What are the pros and cons of maintaining a list of domains and role addresses to never send emails to?

Summary

Maintaining a 'never send' list of domains and role addresses is a double-edged sword. Experts, marketers, and documentation agree it improves sender reputation, deliverability, and engagement by avoiding spam traps, role accounts, and known complainers. Regularly cleaning lists, implementing suppression lists, and adhering to permission practices are crucial. However, some argue that aggressive suppression can mask underlying list collection problems, hindering compliance conversations and potentially harming deliverability if not carefully managed. Proper segmentation, monitoring bouncebacks, and prioritizing relevance are key to balancing proactive suppression with a nuanced approach. Not sending to harvested addresses or without consent will damage deliverability, as will exceeding sending limits.

Key findings

  • Reputation & Deliverability Boost: Avoid sending to problematic addresses (spam traps, role accounts, known complainers) improves sender reputation and deliverability.
  • Engagement Improvement: Removing unengaged subscribers and invalid addresses increases engagement rates.
  • Prevention of Legal Issues: Promptly removing unsubscribed users avoids legal risks and protects brand reputation.
  • Balanced Suppression: A comprehensive suppression strategy with known complainers, unsubscribes, spam traps, is crucial.
  • Good Practices are Essential: Not sending to harvested addresses or without consent will damage deliverability.
  • Filtering improves deliverability: Filtering list to avoid sending to addresses that are likely to cause bounces or are invalid and respecting sending limits protects deliverability

Key considerations

  • Segmentation is Key: Prioritize proper segmentation and targeting to send relevant content and reduce the need for aggressive suppression.
  • Underlying issues: Address root causes or list collection problems and avoid just filtering addresses.
  • Monitor Feedback: Monitor bouncebacks and unsubscribe requests, refine strategies and address root causes.
  • Permission-based Sending: Adhere to best-practice permission-based marketing, focusing on subscribers who have actively opted in.
  • Prioritize Compliance: Treat it as a signal to start a compliance conversation with senders rather than a blacklist event.
  • Respect administrative addresses: Avoid sending marketing emails to administrative role accounts (abuse, postmaster). Consider just monitoring.

What email marketers say
9Marketer opinions

Maintaining a 'never send' list, which includes specific domains, role-based email addresses (like abuse@ or postmaster@), and known spam traps, presents both advantages and disadvantages for email marketers. Proponents argue it enhances sender reputation by preventing emails from reaching addresses likely to generate complaints, bounces, or low engagement. This proactive approach reduces the risk of being blocklisted and improves overall deliverability. Cleaning lists and using suppressions avoids sending to trap addresses, harvested emails and to addresses without consent. Conversely, some suggest a more nuanced approach, advocating for permission-based marketing and proper segmentation to send relevant content. Silently blocking addresses without understanding the underlying issue can mask problems with list collection processes and hinder opportunities for compliance conversations. The consensus leans towards cautious and targeted suppression rather than blanket blocking, emphasizing the importance of email list hygiene and adapting strategies based on feedback mechanisms like bouncebacks and unsubscribe requests.

Key opinions

  • Reputation Boost: Preventing sends to addresses prone to complaints or bounces improves sender reputation and deliverability.
  • Engagement Improvement: Removing role-based addresses and inactive users can increase engagement rates.
  • Spam Trap Avoidance: A 'never send' list helps avoid spam traps, protecting sender reputation.
  • List Hygiene: Cleaning email lists regularly, including removing hard bounces, maintains email deliverability.
  • Legal Compliance: Promptly removing unsubscribed users reduces legal risks and maintains brand reputation.

Key considerations

  • Segmentation: Proper segmentation and targeting can reduce the need for aggressive suppression.
  • Transparency: Silently blocking addresses can mask underlying list collection problems.
  • Feedback Loops: Monitor bouncebacks and unsubscribe requests to refine suppression strategies.
  • Compliance Conversations: Consider using problematic addresses as a signal to initiate compliance discussions with senders.
  • Balance: Balance proactive suppression with allowing senders to make mistakes to identify and address root causes.
Marketer view

Email marketer from StackOverflow explains that one can build a 'do not send' list automatically by listening to bouncebacks. If there's a hard bounce with a permanent failure type then it's likely that the address is invalid or deliberately set to block you.

