Introduction

Role accounts, also called role addresses, are email addresses used by a team, department, or function instead of a single individual. Common examples include addresses such as sales@, support@, admin@, or info@.

These addresses are often shared by several people, and the people who have access to the mailbox may change over time. Because of this, role addresses can be more difficult to manage from a consent and deliverability perspective.

Why are role addresses considered risky?

Role addresses are generally higher-risk than personal email addresses for several reasons:

• They are often used by multiple people.
• The person who originally gave consent may no longer have access to the mailbox.
• New users of the mailbox may not know why they are receiving your emails.
• These addresses are more likely to generate spam complaints.
• Some role addresses, such as abuse@, postmaster@, or spam@, are used for administrative or compliance purposes and should not receive marketing emails.

For these reasons, sending marketing emails to role addresses can negatively affect your sender reputation, especially if a large part of your contact list is made up of these addresses.

Can I send emails to role addresses?

In general, we strongly recommend avoiding role addresses for marketing campaigns whenever possible.

However, this does not mean that role addresses are always forbidden. In some specific business cases, it may be normal for your audience to use shared or functional inboxes. For example, some organizations, schools, associations, or public institutions may prefer to receive certain communications through a shared departmental address.

If you send to role addresses, you must make sure that:

• The contact gave valid consent to receive your emails.
• You can prove when, where, and how the consent was collected.
• The content you send is relevant to the role address.
• The address is not an administrative, technical, abuse, or compliance mailbox.
• Recipients can easily unsubscribe from your emails.
• You monitor engagement, bounces, unsubscribes, and spam complaints carefully.

Consent is especially important. A role address should not be added to your list just because it is publicly available on a website or because it looks relevant to your business.

Best practices when using role addresses

If your contact lists include role addresses, we recommend applying stricter list management practices.

Use confirmed consent

Only send to role addresses that have clearly opted in to receive your emails. You should be able to prove the source of consent if requested.

For more information, see our guide: How to prove my contact’s consent?

Avoid sensitive role addresses

Some role addresses should never be used for marketing communications, even if they appear in your database. These include addresses used for abuse reporting, technical administration, privacy requests, or unsubscribe management.

Examples include:

• abuse@
• postmaster@
• spam@
• privacy@
• remove@
• unsubscribe@
• sysadmin@
• webmaster@

Monitor engagement closely

Role addresses may be less engaged than personal addresses. Review their performance regularly and pay attention to:

• Open rates
• Click rates
• Bounce rates
• Unsubscribe rates
• Spam complaints

If these contacts are not engaging with your emails, consider removing them from your active sending lists.

Apply a sunset policy

A sunset policy helps you automatically stop sending to contacts who have not engaged with your emails for a defined period of time.

This is especially important if a significant part of your list contains role addresses. For example, you may decide to stop sending to role addresses that have not opened or clicked any email in the last 3 to 6 months.

For more information, see our blog: Sunset policies in your email program

Segment role addresses separately

If you have many role addresses, consider placing them in a separate segment. This allows you to monitor their performance independently and adjust your sending strategy if needed.

For example, you can send less frequently to role addresses or exclude them from campaigns that are intended for individual contacts only.

Summary

Role addresses are shared email addresses used by a team, department, or function. They are not recommended for regular marketing communications because they can create consent and deliverability risks.

However, there may be specific cases where sending to role addresses is acceptable, as long as you have valid and provable consent, the content is relevant, and you carefully monitor the performance of these contacts.

If your lists contain many role addresses, we recommend using segmentation, stricter engagement monitoring, and a sunset policy to protect your sender reputation.