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How temporary email addresses affect your email marketing

Imagen How temporary email addresses affect your email marke

Temporary email addresses (temp mail, anonymous temporary, free temporary) and disposable email addresses (DEA) are very convenient for users but can be a real headache for email marketing professionals. The reason is that they affect the deliverability of your emails and can result in a completely useless cost if not detected in time.

With Acrelia, you can avoid them, but you should know that depending on the type of communications you send, it's normal to find them in your databases.

What is a disposable email address?

A disposable email address is one that has no long-term value to its owner and can be easily discarded.

They are usually created for a specific purpose, such as registering on forums or subscribing to newsletters where there is little trust in the sender to avoid receiving spam or as an anti-spam and phishing prevention measure.

They are valid accounts that exist until the user decides to get rid of them.

What is a temporary email address?

Temporary email addresses are those that expire after a certain period, whether it's hours, days, or even months.

They are often used to access special offers or promotions without providing the user's primary email, as well as to register for services or websites without revealing personal information, downloading ebooks or lead magnets anonymously.

Some services that provide temporary addresses only allow receiving a maximum number of messages, limit their storSage capacity, or expire after a period of inactivity.

How do they affect your email marketing?

While temporary email addresses can be a security measure for the recipient of a campaign, they constitute a potential risk for the sender for several reasons:

Ineffective deliveries: A list with too many temporary addresses is useless because the chances of reaching them over time decrease, and even if you manage to reach them, their level of interaction will be minimal because they are initially predisposed against your communications.
Opportunity cost: The probability of conversion is almost zero, and establishing a long-term conversation or relationship is unlikely. A subscriber who used a temporary email has very low returns.
Poor reputation: Sending emails to temporary addresses can increase your number of permanent bounces (hard bounces), reduce open and click-through rates, and ultimately affect your deliverability. Your emails may end up being considered as spam and not even reach the recipients who do exist.

In the short term, temporary addresses may work, allowing you to send emails, but since they have an expiration date, they diminish the value of your database.

How to avoid such addresses in your lists?

The way you obtain sign-ups is a determining factor in the quality of your list because users must choose between using a temporary address or trusting your company and providing a personal or professional one.

Therefore, only send messages when necessary. People primarily use temporary addresses to avoid spam. If your emails have relevant content and you establish a reasonable sending frequency, you will increase the likelihood of users providing their real email addresses.

Keep in mind that if someone uses a temporary address to register for your newsletter or service, it means they are not 100% sure about the reliability of your website. You can gain their trust by including:

Visible links to your privacy policy, specifying that you do not sell or rent the collected information to third parties.
References to clients who work with you or testimonials from users who comment on the quality of your communications.
Samples of the emails you send, indicating their frequency and the possibility to change preferences or unsubscribe at any time.

With Acrelia, it's easy to avoid temporary addresses. On one hand, if you try to import them, our platform will notify you which ones they are so that you don't include them in your database. This way, you keep your contact lists clean from undesired contacts that can affect your results.

On the other hand, our bulk email verification service automatically detects which emails are temporary and disposable, allowing you to remove them. This way, you also ensure that there are no nonexistent, suspicious, or spam trap addresses. That's why we recommend conducting regular tests of this kind to ensure that the quality of your list doesn't decrease or affect your deliverability.