Why should marketers avoid sending to role-based email addresses?

Role-based addresses, such as info@ or support@ , are often shared or unmonitored for marketing messages. Sending to them can lead to low engagement, high complaint rates, and may even be spam traps, negatively impacting sender reputation.

What is a spam trap and why should I avoid it?

Spam traps (or honeypots) are email addresses used by ISPs and blocklist operators to identify spammers. Sending to a spam trap indicates poor list acquisition practices or outdated data, leading to immediate blocklisting and severe damage to your sender reputation.

Can sending to disposable email addresses harm my email deliverability?

Yes, sending to disposable email addresses can harm your deliverability. While not always spam traps, they often indicate a user's lack of genuine interest, leading to low engagement, high bounce rates, and potentially increasing your spam complaint rates over time, signaling poor list quality to ISPs.

How often should I clean my email list to maintain compliance?

There's no fixed schedule, but regularly cleaning your email list is crucial. This should include continuous validation at sign-up, removing hard bounces immediately, and re-engaging or suppressing inactive subscribers at least quarterly or bi-annually.

What email domains and addresses should marketers avoid for better list compliance? - Compliance - Email deliverability - Knowledge base

Maintaining a clean and compliant email list is foundational to successful email marketing. While crafting engaging content and perfecting your call-to-actions are important, the addresses you send to profoundly impact your deliverability and overall sender reputation.

Sending emails to risky or invalid domains and addresses can lead to severe consequences, including high bounce rates, increased spam complaints, blocklisting (or blacklisting), and ultimately, poor inbox placement. Understanding which types of email addresses and domains to suppress is a critical step in protecting your brand and ensuring your messages reach their intended audience.

Identifying high-risk email categories

Certain email address categories and domains pose significant risks to any marketer's email program. These are not merely addresses that might bounce, but rather those that actively damage your sender reputation and compliance standing.

A prime example is the spam trap, also known as a honeypot. These are dormant email addresses repurposed by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and anti-spam organizations to identify senders with poor list hygiene. Sending to even one spam trap can immediately flag your sending IP or domain as a spam source, leading to instant blocklisting.Validating email addresses and avoiding these traps is crucial.

Another high-risk category includes temporary or disposable email addresses. Users often create these for one-time sign-ups to avoid ongoing marketing communications. While they might initially be valid, they rarely lead to long-term engagement and often become inactive quickly, inflating your bounce rates and signaling low recipient interest.

Domains and addresses to avoid

To safeguard your email program, you should actively suppress specific types of domains and email addresses. These are often indicators of poor data quality, or worse, potential spam traps.

First, always remove disposable email domains. These are domains offered by services designed for temporary email addresses, such as Mailinator or Guerilla Mail. Sending to these addresses indicates a subscriber who isn't interested in a long-term relationship, leading to poor engagement metrics.A current list of disposable email domains can be highly beneficial for suppression.

Second, be wary of role-based email addresses. These are generic addresses like info@, sales@, or support@. They are often shared by multiple people or are unmonitored for marketing messages, increasing the risk of low engagement or complaints.Best practices for sender email addresses advise using individual addresses.

Category	Examples	Reason to avoid
Disposable email	mailinator.com	Indicate a lack of genuine interest and inflate bounce rates, hurting engagement metrics.
Role-based accounts	info@, sales@, support@	Often unmonitored for marketing, leading to low engagement, high complaints, or potential spam traps.
Spam trap / Anti-spam related	spamhaus.org, ftc.gov	These are actively used by anti-spam organizations and can cause immediate blacklisting.
Unengaged / Invalid	Addresses with typos (e.g., gamil.com), old domains, expired emails.	Signal poor list hygiene, increase bounce rates, and damage sender reputation over time.

The impact on deliverability and compliance

Sending emails to these high-risk domains and addresses directly impacts your email deliverability, which is your ability to get your emails into the inbox. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Mailbox Providers (MBPs) like

Google and

Microsoft meticulously monitor sender behavior. High bounce rates, low engagement, and spam complaints from these problematic addresses signal poor list quality.

