If you’ve been doing email marketing for quite some time, then you’ve probably heard about a disposable email. You might have heard a fellow marketer talk about how they use a disposable address to send emails from.
However, disposable email addresses are harmful to the health of your email marketing campaigns and especially your deliverability.
What Is a Disposable Email Address?
A disposable email address is another email account that marketers can use as an alternative or temporary address to hide their identities. Their main use of disposable addresses is to hide a user’s personal or business account whenever they need to do something that needs an email.
Types of Disposable Email Address
There are various types of disposable email addresses being used today. The most common ones are:
Alias
The alias type of disposable address is when a new account is hosted using the same mailbox provider as the user but using a variation of the original. Any message that is received by the address will go straight to the user’s primary inbox but can also be redirected to another folder.
This type of disposable email address will continue receiving emails until the user decides to stop.
Forwarding Account
A forwarding account is a temporary address that is made using a different domain than that of the original account of the user. It works by having emails forwarded to that address instead.
Just like the alias type of account, a forwarding account will continue to receive messages until it is deleted.
Non-Forwarding Account
A non-forwarding account is a temporary email address that is made using a different domain than what the sender is originally using. Its purpose is to send a one-time message to recipients.
Sending another message after the first using the same account will result in a hard bounce with no data obtained for succeeding emails.
How Disposable Email Addresses Harm Your Email Deliverability
First of all, sending messages to disposable email addresses will increase the probability of your bounce rates. This is because expired or discarded throwaway email addresses will no longer be active, and thus, result in a hard bounce.
Reaching a certain threshold in terms of your bounce rate not only means that your emails aren’t reaching your subscribers but there’s also the risk of being flagged as a spammer by third-party entities like mail providers and anti-spam organizations. Meanwhile, your own email service provider may also suspend your account in order to protect their name.
Another way temporary addresses can harm your email deliverability is by harming your sender reputation. Since these addresses can become inactive at any time, you’ll find yourself sending to blank addresses that not only reduce your sender score but also make it hard for you to assess your deliverability metrics.
Finally, sending to disposable addresses is simply a waste of time and money. Most people who use these email accounts are simply doing it to achieve a singular goal and most don’t intend to use them permanently. Even if they do, they may still not take emails they receive seriously since that’s not their intention in the first place.
Why Do People Use Disposable Addresses?
Now that you know how disposable email addresses work, why do people use them? Here are the four main reasons:
- To keep their identity secure: People who want to keep their identity from various malicious individuals online will use disposable addresses as a way to protect themselves.
- To stop receiving spam or unsolicited emails: People use alias email accounts when signing up just to leverage a product or solution they need online. With an alias, they can keep track of email addresses that have begun receiving unwanted content and delete them to stop being spammed. Not only is this a nifty way to avoid spam but you also prevent getting spam-like emails mixed up into your primary email.
- To increase personal security online: Another reason people use disposable emails is that it provides them with an extra security layer when online. Company databases are a juicy target for many hackers and, should a breach occur, the identity of users who have employed temporary addresses will be safe from these cybercriminals.
- To engage in criminal activity: On the flip side, some disposable email addresses are used for illegal activities such as sending spam or scamming others. The anonymity these criminals receive is an added layer of protection that keeps them from getting caught.
Best Practices to Manage Disposable Email Addresses in Your Lists
There’s no doubt that disposable email addresses can be useful as a regular email user. However, email marketers will suffer for it if their list is filled with disposable email addresses.
The good news is that there are practices you can follow to help you manage these disposable email addresses. Here are some tips to help you identify and get rid of throwaway accounts lurking in your lists:
- Practice good list hygiene: Practicing good list hygiene means that you only obtain addresses organically and legitimately through your email campaigns. Some marketers purchase or rent their mailing lists from third-party providers and end up getting more disposable email addresses than from active users. These purchased lists could also contain spam traps that would severely damage your sender reputation when you send them emails.
- Confirm your emails when growing your list: There are tools available today that let you verify new emails that get added to your mailing list. These tools let you see whether a contact is using their primary or disposable address. Confirming your emails as you grow your list is crucial to help you identify which email addresses could potentially cause harm to your email marketing campaign later on.
- Gain the trust of your subscribers: The most common reason why people use disposable email addresses is simply that they don’t trust a brand. It could be that they aren’t sure yet whether you’ll actually provide them with useful content or if you’ll protect their personal information once shared. To build trust with your subscribers, make sure you are transparent with them from the start on how you will collect, use, and keep their details safe.
- Minimize the incentives you give out: Although incentives are a great way of attracting leads and increasing your mailing list, some people misuse them by signing up with more than one email to maximize their benefits. To encourage people to use their primary email address instead, consider sending follow-up incentive emails after certain triggers, such as when they make their first purchase.
Conclusion
Disposable temporary email addresses continue to become a popular choice for many. Some of the reasons why people use them are because it helps protect their privacy and keep their personal details safe from cybercriminals.
Although they are beneficial for regular users, email marketers will have a hard time navigating their email lists because of disposable addresses. The main reason this is bad for them is that sending to accounts that are no longer active will hurt their sender reputation and reduce their email deliverability.
Fortunately, there are techniques you can start using today to minimize the effects of having these temporary and throwaway emails from your lists. These methods include:
- Practice good list hygiene
- Confirm all new emails
- Build trust with subscribers
- Minimize your incentives
When you follow the tips provided in this blog post, you’ll be able to manage and get rid of free disposable email addresses and keep your sender reputation intact. After all, your sender reputation plays a crucial role in the future of your email marketing campaigns.
