When it comes to email deliverability, one common question we receive from our users is about the difference between using email aliases and regular mailboxes. This article will explain why, in most cases, using regular mailboxes is the recommended approach for optimal email deliverability.
Understanding the Difference
- Regular Mailboxes: These are full-fledged email accounts, each with its own unique login and storage space.
- Email Aliases: These are additional email addresses that forward to an existing mailbox without having a separate login or storage.
They allow users to receive emails sent to different addresses within a single inbox. For example, if your regular email is john@company.com, you might set up aliases like support@company.com or sales@company.com, all of which redirect to john@company.com.
Why Regular Mailboxes Are Preferred
When using email services like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 to send sales & marketing communication, it's generally best to use regular mailboxes for sending emails, especially when considering email deliverability. Here's why:
- Sender Reputation: Major email providers like Microsoft and Google take into account the number of genuine, active user accounts within your domain. This information is used to determine your sending limits and overall sender reputation.
- Volume Considerations: It's a common misconception that creating multiple email aliases can increase your sending volume. In reality, email service providers are more concerned with the number of actual user accounts, not just email addresses.
- Deliverability Impact: Using regular mailboxes instead of aliases can positively impact your email deliverability. Each mailbox is seen as a separate, legitimate sender, which can help distribute your sending volume and maintain a good sender reputation.
- Cost vs. Benefit: It's important to note that using regular mailboxes is typically more expensive than using aliases, as most email services charge per mailbox. However, the improved deliverability and sender reputation often outweigh the additional cost. The positive impact on your email campaigns' effectiveness can lead to better overall results and potentially higher ROI, despite the increased expense.
Why Email Aliases Can Kill Your Deliverability
- Creating Aliases for Different Domains
- Spoofing and Spamming Risks: Using aliases across multiple domains can raise red flags with spam filters. This practice is often associated with spoofing and spamming, leading to deliverability issues.
- Deliverability Scores: Spam filters may lower your deliverability scores when they detect multiple domains with aliases, as this is commonly associated with malicious activity.
- Cold Emails
- Trust Issues: ESPs may become suspicious if they detect cold outreach campaigns sent from aliases. This suspicion arises from the perception that aliases are used to hide the sender’s identity, which can trigger spam filters.
- Scamming Alarms: When alarms are triggered, your email deliverability can drop significantly, as ESPs may flag your emails as potential spam.
- Automated Scalable Email Campaigns
- DNS Scrutiny: Automated outreach campaigns using aliases can bypass DNS checks, raising red flags with spam filters that rely on DNS for validation.
- Spam Filters: Without proper DNS settings, spam filters may block your emails, significantly harming your deliverability rates. It is crucial to double-check DNS settings when creating aliases.
- Hiding Your Identity for Misleading Purposes
- Transparency: ESPs can detect the origin of aliases, making it easy to see through attempts to hide identity. This practice can decrease open rates, conversions, and increase complaints.
- Trust and Compliance: Using aliases to hide identity is rarely justifiable and can lead to violations of email compliance rules. This can result in long-term damage to your sender reputation.
- Fixing Sender Reputation
- Suspicion: Trying to fix a damaged sender reputation by using aliases can backfire. ESPs can see behind the alias and may view such actions as deceptive, leading to further reputational harm.
- Permanent Issues: This practice may lead to permanent deliverability problems, making it harder to rebuild a positive sender reputation.
Best Practices
- Use regular mailboxes instead of aliases for your primary senders, especially those sending high volumes of email.
- Reserve aliases for specific use cases where forwarding is necessary, but avoid using them as primary sending addresses for large-scale email campaigns.
By following these guidelines, you can help ensure better email deliverability and maintain a strong sender reputation for your domain. The investment in regular mailboxes, although more costly upfront, can pay off in terms of improved email performance and campaign success rates.