Making sure every reply leaves from the right address

Why the mistake is structural

Every multi-account mail client has a sender dropdown, and every one of them defaults to something: the first account, the primary address, the last one you used. That default is correct for most messages and wrong for the rest, and the moment you are most likely to miss it is the moment you are replying quickly.

So the mistake is not carelessness, it is design. A field that must be checked on every message will not be checked on every message. The only reliable fix is to make the common case need no attention.

• A reply from the wrong address lands the next message in the wrong mailbox.
• On a client or shared mailbox it removes the thread from the archive the client relies on.
• On a second brand it leaks the first brand’s name to a customer who never asked for it.
• On a domain with strict DMARC, an address you cannot authenticate may not arrive at all.

The rule Mailbind uses

Open a message and the composer is already set to the mailbox that received it, with that address’s signature, sending through that account’s own SMTP server. Move to a thread in another account and the sender moves with it. There is no primary address in the product, because the plural is treated as the normal case.

The dropdown still exists for the rare message that genuinely has to go out from somewhere else. What changes is that it is an exception you choose rather than a default you have to notice.

Aliases, forwards and shared addresses

1. 1Add each address that arrives in a mailbox — contact@, hello@, the old domain — as a send-as address.
2. 2Verify it with the code Mailbind sends to it. That proves the mailbox can receive it, which is what stops anyone claiming an address they do not control.
3. 3Give it a signature if it belongs to a different brand.
4. 4Reply normally. Mailbind reads the recipient headers, matches the verified address, and the answer leaves from it.

Where a message arrived at an address the mailbox cannot verify, Mailbind sends from the mailbox’s own address rather than from one that would fail an SPF or DMARC check at the other end. A reply in a spam folder is worse than a reply from a slightly unexpected address.

What this does not do

It does not improve your deliverability, and nobody honest will promise that. Mailbind sends through your provider, so your domain’s reputation, SPF record and DKIM signing are exactly what they were; what the sender rule prevents is the self-inflicted failure of sending from a domain you never authenticated.

It also cannot invent an address. If a client writes to an address that forwards into your mailbox and you never add it, the reply leaves from your mailbox’s address — correctly, and visibly, so you can fix it in two clicks.

Common questions

Keep reading

• All use cases
• Several domains, one inbox
• Manage multiple email accounts
• Send from the right address
• Help: send from another address
• For freelancers