You've most likely sent an email to a role address (or role-based-address) without realizing it. Info@, contact@, support@ are all examples of role addresses that are common in businesses to help them stay organized. However, using a role address can have a negative impact on your email deliverability.
What are role addresses?
Role addresses are organizational email addresses that represent a function or responsibility rather than an individual. They are most likely managed by more than one person and represent multiple recipients who handle the incoming emails. The most common examples of role addresses include info@, support@, and billing@.
While personal emails are meant for 1-1 communication, role addresses are used for a specific service. For larger companies, role addresses are essential and used to compile complaints, feedback, and other similar types of email correspondence into different inboxes.
Common types of role addresses
Role addresses can be used for just about anything in a company and are usually managed by many different people. Some common types of role addresses include:
Service addresses: billing@, contact@, info@, support@, techhelp@
Position addresses: admin@, ceo@, customercare@, director@, editors@
Internal organization addresses: testing@, errors@, all@, staff@
How role addresses affect email deliverability
Like so much else with your email marketing strategy, it all comes down to email deliverability. While role addresses are a helpful tool for larger companies, they should not be used for personal use and we recommend that you do not send campaigns to them.
Because role addresses are often associated with many recipients (such as a business's 'support@' redirecting to 20 customer service representatives), they can generate spam complaints or fall into spam traps.
Some other issues with role addresses and email deliverability include:
High bounce rates: Since role addresses represent a distribution list (being sent to more than one person) there's a high chance that one of those addresses on the list is no longer valid or doesn't exist, causing it to bounce.
Possible blacklist: There are many sign ups that don't allow role addresses, because if someone on that distribution list reports your email as spam, it could get you on a blacklist.
Compliance issues: It's highly unlikely that every recipient in a role based email addresses gave their consent to receive your email. Also, email marketing best practices recommend the 'double opt-in' strategy which means someone has to confirm their email to be added to a subscription list. Double opt-in won't work with role addresses.
This article is credited to the Wix team - https://support.wix.com/ and we thank them for that!