This poor list quality can lead to your IP address or domain being placed on email blacklists (also known as blocklists). Once on a blacklist, your emails are likely to be rejected or routed directly to the spam folder, severely hindering your campaign's effectiveness. You can learn more about what happens when your domain is blocklisted.

Beyond deliverability, sending to unverified or risky addresses can also lead to significant compliance issues. Laws such as the CAN-SPAM Act in the U.S. and GDPR in Europe emphasize consent and proper list hygiene. Ignoring these regulations can result in substantial legal penalties and significant damage to your brand's reputation. The Federal Trade Commission provides a guide to the CAN-SPAM Act compliance.

Consistently mailing to these problematic addresses tells ISPs that you are not managing your list effectively, which gradually erodes your sender reputation. This erosion makes it increasingly difficult for even your legitimate emails to reach the inbox, impacting all your email communications, from marketing to transactional messages.

Strategies for maintaining a healthy list

Proactive list management is not just a best practice, it's an essential component of long-term email marketing success. This process should begin at the very first point of contact with a potential subscriber.

Implement robust email address validation processes at the point of collection. This helps prevent invalid, temporary, or known high-risk addresses from ever entering your system. Utilizing a tool to accurately verify your email list will significantly reduce potential issues.

Regularly cleaning your email list is also crucial. This involves identifying and removing inactive subscribers, hard bounces, and any addresses linked to known high-risk domains or spam traps. Consider implementing a re-engagement strategy for inactive subscribers before permanent removal, but always prioritize list hygiene.

Beyond reactive cleaning, adopting a permission-based marketing approach from the start is paramount. Double opt-in processes ensure that subscribers genuinely want to receive your emails, drastically reducing the likelihood of spam complaints and significantly improving engagement metrics. This not only keeps you compliant but also builds a more valuable and responsive audience.

Best practices for list hygiene

Validate email addresses in real-time at the point of sign-up to prevent bad data from entering your list.
Implement a double opt-in process to ensure genuine subscriber consent and reduce spam complaints.
Regularly monitor and remove inactive subscribers and hard bounces from your mailing lists.
Maintain a suppression list for known risky domains and role-based email addresses.

Views from the trenches

Best practices

Always validate email addresses at the point of collection using a reliable validation service.

Implement a double opt-in process for all new subscribers to confirm their genuine interest.

Regularly segment and prune your list, removing inactive subscribers and addresses that consistently bounce.

Maintain a proactive suppression list of known disposable domains and role-based accounts to avoid.

Common pitfalls

Purchasing or renting email lists, which often contain outdated or trap addresses.

Failing to promptly remove hard bounces, signaling poor list hygiene to ISPs.

Ignoring low engagement rates or high spam complaint rates, which degrade sender reputation.

Not distinguishing between transactional and marketing emails in terms of sending domains.

Expert tips

Use a separate subdomain for marketing emails to protect the reputation of your primary domain.

Regularly monitor your sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools.

Keep an eye on major blacklists (or blocklists) to ensure your domain and IP remain clear.

Ensure your email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) are correctly configured.

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks says that some email service providers allow the definition of domains to avoid for campaign launches, such as @facebook.com, to improve list compliance.

July 25, 2019 - Email Geeks

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks says that including role accounts like info@, sales@, abuse@, and postmaster@ in your suppression list is advisable, as they rarely represent individual subscribers and can cause problems.

July 25, 2019 - Email Geeks

Building a robust email foundation

Proactive domain and address suppression, coupled with continuous list hygiene, forms the bedrock of a successful email marketing program. It is not merely about avoiding penalties, but about building and preserving a strong sender reputation that ensures your messages consistently reach the inbox.

By consciously avoiding high-risk email domains and addresses, marketers can significantly improve their deliverability, maintain compliance with international regulations, and foster more meaningful engagement with their legitimate subscribers. A clean list is an engaged list, leading to better campaign performance and long-term success.