Mark E. Buckley

Email Catchall Addresses

When you purchase a hosting services for your web site, you will have the ability to set up one or several email addresses. Generally there are several optional features that you can select as well. These features include mail forwarding, auto-responders, catchall addresses and various anti- $pam and anti-virus utilities.

A catch all address can be useful in a number of situations. Generally you will designate one address as a catch all. Any emails sent to your domain that are not addressed to an actual email address will then be forwarded or rather captured by your catchall address.

For example if your domain is www.myfantasticsite.com, you could set up an email such as mymailbox@myfantasticsite.com. You could also set up a catch all email such as myothermailbox@myfantasticsite.com. This second email could be designated as your 'Catch-All' address.

Then if someone emailed your domain with any email that was not accurate it would go to myothermailbox@#064;myfantasticsite.com.

Why would you want to do this

One situation would be an exiting employee. Once you delete their email, any of their future emails from customers would go to this catch all address

Another situation would be adding a fictitious email on your web site. You could add 'Email us at thismonthsspecialoffer@myfantasticsite.com for more information.' Then you would not actually have to set up a real email account for this fictitious email.

The most common reason you would use a catch all is to replicate key number tracking of your advertising dollars. If you buy and ad in a specific newspaper or web site, you could add 'Email us at department#431@myfantasticsite.com for more details. Then you could track results from each specific ad you placed by simply changing the key number of each ad. This 'key number' strategy has been used for years in the print advertising world. You can still see it if you check your local newspapers classifieds or watch late night TV commercials. You will also see it used with any advertisements that utilize a tear out coupon.

The bad news

As creative as you might be able to get with this strategy it has a huge drawback. These catch all addresses are a $pammer magnet. They do not even have to find actual email addresses. They just need to find your domain. Then they will simply email you at sales@ or info@ or accounting@ or manager@myfantasticsite.com.

So if the marketing benefits outweigh the unsolicited mail costs, consider utilizing a catch all address to streamline your internet marketing efforts.