To no-reply or not

One of the ongoing arguments in deliverability is whether or not to use no-reply in the From address of email marketing. There are very strong opinions on both sides. I’ve even had people ask me to comment or ask me to back up their particular point of view.

My point of view is pretty simple. This is a customer relationship issue not a delivery issue. The presence of a no-reply@ address in the From: address has no effect on deliverability. There are too many giant brands getting great delivery using no-reply to think that it’s a problem.

Thus it amuses me when folks try and get me to agree with them that no-reply is the Worst. Practice. Ever. and will terminally break your email delivery. It doesn’t and it won’t.

There is one piece that I will relentlessly mock companies for. Putting in a reply-to: address that is no-reply@company. Reply-To is not a required header and if you don’t want replies, then don’t add it. Putting in a no-reply@ address as a reply-to address is a sign a company doesn’t understand email and is just cargo culting their way to the inbox.