume of responses to your e-mails.
What impact does noreply have on deliverability?
The question:
I wanted to get your opinion on the impact that a "no-reply" reply address can have on newsletter deliverability.
Could the fact that it's not possible to reply to the email reduce the level of interaction and therefore impact our engagement rates, or increase the risk of classification as spam?
If you have any recommendations on the subject, I'd love to hear from you 😊
The answer:
Basically, having a "noreply" response address has no negative impact on reputation.
On the other hand, having recipients who respond to your newsletter has a very positive impact on reputation. For spam filters, responses to an e-mail are one of the best signs that it's legitimate.
So if it's not possible to process responses to your newsletters, it's not the end of the world (although ideally you should at least process unsubscribe requests). On the other hand, if you have the technical means to process these responses (more or less automatically), then you shouldn't deprive yourself of this option, or even encourage it.
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