Setting up a no-reply email address with Google Apps [closed]

Question

I have my domain's email set up with Google Apps, and I am interested in sending automated emails (when users register, for example) with the From and/or Reply-To field being "no-reply@example.com". I have a few questions pertaining to how this is done:

1. Should I actually set up a user in Google Apps named "no-reply"?

2. If not setting up a "no-reply" user, should I log in with a real address (e.g.: "support@example.com") and send the email as being from "no-reply@example.com" instead? Or should I simply use the Reply-To email header?

3. If it's necessary to use the Reply-To header, is there a way to block the true From address (i.e.: the username I used to log into Google's SMTP server)?

Answer 1

Unless you can think of a really good reason for it, I would suggest that you send your emails from support@ rather than no-reply@.

The whole reason for a support@ email address is to receive comments and feedback from your userbase, and if you're sending them emails why bother making it hard for them? If they can just reply to the email you'll receive way more feedback that way.

Answer 2

Yes, you should setup a separate noreply address on your email server.

There are excellent reasons why you should set up a no-reply email address.

Why is it important to have a no-reply on bulk emails?

Many of the recipients of the email will try to hit 'reply' and they will have a multitude of reasons for doing so. Often, it is not sensible to have all of these going to a single representative at your company. Furthermore, many emails from bulk lists will be bounced back. You don't want to have to sift through these in order to find legitimate questions from your mail outs.

The best way to respond to questions rather than replying to bulk emails, is to have the recipients direct their questions to appropriate response emails either through their usual contact or via your company website.

What if recipients DO hit the reply button?

The email originator for the bulks should not just silently swallow the replies. Many companies do this and as a result, legitimate replies are ignored without any indication to your client or potential client and they, feeling neglected, go elsewhere for business.

The originating email account should be set up with an auto-responder explaining that the email was not processed and suggest alternative ways of contacting your company.

In gmail this can be done by setting up a Vacation responder with no last day. You can find the Vacation responder feature under the General tab of the account settings.

Answer 3

Avoid having extra accounts by setting up no-reply as a group that restricts users from outside your domain sending to it.

Answer 4

I suggest you set up a "Nickname" alias ( Manage Domain > Users > edit user > Add Nickname ). Then create a filter that sends any reply to that nickname straight to trash or spam.

Answer 5

Just set up a "no-reply" account. It won't hurt anything, people will still try to send stuff to it, and it will serve your purpose.

As for the latter two questions, it depends.

If you're sending these e-mails as a part of an automated script (i.e. forum registration) just use the "no-reply" accounts credentials. Log in periodically to make sure you aren't getting legit delivery errors (as opposed to the jokers that use fake e-mail addresses) or other odd behaviour.

If you're not sending these e-mails as a part of an automated script, it depends. If you also manage a support address (support@example.com, staff@example.com, etc.) you may want to send on behalf of, and use the reply-to. But this part is a little more subjective, and really depends on your setup.

Answer 6

I don't know if this will help or not, but IIRC, with gmail you can do something like

name+something_else_here@domain.com

Then, set up a filter so that emails with that "something_else_here" part go past the inbox to a label.

Does that help?

Answer 7

I think creating a user named no-reply is a bad approach. An alias or a restricted group is a much neater and functional solution IMHO. Also, google apps cost is based on user number.

Answer 8

A cool way to handle this would be using the vacation setting in GMail to send an automated response back on the no-reply email address. The vacation reminder would then remind users that this is an unmonitored email address.

Answer 9

I think the right thing to do is setup a filter that sorts your mailer-daemon messages into a special folder (Or trash if you so desire.) Or, like other comment have suggested, use a separate mail address.

noreply is good to indicate to people that this isn't an address you check, but it's not really the solution to dealing with bounce mail. In fact it's more likely your mail will end up in spam filters because your attempt at sender obfuscation will just look like spam to the receiving host.

Answer 10

You should create a noreply user. But use it as a spam mail (when registering unknown sites) and a mail for testing.