What is Domain Alias Protection?
What are Domain Aliases?
A domain alias is an additional/alternate domain name created for the primary domain of the website. This impacts email users when they set up an account with various inbox providers. For example, when a user created an Apple account, Apple creates email addresses for the user with @icloud.com, @me.com, and @mac.com addresses. While this can be useful for the consumer, it can also lead to confusion as many users may not even know these additional addresses exist.
This consumer confusion can become apparent in the Opt-Out process when a consumer unsubscribes from receiving certain marketing messaging from their @hotmail.com account, and then later receives a message to their @live.com address to the same inbox, they are upset because they believe they already opted out. Domain Alias Protection is designed to address this situation.
The current Domain Alias Groups that we support are:
- Google: gmail.com, googlemail.com
- Microsoft: hotmail.com, live.com, outlook.com
- Apple: icloud.com, me.com, mac.com
- AOL: aol.com, aim.com
- AT&T: att.net, sbcglobal.net, bellsouth.net, pacbell.net, prodigy.net
- Verizon: verizon.com, verizon.net
Domain Alias Protection comes into play when an Opt-Out is received for any domain within these groups, additional Opt-Outs are created and collected for each of the remaining domain aliases within the group.
Why should I include them in my Suppression Lists?
Domain Alias Protection further enhances your compliance and suppression abilities, reducing potential consumer confusion and complaints. If a recipient unsubscribes from 123XYZ@hotmail.com, enabling Alias Protection will automatically create suppression records for 123XYZ@live.com and 123XYZ@outlook.com and add them to the suppression list as well. There are several benefits to this suppression strategy. If a recipient has already unsubscribed from an offer using an email mailbox that has multiple domains, they could continue to receive the same email offer again which leads to confusion and frustration. When this occurs, they are likely to opt out from the alias addresses as well and this also increases the number of complaints being filed.
*Please note - Domain Alias Protection can currently only be applied to Standard Lists within your account. Additional storage costs may apply. Aliases are only generated for manual Opt-Outs collected from the Opt-Out Page and One-Click List-Unsubscribe Opt-Outs from the recipient's email client. Imports, Transfers, and real-time API Opt-Outs do not generate aliases.
How to Disable/Enable Domain Alias Protection
You can find the Domain Alias Protection feature in your account by going to Settings in the upper right-hand corner. Select Account Settings and scroll down to the section called Domain Alias Protection.
While Domain Alias Protection is now activated by default, you can use the toggle in this section you can enable or disable this feature. Don't forget to save changes at the bottom of the page. When this feature is enabled, Domain Alias Protection will be applied and added to ALL Standard Lists for emails collected from our Opt-Out Pages that are part of a domain alias group. Disabling the feature will not remove any alias records already collected/uploaded. It will only cease generating new alias email addresses going forward.
*Please note - This feature is enabled by default for all account holders.
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How to apply Domain Alias Protection to your existing data
Have domain aliases applied to ALL Standard Lists in my account.
If you would like to apply Domain Alias Protection to ALL of the historical data in the Standard Lists in your account, select "Process Historical Emails" under the Historical processing section from the Domain Alias Protection module.
*Please note - Domain Alias Protection of historical records may incur additional storage costs in your account, depending on the size of your lists.
What to expect once this feature is enabled? Once you select to process historical emails in your account, we'll review ALL Standard Lists in your account and apply the appropriate domain aliases to those lists. A confirmation email will be sent to account holders with the import details.
Historical processing may only be run once every 30 days.
Have historical Domain Alias Protection applied to Selected Standard Lists in my account.
Historical processing is also available at the Opt-Out List level which allows you the flexibility to choose to only have it enabled for specific lists instead of for all lists in your account. From the left side menu bar select Opt-Out Lists, then select the list that you would like to include in Domain Alias Protection. From the list profile page, select the Edit Opt-Out List drop-down arrow and select "Add Email Aliases". This can be applied to any Standard List or the Global Opt-Out List from the drop-down menu.
Email Aliases will be added to this Opt-Out List via an import and you will be emailed once the import has been completed.
*Please Note - Processing historical email domain aliases will increase your list size by approximately 30%. The amount will vary depending on your exposure to alias domains and existing alias coverage.
Can I remove domain aliases after they have been applied to a list? Yes, you can! Any time your domain aliases are applied historically to one or multiple lists in your account it is done via an import. You will have the option to remove imports from any lists in your account by following the steps here: How to Remove an Import from an Opt-Out List
Please contact support@optizmo.com to request additional Domain Alias Groups or if you have additional questions.