Why ‘noreply@’ Emails Are Bad For Business

Published: October 2021

A ‘noreply@’ email is when a business sends an email communication from ‘noreply@businessname.com’ which leaves the customer unable to respond.

We’re slightly shocked that with all the digital advances and tech-savviness, we’re still writing about the same email marketing faux pas. In fact, we first published a very similar piece on the Marketing Delivery website in 2015…

noreply@ emails aren’t just a pet hate at Marketing Delivery HQ, they’re actually bad for business.

Results from our recent customer survey indicate that email communications are consumers number-one choice when liaising with dealerships online. Unfortunately, a noreply@ email disregards this opportunity.

If that’s not enough to convince you to send your emails from a ‘hello@’ or similar email, here are five reasons why sending email communications without an option for the customer to respond is bad for business.

1. The Customer Experience

The easier it is to engage with a business, the more likely a customer is to do so. We email colleagues, friends and family regularly so don’t expect our business conversations to be one-sided.

At Marketing Delivery, we see the majority of our client customer responses come via email replies, not Live Chat or Contact Us buttons, and these replies can add valuable insight to the sales process and support customer retention.

Furthermore, dealers work hard to ensure their data capture is high with sufficient opt-in levels for email, yet by using noreply@ they are essentially saying to their customers ‘we can contact you but don’t try and come back to us’.

2. Limited Two-Way Conversations

Buying a car, and everything that comes with maintaining it is often a necessary (rather than luxury) purchase and can be stressful. Your customers are going to have questions and so it’s down to dealers to open the door to two-way communications.

For example, our survey results indicate that the majority of customers preferred method to book a service or MOT online is via email and over a third would prefer dealers to contact them via email when their service is due or in response to a sales enquiry.

In fact, 65% of UK car buyers expect dealers to respond more quickly to emailed sales enquiries since the pandemic – which just goes to show their desire to communicate via email.

3. Email Deliverability

Customer engagement and replies require the customer actually receives the email in the first place – something negatively impacted by noreply@ emails landing in spam folders.

Using a noreply@ address will increase your chances of emails being marked as spam which could lead to less trust in your brand, as well as a drop in engagement.

On this note, it’s also worth removing any ‘spammy’ words in the email content (such as free, bonus or bargain) to avoid the dreaded spam filters.

4. GDPR Compliancy

Even if the customer has originally opted-in for email communications, GDPR and CAN-SPAM laws still require the ability to opt-out and noreply@ emails could prevent this from happening, thus being non-compliant.

If a customer is unable to click the ‘unsubscribe’ link, whether they simply can’t see it or it’s not there (!!) then their first instinct would be to email the company. A noreply@ email takes this option away and could lead to a very frustrated customer.

5. Out Of Date Data

It’s not just the customer replies (such as ‘I’ve sold my car’) that will help dealers cleanse their database, but the ‘John no longer works here’ out of office replies.

Accurate data is the key to successful email marketing but is also incredibly important when it comes to spam traps. If businesses are seen to be continuously emailing non-existent email addresses, they risk being penalised by email hosts which will impact their results in the future.

For more information and support on how to improve your email marketing, contact us today.

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