Set up your reply-to email
Set up your reply-to email
1. Think about your email goals and what you want to happen when a customer responds to an email.
Do you want general customer service or campaign-specific tracking? Consider why someone may want to respond to your emails, and who might want to see these replies. Setting a custom reply-to address can allow you to segment replies and track customers more efficiently. Should your reply-to email be channel-specific? This allows the owner or leader of each channel to monitor and respond to replies. For instance, the reply-to address for a marketing campaign might be marketing@yourcompany.com but the reply-to email for an automated order confirmation email might be store@yourcompany.com. Should your reply-to email be campaign specific? For example, you may want to create a specific reply-to email address for any major campaigns you’re launching.
2. Avoid using a generic no-reply or do-not-reply email address.
Traditional do-not-reply email addresses are a throwback to online marketing from the early 1990s. Using a no-reply email address as your reply-to email prevents your customer service or marketing team from replying to legitimate questions from prospects and clients. A no-reply email address is also often a flag for spam filters, which may sabotage your deliverability rate.
3. Turn your reply-to email address into a call to action to improve reply rates and audience engagement.
For example, instead of a generic support@yourcompany.com, try gethelp@yourcompany.com.
4. Keep your reply-to name as short as possible to make it easy for your customers to remember.
Can it be easily spelled out when someone calls you on the phone? Is it easy to read when written on a business card or published in a newsletter?
5. Set up your reply-to email address with your host or email service provider.
Every host or email service provider has a different setup process. In general, you will navigate to your main email settings and create a new email address with its own designated inbox. Add this new email address to the reply-to field of all associated outgoing emails, which is typically next to your default from field when setting up an email campaign or autoresponder.
6. Authenticate your emails to tell spam filters that these emails are legitimate.
Ask your web host or your IT team to: Publish an SPF record for your domain: This stops spammers from sending emails that look like they’re coming from your email address. Activate DKIM signing for your emails: This tells your customers’ email providers that you actually sent the email. Publish a DMARC record for your website: This is an extra layer of protection against spammers spoofing your new email address, and adds further legitimacy to your emails.
7. Update your reply-to email address across all channels and platforms, including your website, support documents, customer service chat and phone scripts, knowledge base articles, and printed material like flyers and business cards.
For example, let’s say you created the following new reply-to emails: alerts@yourwebsite.com for any account notification emails. deals@yourwebsite.com for any promotional or marketing emails. sales@yourwebsite.com for any order confirmations, receipts, and similar e-commerce emails. You would update the email address on promotional landing pages, store support pages, and account management pages.