Oh joy! Another email from my friend "No Reply"! I can't wait to open this one. He/she is obviously interested in what I think.
I have never understood the the mindset behind the use of a "no-reply@" address when sending out a communication to your subscribers. Can you be more obvious about how little you care about the recipient? Information from the people you're communicating with is powerful information. Don't you want to know that John enjoyed the article but would like more information about the product? Do you not care that Karen thinks the old layout made your newsletter easier to read on her Blackberry? You're sending these to people. Don't make them feel like you're a machine.
I've known clients who will spend days laboring over the crafting and testing of their subject line in order to get it perfect, only to then treat the FROM line as an afterthought. All parts of your communication should work together to make your recipient feel like a respected, active participant.
In fact, Google uses this kind of information when making decisions about how to handle your emails. A couple months back, Gmail began looking for two-way communication between senders to decide whether or not to enable images. If they see record of previous emails from the recipient back to the sender, they are likely to turn images on by default in future emails.
Whenever I've discussed this with someone using a "no-reply@" or similar address, I've always been surprised by the response. My favorite is "We found that most of the replies we received were asking to be unsubscribed." Really? So now you're ignoring those? Bad move. Ignoring the wishes of your recipient (especially when they've taken the time to email you) just leads to higher complaint levels. You're adding water to the bucket.
Kris Dougherty | Operations & Deliverability
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