Why You Should Avoid Role-Based Emails
Every business uses role-based emails. But are they meant for you to use?
Discover why role-based emails exist and why it may be better to avoid them in your B2B email marketing efforts.
Every business needs valid email contacts to build relationships. But getting a private email address isn’t always the easiest task.
Many businesses try to take a shortcut by using role-based emails. They send messages to mailboxes such as 'sales@company.com' or 'team@company.com,' hoping to connect with the right person. This seems like a valid tactic, especially if you have a product or service that can benefit that person.
But before you send off that next email, get up to date on the risks you’re taking every time you include role-based emails in your marketing communications.
Risks with role-based emails
If you use an email validationⓘA process that determines if an email address uses valid syntax, exists on a given domain, and is configured to receive incoming email messages service, you’ll find that role-based emails are marked as such rather than 'valid.' But why can’t you use them for B2B email marketing?
Internet service providers and email spam prevention services have expectations regarding these types of emails. Here’s why using them for your campaigns can be a major risk.
Role-based emails are associated with spam
Typically, senders reach out to role-based email addresses because they don’t actually have direct personal contact at that business domain. Role-based emails are easily harvested as they’re typically found on websites, landing pages, listings, and online directories. You don’t even need to look for this data personally, but can use a variety of tools to scrape the web for data.
Internet and email service providers know this, which is why role-based emails frequently trigger email spam filtersⓘA feature used by email and internet service providers to detect spam or harmful email content automatically.. But why does it matter?
Because you’re sending to a role-based email instead of an actual person, you likely didn’t obtain consent to send emails, nor did the mailbox owner opt-in to receive communications. This is a textbook definition of spam. Many ESPs, CRMs, and various sales tools will block you from adding a role-based email as a subscriber for this reason.
Finally, service providers have technology to aid them in identifying various data types when users upload mailing lists. If you add role-based emails as subscribers, particularly a large number of them on a single list, it’s assumed that the list was purchased. These lists are typically sold many times over, which means they’ve also been uploaded to these mailing tools. If your mailing provider detects this recycled data, they may flag you as a spammer and suspend your account.
Role-based emails frequently cause hard bouncesⓘThe inability to deliver an email message that’s caused by one or more permanent factors, such as an invalid email address.
If you’re able to add a role-based email as a subscriber, any emails sent to them may still bounce.
For the reasons described above, internet and email service providers can detect the type of address you’re emailing and may choose to reject the email message automatically. The traditional purpose of a role-based email isn’t for marketing communications, and there’s a low likelihood that a real person opted in to receive your email. Therefore, your emails have a high risk of bouncing.
Role-based emails are spam havens
Envision this: various senders successfully add role-based emails to their mailing list. They send their emails to these contacts and are able to deliver them successfully.
What type of emails do you think these mailboxes receive?
Due to their public availability, constant selling of data, and use of scraping tools, role-based email inboxes are flooded with spam daily. Not only does it make it miserable to manage these mailboxes and sort through genuine inquiries, but it also increases the likelihood that your emails will go to the spam folder and never be seen.
All of these factors hurt your email deliverabilityⓘA sender’s ability to reach the recipient’s inbox with their outgoing emails. It may also describe the ratio of emails delivered to the inbox vs. those sent to spam or blocked by the receiving server.
Getting flagged as spam, receiving spam complaints, increased bounce rates, and minimal email interaction all worsen your email deliverability and sender reputation.
Your goal with B2B email marketing is to get your messaging in front of company decision-makers. If ISPs begin associating your business domain with spam, more of your emails will bounce, and even fewer will receive engagement.
When to use role-based emails
If role-based addresses come with so many drawbacks, should you always avoid role-based emails? The answer is generally yes, but you may consider testing some cold outreach with the smart use of email segmentationⓘThe process of manually dividing a customer contact list into smaller lists based upon factors such as demographics, interests, needs, or past behaviors..
But before we can do that, let’s consider the purpose of a role-based email.
Role-based emails are created for organization
Because role-based emails are associated with certain positions or departments, the mailbox is generally used to fulfill some objective and organize incoming emails.
For example, ‘support@company.com’ wasn’t created to respond to B2B email marketing outreach; it exists to organize and manage incoming support tickets. Sending a marketing message to this mailbox would be seen as a nuisance and is more likely to earn you a spam complaint than a response.
