No-Reply is Dead, What’s next?

No-Reply is Dead, What’s next?

In the past, it was pretty common for businesses to send out automated emails with a “no-reply” handle, but unfortunately, that is no longer considered best practice for a variety of reasons listed below.

  • No reply emails may hurt your client relationships by sending the message that you don’t care about their responses
  • They may elicit complaints from people who choose to reply anyway to unsubscribe and are unsuccessful
  • It’s difficult to identify invalid email addresses, so your database may not be up to date. 

Because of this (and more), it’s important to always have a valid and working “from” and “reply” field for all your email communications. Below we’ve discussed how this “no-reply” evolution came about in the field of marketing as well as some alternatives to “no-reply” that send a better message to consumers while still getting the job done for business owners.

The Evolution of “No Reply”

“No reply” to monitored inboxes to automated inboxes

Email marketing originally started using “no-reply” emails because they are a one-way channel, and at the time it was ok (and pretty common) to engage with customers but not allow them to engage back. However, because of the rise of the Internet, one-way engagement became obsolete (see below) and so “no-reply” emails started to become a less acceptable marketing strategy. From them grew what we like to call monitored inboxes. 

With monitored inboxes, replies are both allowed and encouraged in order to fulfill the need for two-way engagement. Unfortunately, this creates another problem—monitored inboxes require a person or team to sort through the responses to make sure they get answered, and many small businesses don’t have the resources to do this. Enter automated inboxes and machine learning. 

Thanks to both automation and machine learning, the days of spending hours going through your inbox sorting through unopened emails are gone for most people. Now there are plenty of email automation tools to assist with this process in order to save people time and unnecessary stress trying to distinguish between important emails and spam. Small business owners and marketers definitely don’t have time to do this, and often they’re the ones who receive the most unwanted emails due to their own email campaigns. Gmail now has plenty of filters you can choose from to help with inbox automation, and Boomerang (a Gmail plugin) lets you schedule and snooze emails depending on your needs. Trello makes it easy to organize your projects and emails, and Zapier is an app that lets you connect and automate hundreds of business apps to your inbox for automation purposes. 

So what’s the takeaway: The takeaway here is that all these inbox automation tools make it possible to save time while also preserving the delicate relationships you have with your customers. They all allow for personalization (see below) and none of them send the message that you don’t care about your client’s responses or that you don’t want to hear back from them. Below shows how Siftrock helps you avoid this issue:

Marketing Trends that Drive this Evolution

Personalization

Personalization in content marketing is a growing trend that has led to the death of “no-reply” emails and with good reason. Creating personalized content can be challenging, but it’s a necessity in a competitive market that essentially demands that all content and communication from businesses be tailored to the interests of their target audiences. There’s just too much competition, even in niche markets, for your marketing strategy to be generic or to too closely mirror that of one of your competitors. Consumers want their emails, advertisements, banners, and more to match their interests, otherwise, they’ll be clicking “unsubscribe” and moving on. Thus, it’s important to know your customer and to make sure they’re at the forefront of your marketing strategy, and sending automated emails from a no-reply handle just doesn’t fit the bill. This is especially true now that 43% of consumers are more likely to send a “no-reply” email to their spam folder as opposed to one that comes from a more personalized handle.

Two-way communication via all channels

The internet and social media have given way to an era where consumers are always plugged-in and where they have the potential to make contact with a brand 24/7 through a variety of different channels. This means that they could be your brand’s worst enemy or your biggest fan, and either way, they have the potential to share their opinions more frequently with larger audiences. 

This opportunity demands that brands provide two-way communication through all possible channels, both online, over the phone, and in person. If a consumer posts a complaint on your Facebook page, or Tweets about it, or leaves a comment on your blog or website, they expect to be heard and acknowledged. And if they’re not, it’s bound to leave a bad taste in their mouth and a bad review for your business, which has the potential to go viral very quickly. “No reply” emails just don’t have a place in this transparent world of communication that dictates that consumer questions and concerns be addressed.

Alternatives to “No-Reply”

There are much friendlier ways to send automated emails than “no-reply”, and we think you’ll find the customer responses much more positive. That being said, it doesn’t have to take a whole lot more time or effort on the part of the marketer—automation still absolutely has a part to play in today’s email campaigns. Instead of choosing “no-reply”, consider one of the following alternatives:

  • hello@yourcompany.com
  • support@yourcompany.com
  • yourname@yourcompany.com
  • info@yourcompany.com 

You’ll want to pair this with a recognizable “from” names, such as the name of your CEO or executive, the name of an employee at the company, or just the name of your company in general. Pairing the 2 together will help ensure the email gets opened and not sent directly to spam, though they don’t outright encourage customers to respond. That being said, these handles also don’t alienate customers and make it look like your business isn’t interested in their reply.

People will still reply, however, so you want to make sure your business is prepared for this. Consider dedicating a mailbox solely to handle these customer responses, and if you have the resources, a person or team to manage that inbox and make sure the responses are addressed. Since not all small businesses have the budget or manpower to do this, an alternative would be to send an auto-response that alerts the customer to another email address, phone number, contact page, etc. where they can then direct their response. It’s an extra step for them, and one they might not be pleased about, but this may be the best alternative for start-ups and other businesses without large teams of people working for them. Whether or not this works for your company comes down to testing. 

If your business needs dictate that you must use a version of “no-reply”, consider changing the semantics to something like:

  • Unattended_inbox@yourcompany.com 
  • unmonitored_mailbox@yourcompany.com

Both of these are less harsh than the simple “no-reply”, yet send the same message. Just be sure to pair this with a friendly automated message that directs customers to a place they can go with their concern where they are sure to be heard and receive a response. Below is an example from Target that uses this type of address:

Of course, Siftrock can help you control all of this automation while still allowing you the personalization and organization you need for success. If you’re already using Marketo, HubSpot, Eloqua, or Act-On, the integration is seamless.