September 2024 - StackOverflow
Marketer view

Email marketer from Litmus recommends that removing addresses from your list promptly as part of an unsubscribe process to avoid future email sending which may cause legal issues and damage brand reputation.

May 2021 - Litmus
Marketer view

Email marketer from Quora explains that sending to spam trap addresses can severely damage your sender reputation. A 'never send' list helps avoid these traps, leading to improved deliverability. It's a proactive approach to maintaining a clean and healthy email list.

June 2021 - Quora
Marketer view

Email marketer from Sendinblue Blog emphasizes the importance of email list hygiene, including removing invalid or inactive addresses. This includes role-based addresses that are less likely to convert and may increase spam complaints, ultimately affecting deliverability rates.

April 2023 - Sendinblue Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from HubSpot Blog shares that while not directly related to 'never send' lists, proper segmentation and targeting avoids sending irrelevant emails to recipients. This improves engagement and sender reputation, reducing the need to aggressively suppress addresses. This is because sending relevant content decreases the likelihood of users marking emails as spam or unsubscribing.

August 2022 - HubSpot Blog
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks suggests that blocking emails to addresses like removals@spamhaus.org might prevent a 'bad' sender from being listed. However, Alison argues, it's better to allow senders to make mistakes to catch and fix the root cause. She would use this signal as a reason to start a compliance conversation, rather than silently blackholing it.

September 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from Reddit suggests on a Reddit thread that adding role-based emails to a 'do-not-mail' list avoids potential spam complaints. They mention it's more effective to contact a specific person rather than a general role account for marketing purposes.

March 2022 - Reddit
Marketer view

Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog explains that cleaning your email list by removing inactive or problematic addresses improves your sender reputation, which leads to better deliverability. Sending to role addresses often results in low engagement, negatively impacting your overall email performance.

July 2022 - Neil Patel's Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email on Acid answers that sending to role addresses may negatively impact the sender’s email domain reputation, since email engagement rates can be lower for role addresses. Also, these emails may be marked as spam more frequently.

October 2021 - Email on Acid

What the experts say
5Expert opinions

Experts have differing views on maintaining a 'never send' list of domains and role addresses. Some believe that if proper permission practices are in place, such lists are unnecessary. Compiling a domain deny list from blocklist resources is suggested. However, silently filtering out 'bad' addresses can be counterproductive, masking underlying problems and allowing bad actors to exploit the system. Sending marketing emails to role accounts like abuse@ and postmaster@ is generally discouraged due to their administrative purpose. Conversely, maintaining a comprehensive suppression list, which includes known complainers, unsubscribes, and spam traps, is deemed crucial for protecting sender reputation and improving deliverability. Sending to harvested addresses or without consent also severely damages email deliverability.

Key opinions

  • Proper Permission is Key: With proper permission practices, 'never send' lists may be less critical.
  • Filtering Backfires: Silently filtering bad addresses can mask underlying problems and enable bad actors.
  • Role Accounts are Risky: Sending marketing emails to role accounts like abuse@ and postmaster@ often leads to complaints.
  • Suppression Lists are Crucial: Comprehensive suppression lists protect sender reputation and improve deliverability.
  • Consent is Essential: Sending to trap addresses, harvested emails, or without consent damages deliverability.

Key considerations

  • Permission Practices: Prioritize obtaining proper permission before sending any email.
  • List Monitoring: Monitor list collection practices to identify and address underlying problems.
  • Suppression Strategy: Develop a comprehensive suppression strategy that includes known complainers, unsubscribes, and spam traps.
  • Domain reputation: Make sure never to send to trap addresses, harvested emails and to addresses without consent.
  • Administrative Emails: Avoid sending marketing emails to administrative role accounts.
Expert view

Expert from Spam Resource (John Levine) explains that sending marketing emails to role accounts like abuse@ or postmaster@ is generally a bad idea. These accounts are meant for administrative purposes, and sending them unsolicited marketing material is likely to result in complaints.

