What is catchall email and how to manage it

Catchall email servers were created so even incorrect email addresses will be delivered.

Catchall email addresses help companies receive important messages that otherwise would go undelivered. 

On the other hand, fake and toxic email addresses end up on your email lists and put you under the bus of being invalid and in a vulnerable position with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Gmail. 

Therefore, it is important to understand what catchall email addresses are. I know, I  know catch-all emails can be so confusing, we’re here to solve that. 

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In this article, their purpose, and how to manage them for a healthy email list.

Avoid added hard bounces, and take our advice on best practices when dealing with catchall email addresses.

What are catchall email addresses?

Catchall email addresses or accept-all emails are email addresses of a catch-all mail server. Catchall addresses accept emails sent to any address belonging to the domain name.

The con about this is that catchall email addresses belong to non-existent email addresses and email addresses with typos or fake ones. Here is an example to understand this better: 

If a catchall domain is yourdomain.com. If a person sends a random email that had your domain name, the email will land in your inbox. 

Yikes, I know!

The fact that catch-all email servers were created with the best intentions, yet just ruins the whole concept core. Reinforce your email marketing game plan with email testing. 

Here is how: How to write email validation test cases

catchall email address picture

The purpose of catch-all emails

Businesses rely on catchall email servers to deliver all emails sent to a non-existent or incorrect email address.

Businesses will be sure that important email messages will get delivered. If your business is in the eCommerce category, you would not want to miss a lead, or client’s messages for the support team.

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If an email is sent to a non-existent catchall email address, your email will be forwarded to a non-existent email address inbox.

The approach here is to check this inbox consistently for interesting offers. It’s a well-fitted solution to avoid any missed communication.

Sadly, catchall email servers between night and day became a spammers hub. Which makes catchall inbox a source of pain that most businesses dump o avoid its drama.

You might like: How to solve MailChimp Omnivore problem

The benefits of keeping catch-all emails

You have no way to know if catchall email accounts belong to real people or non-existent ones.

You have no tool if these email addresses belong to real subscribers that are potential leads.

If these email addresses were active subscriber accounts, they would help improve your sender repu­tation and deliverability by contributing to your open rate.

So sending an email to catchall addresses is a life hazard to your sender score. On the other hand, avoiding contact with email addresses is the coward-way to do it.

What Can you do? 

Email Inspector (https://emailinspector.io/) identifies catch-all emails when you upload your email lists.

This way, you’ll be able to track catchall email addresses and get rid of them. Your email lists will be pristine and clean from possible toxic email addresses.

Because, if you send emails to these types of email addresses, your emails will only hard bounce and mess with your sender score.

Email Inspector is watching your back by detecting catchall emails to protect your data and your sender score.

Try Email Inspector to eliminate hard bounces, reduce spam complaints, and improve email deliverability.

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