Their primary use is internal communication
A major reason why ISPs flag external emails sent to role-based mailboxes as spam is that these addresses typically exchange emails internally.
Employees may send requests to ‘hr@company.com,’ while the actual head of HR will have their own unique address separately. This is usually also true for ‘sales@,’ ‘marketing@,’ etc.
If you’re mindful of role-based emails and their uses, it’s often self-explanatory whether you should use this data for marketing campaigns or not.
However, there are cases in which your cold outreach or business development teams may have a product or service that’s specifically relevant and valuable to the recipient in that company role.
If you’re going to email, use smart email segmentation
Based on what was explained earlier in this article, assume that emailing a role-based email is always a high risk. Knowing this, you need to take extra care if you decide to send a business email to one.
•Segment role-based emails from your primary mailing list - Never include these contacts among your known customers and subscribers. Not only will your bounce rate and email deliverability increase, but it will also actively damage your domain and sender reputation.
•Be thoughtful with your messaging - If you are making a sincere effort to share a product or development with a company employee, take the time to write them a message personally addressing that team or employee. By distinguishing your email from typical mass marketing emails, you may improve your odds of seeing your message forwarded to the relevant recipient by the person managing the inbox.
•Send from a secondary domain - In addition to email segmentation, don’t risk your sender reputation by emailing from your primary business domain. Continue to use best email marketing practices, such as cleaning your database and authenticating your emails. Then, attempt to send some personal emails to your role-based contacts for testing.
Email verification for role-based emails
Though many role-based emails are easy to flag by their username and structure, this method is not 100% reliable. Additionally, it can be easy to miss role-based emails when attempting to upload a large lead list to your database.
To avoid role-based emails in your B2B email marketing, you need to use email verification that can reliably detect them regularly. Role-based email detectionⓘThis describes an email validator’s ability to determine if an email address is role-based or belongs to a specific company role rather than an individual (e.g., sales@company.com, support@company.com). is fairly common in the industry, but some services still lack this feature.
Here’s how you can find and remove role-based emails on your list:
1.Upload your email list to an email verification tool. Depending on the service, you may opt for a direct file upload, transfer your list through the cloud, or sync your list directly using an integration with your service provider.
2.The email verification tool will check each email address found on your list.
Each email address undergoes a series of checks, including syntax, DNS records, and SMTP configuration. Depending on its functionality, it can also check for disposable domains, a history of spam complaint abuse, and whether or not it’s a role-based email or catch-all role-based email.
3.When the email verification is completed, you’ll receive your results. In the file, all of your 'valid' emails are now on one clean list, while all other email address types are removed and separated.
Then, you can upload your list of valid contacts to your CRM or ESP. You can use any discovered role-based emails for email segmentation tests.
Detect role-based emails in real time
An email verification APIⓘAn API, or application programming interface, that allows an email verification tool to connect and communicate with another software application. can help you detect role-based emails at the point of signup, in addition to cleaning bulk lists.
While it’s not a great practice for visitors to sign up using a role-based email as a primary email, they may do so to remain anonymous and protect their data. As a result, you’ll need real-time email verification to detect role-based emails before they enter your database.
An email verification service like ZeroBounce provides all users with a unique API key, which allows you to add the API to your website, landing pages, registration forms, and every other place you collect email data.
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Frequently asked questions
A role-based email is a mailbox created for a team, department, or specific company role rather than a unique person. Examples of role-based emails include support@, sales@, or team@.
You should avoid role-based emails when sending marketing communications, as spam filters frequently flag these addresses for spam. Some providers may automatically cause your email to bounce if a role-based email is detected as the recipient. There’s also no way to verify that a person opted in to receive your emails, as there is no one person who owns the role-based email mailbox.
You shouldn’t use role-based emails for mass B2B email marketing communications. Suppose you need to get in contact with someone in a specific role at a company. In that case, it’s strongly recommended to use email segmentation to separate these contacts from your primary mailing list. Attempt to create a highly personalized email addressing the indirect connection, explain your reason for contacting, and request to be connected to your desired recipient. If you receive no response or the email is inactive, remove it from your database.
Contact roles signify the role a person plays in a potential business decision or relationship. Examples of contact roles would be a primary contact, a decision maker, or the product/service user. Understanding the role each person plays in the process will help you tailor your messaging to build your relationship and increase the likelihood of conversion.
