::Hi Missy,
Sorry to hear about the issue replying to emails.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to send emails “just to an email address.” The CRM email entity sends emails to ActivityParty entities, and these ActivityParties must be some kind of entity that is emailable.
Back in the day, when we needed to send emails to a person associated with a custom entity, I used a process to create Contact “ghosts” so that we could send them emails. Today, custom entities may be configured to be emailable, so if you don’t want to create a Contact for these people, you could make a custom entity instead that is emailable. Perhaps it would be called “EmailParty,” and I bet you could make a process (maybe a workflow) that when receiving an email from a person who is not a Contact, would automatically create an EmailParty for that person so that you could send them an email.
Bottom line though, is it’s got to be some sort of entity… not just an email address.