Best practices for your "From" and "Reply-to" email addresses

Look professional and improve your sending reputation by using an email address from your own custom domain rather than a free email account

An email's "From Address" is the email address that displays in your email header and helps your contacts decide whether or not they should open and read your email when they see it in their inboxes. When coupled with the email's "From Name," the "From Address" creates a small, but important, part of your branding.

Constant Contact recommends that you use a "From" email address from your own domain (a.k.a. your website) rather than a free webmail address from providers like Yahoo, Gmail, or Outlook. Using a custom domain email address (Ex: jack@jacksbackyardbbq.com) has a couple of advantages over using an email address from a free email provider (Ex: jacksbackyardbbq@yahoo.com):

• Why you should use your own domain
• How to get your own domain
• How to change your email's "From Address"
• The "From" email address versus the "Reply-to" email address

Why you should use your own domain

It makes you look more professional

When you first started your business, using a custom domain email address might not have been on your mind, but over time you may find it necessary to separate your business email from your personal email. Using an email address that matches your website makes you look professional and organized. If you have multiple employees, standardizing their email addresses is a good step to take so that they can promote your brand whenever they interact with your customers and donors through email, or even when they hand out a business card. It also gives you control over your employees' email addresses if they leave your organization. 
 

It helps improve your sending reputation

Your "From" email address helps your contacts recognize your emails and helps to keep them out of the junk folder, but only if your contacts trust you! Using an email address from a custom domain goes beyond looking professional; it also helps to grow your reputation as a safe sender. By using a custom domain email address, you can control the authentication methods used to prevent spoofing, phishing, and spamming schemes that deteriorate your sending reputation.

• When you have a custom domain - When your "From Address" is based on your custom domain, you can build your own sending reputation by generating and publishing DKIM CNAME and DMARC records in your domain's DNS settings. When you authenticate your emails, it makes it much harder for spammers to spoof your emails and helps build trust with your contacts because they know that emails with your "From Address" are coming from you. 
• When you use a free email provider - When your "From Address" is from a free email provider, like Yahoo, Outlook, or Gmail, you share your sending reputation with other Constant Contact customers. Due to the latest email authentication requirements, Constant Contact automatically rewrites your “From Address" with our shared ccsend.com domain to make sure your messages continue to get delivered to your contacts. 

How to get your own domain

If you're using an email address from a free email provider and you:

• Don't have your own website - If you don't have a domain, you can get one from web hosting sites like bluehost.com or hostgator.com, or from domain hosting sites like domain.com or bigrock.com. Once you purchase a custom domain, you can usually choose to set up a new email address with it through the domain registrar, or you can set it up through Gmail.
• Have your own website - Check with your web hosting provider, webmaster, or IT department to enable the email option or add it to your hosting package.

How to change your email's "From Address"

Once you've set up an email address at your own domain, it's time to add it to your Constant Contact account and get it verified. Then be sure to set up self-authentication so you can use it as the "From Address" when sending your emails. If you have a new website address to go with it, make sure you edit the Organization Information in your account settings, too!

Note: Due to the latest industry email authentication requirements, you can only use an authenticated domain for your "From" email address, whether that's a custom domain you've self-authenticated or a ccsend.com subdomain you've customized. As a result, you won’t see any of your unauthenticated domain email addresses as options to use for your “From” address when scheduling your email.

The "From" email address versus the "Reply-to" email address

In addition to choosing an appropriate "From" email address, you also need to select a "Reply-to" email address when sending your campaign. This is the address that will receive replies from your customers. It does not need to match the "From" address, but make sure it's an email account that you check regularly. Like the "From" address, it needs to be a verified email address in your Constant Contact account.

Note: In most cases, if a contact has an auto-reply/vacation message set, it's sent to your "Reply-to" email address. However, not all email providers follow this standard. In some cases, the "From" email address will receive auto-reply messages instead. Unfortunately, Constant Contact can't control where these auto-reply messages are sent. It is entirely dependent on the recipient's mail server. 

If you want to ensure you receive these auto-replies, use an authenticated custom domain for your "From Address" instead of a free email provider, which gets rewritten upon send and does not tie to an actual email inbox.

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