We are in the 21st century. From transport to communication, everything has changed. There are alternatives for almost everything. Ray Tomlinson introduced email as a form of communication in the 1970s. From its first day to date, its popularity has increased enormously.

Today, there are almost 4 billion email users around the world.

Every business prefers marketing and communication through email. It’s really easy to generate leads and connect with customers through email. If a company does not utilize it as their primary form of communication, it should be ready to lose a large proportion of potential customers.

With millions of of emails sent every day, the spam rate has also increased. Consumers now receive spam emails daily. They have started to use disposable email addresses to keep their email inbox clean and tidy.

What is a disposable email address?

Disposable email address (also known as temporary email, DEA, or dark email) is a technique where an email address is used to communicate for a short time or uses.

Relatively, it is easy to create a disposable email. No sign-ups or sign-ins are required. Mostly, these disposable emails are availed for free.

Types of disposable email addresses

There are three types of disposable email addresses:

  1. Alternate email address: When a user creates a lookalike of his original email address, it’s known as an alternate email address. We can create alternate email addresses easily by using services like Gmail or Yahoo.
  2. Forwarding email address: A forwarding email address forwards the email to the original email address. Almost every paid email provider allows you to use this service.
  3. Non-forwarding email address: This email address is used to communicate for a short period or uses. When the time or use limit is over, this email address becomes unavailable.

Now let’s think we have created an email list after a lot of hard work. If it includes a lot of disposable email addresses, what’s going to happen?
It will screw your analytics and company reputation.

You can use an email cleaner and email verifier service like MailTester to avoid crying over spilled milk.

Effects of disposable email on business

It might be easy for consumers to create and use disposable email addresses. However, they are damaging to your business.

Here is how a disposable email address affects your business:

Your services are abused

You might want to give some incentives to your first customers in the form of coupon codes, free trial, free samples, or discounted products. A consumer might abuse the system by using Disposable email addresses to avail your free or discounted services/products more than once. Thus, leading to your loss.

It shows a lack of trust

If a consumer is using a disposable email address, it shows that he/she is not willing to trust you or your services. If you see a lot of temporary email addresses in your list, you might need to revise your strategies to build trust. Without trust-building, you are not going to get the desired results.

Your churn rate increases

Churn rate is the ratio of the people who unsubscribe themselves from your mailing list. Temporary email addresses mean they will be unsubscribed automatically increasing your churn rate.

Your analytics are skewed

A lot of disposable email addresses in your list means your emails won’t be opened and read by anyone. Furthermore, your hardwork to attract potential customers goes in vain leading to failure in your business.

Your domain will be blacklisted

Your domain is linked to a specific IP. Your IP can be blacklisted if your spam rate is high. Spam rate is determined by various factors like the percentage of emails landing in spam folder, unopened emails, and emails sent to unknown customers. It will make your company domain being marked as spam leading to loss of legitimate customers.

How to spot a disposable email address?

You can disallow sign-ups from known DEA domains easily. However, there are hundreds of DAE domains added every day. It becomes cumbersome to do this manually.
You can perform periodic checks for deliverability and monitor the email inbox by your self on a daily basis. However, it’s exhausting and time-consuming.
To make things easier, you can use an API from a third party like MailTester to do this all while you focus or your business.

How can MailTester help you avoid disposable email addresses?

MailTester is an easy-to-use and secure platform having the ability to clean and verify email list. It uses multiple verification methods to make it sure you get an excellent email list.

Here is how MailTester does it.

Cleaning the list

We can’t ignore email list cleaning. Your brand image is determined by factors like proper email deliverability, less bounce rate, good domain reputation, and data accuracy. A clean list means good company reputation.
You can start by uploading the list, getting it cleaned, and downloading it with all the statistics. Our list cleaning process is powered by multiple mechanisms ensuring you get a well-vetted list.

Verifying email addresses

There are more chances of failures in email marketing when your list is unverified. The verification process allows you to reduce bounce rate, increase marketing ROI, and hence better customer management.
MailTester verifies the email addresses right at the beginning of the process. All email addresses captured through landing pages or web forms are verified. You can automate the process through API, Zapier, or a javascript widget. You can always access the reports in an easy to access the dashboard.

Syncing the list

It can be difficult to clean the list multiple times to ensure better deliverability. MailTester can easily be connected to your email inbox. It means whenever you are going to send an email. You don’t need to worry about anything.

Conclusion

Every marketer hates disposable email addresses. There are different workarounds to get rid of these temporary email addresses. But you need time and energy to focus on this aspect. How about a tool like MailTester do it all for you while you sleep. Don’t wait for alarming signs. Take action now because it’ never too late.