October 2023 - Spam Resource
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise (Laura Atkins) shares that maintaining a comprehensive suppression list is crucial for email deliverability. It prevents sending to known complainers, unsubscribes, and other problematic addresses, protecting sender reputation and improving engagement rates.

November 2022 - Word to the Wise
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks shares how silently propping up deliverability by filtering out the bad stuff can backfire. This is because it can soften indicators, allowing bad actors to masquerade as mostly good ones and sneak in garbage messages.

December 2024 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks explains that a list of "never send to" domains is controversial and potentially unneeded for senders with proper permission practices. They suggest compiling a domain deny list from blocklist lookup tools and lists of blocklists, assuming legitimate users will sign up with personal addresses.

January 2024 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise (Dennis Dayman) shares that one must not send to trap addresses, harvested emails and to addresses without consent. These email types will damage domain reputation and decrease deliverability.

October 2024 - Word to the Wise

What the documentation says
5Technical articles

Email service providers and documentation sources generally recommend maintaining lists to suppress sending to certain domains and role addresses for optimal deliverability. Regularly cleaning lists to remove unengaged subscribers, role-based addresses (like 'abuse' or 'postmaster'), and known complainers is vital for maintaining a good sender reputation. Sending to these addresses leads to spam complaints, low engagement, and exceeding spam rate thresholds, negatively impacting deliverability, particularly to Gmail users. Standard mailbox names need to be handled carefully, often best monitored instead of targeted for marketing. Sending limits should be respected by filtering out high risk emails like bounces, invalid emails and unengaged users.

Key findings

  • List Cleaning is Essential: Regularly cleaning lists is crucial for removing harmful addresses.
  • Role Addresses Harmful: Sending to role-based addresses often leads to spam complaints and low engagement.
  • Suppression Lists are Key: Suppression lists prevent sending to addresses with negative engagement signals.
  • Low Spam Rates are Vital: Maintaining low spam rates is vital for deliverability, especially to Gmail.
  • Limit impact on Domain reputation: Limit bounces, invalid emails and sending limits to protect sender’s domain reputation

Key considerations

  • Regular Maintenance: Establish a regular list cleaning schedule.
  • Role Address Handling: Carefully handle role-based addresses, often better monitored than targeted.
  • Suppression Implementation: Implement comprehensive suppression lists.
  • Threshold Awareness: Be aware of spam rate thresholds for major email providers like Gmail.
  • Address validation: Filter list to avoid sending to addresses that are likely to cause bounces or are invalid
Technical article

Documentation from Microsoft states that exceeding email sending limits can impact sender’s domain reputation. It's important to filter the list and not send to emails that are likely to cause bounces or are invalid.

August 2024 - Microsoft
Technical article

Documentation from Mailchimp recommends regularly cleaning your list to remove unengaged subscribers and addresses that could harm your sender reputation. They advise against sending to role-based addresses, as they often lead to spam complaints and low engagement.

July 2023 - Mailchimp
Technical article

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools outlines that keeping spam rates low is vital for deliverability to Gmail users. Sending to known problematic domains and addresses increases the risk of exceeding spam thresholds, negatively impacting sender reputation and deliverability.

April 2024 - Google
Technical article

Documentation from SparkPost details that suppression lists, including those for role addresses and known complainers, are crucial for maintaining good deliverability. It prevents sending to addresses that are likely to generate negative engagement signals, which can harm sender reputation.

May 2024 - SparkPost
Technical article

Documentation from RFC Editor specifies standard mailbox names (role accounts) like 'abuse,' 'postmaster,' etc., that should be handled carefully. It's often better to monitor these addresses rather than sending marketing emails, as they serve important administrative functions.

September 2024 - RFC Editor