Story updated Adds details about enforcement schedule and impact on Google Workspace accounts for bulk email restrictions.
On February 1, 2024, Google and Yahoo began enforcing new requirements for bulk email senders. These guidelines primarily focus on three areas: authentication of outgoing emails, reported spam rates, and the ability to easily unsubscribe from email lists.
In an announcement in early October, Google defined a high-volume sender as someone who sends 5,000 or more messages per day to a Gmail address, which caught the attention of both B2B and B2C email marketers.
According to Google, bulk senders who don't meet sender requirements will receive a temporary error (with an error code) on a small portion of their non-compliant email traffic. These temporary errors help senders identify email traffic that does not meet the new guidelines and give senders an opportunity to resolve issues that lead to non-compliance.
Email rejections will begin in April. According to Google:
In April 2024, we will begin rejecting a percentage of non-compliant email traffic and gradually increase the rejection rate. For example, if 75% of a sender's traffic meets the requirements, the remaining 25% of non-compliant traffic will begin to be rejected.
Google email sender guidelines
What are the email authentication requirements for bulk senders?
The companies require bulk email senders to use what Google calls “established best practices” to authenticate senders. Google says this closes a loophole that attackers could exploit.
When it comes to email authentication, three mechanisms work together:
- Sender Policy Framework (SPF) Prevents domain spoofing by allowing senders to identify email servers that are authorized to send email from their domain.
- DomainKeys Identified Email (DKIM) Add digital signatures to outgoing emails. This verifies that the message was sent by an authorized sender and was not tampered with along the way.
- Domain-based message authentication, reporting and conformance (DMARC) Helps domain owners specify the actions to take if email authentication fails. It is also possible to report email authentication results.
Google and Yahoo currently require bulk senders to set up all three of these mechanisms.
What are the spam rates reported for mass emailers?
Google states that bulk senders must keep their spam rate (i.e., the percentage of outgoing messages reported as spam by recipients) under Google Postmaster Tools to less than 0.10% and “not to exceed 0.30%.” It states that it must be done.
It's relatively easy to report an email as spam, and this requirement is separate from the authentication and unsubscribe links. It all comes down to the value the recipient thinks they'll get. To some extent, it is out of the sender's control.
Dana Carr, director of email marketing at customer data platform vendor Optimove, recommends several strategies to avoid legitimate messages being flagged as spam. First, please pay attention to the sending time. Many bulk emails are sent at the beginning or end of the day, making it easy to group them together and report them as spam.
She also suggests using a preference center where users can specify the frequency of emails and the categories and products included in the messages. Kerr says preference centers not only reduce email volume, but often increase email engagement.
What are the “unsubscribe” requirements for bulk senders?
Not surprisingly, Google requires marketing and other subscription messages to support a one-click unsubscribe feature.
For experienced email marketers, this should already be a gamble, Kerr said. The continued reluctance to include this feature reflects an email strategy that values quantity over quality.
“The number of people who receive your email is one number in a set of numbers that can damage your reputation. This includes not only your list size but also your open rate,” Kerr says. he said. “At the end of the day, all of these numbers have a negative impact on engagement metrics. Instead of thinking about list size, you should think about segmentation and targeted content.”
Dig deeper: Email marketers could be affected by Google's mass account deletions
How concerned should email marketers be about these requirements?
Most experienced email marketers look at these requirements and say, “Check. Check. Check.”
Carr believes that senders who understand authentication and good email practices don't need to worry too much. But there's a catch.
Requirements are applied at the domain level. In other words, the requirements apply to: all The number of emails sent by your organization using your domain, not just marketing. This includes sales teams, especially business development and sales development personnel who often rely heavily on outbound cold email tactics.
These teams are equipped with generative AI tools and sales engagement platforms (like Salesloft and Outreach) that allow them to generate large volumes of emails.
These roles do not necessarily report to the marketing department and may not be familiar with email authentication requirements. This starts a turf war of sorts for marketers trying to protect their email strategies.
“Marketing is generally in control of authentication,” said Ryan Phelan, CEO and co-founder of digital marketing services firm RPEOrigin.com and MarTech contributor. “A good partnership between sales and marketing is key here.”
Carr also believes marketing should lead the way in authentication and good email practices across the organization. “Marketers need to be aware of the domains they are sending messages from,” she said. “Some people may confuse this with a website domain.”
Marketing departments should also advise the teams managing authentication, Kerr said, as changes at the DNS level can cause significant problems.
Let's dig deeper: Three keys to email marketing in 2024: AI, change, and learning
Why are there new requirements for bulk senders?
Spam is a serious problem. Most people don't realize the severity of the problem because the majority of spam messages are blocked before they even reach their inboxes. Spam is also a security threat and can pose a very serious security threat if it reaches the inboxes of certain corporate or government users.
But ridding the world of spam is only part of the motivation here.
“Your inbox is your source of income,” Phelan says. “Ads at the top of your inbox. Ads within mobile apps. This is a hook into Google's data mart.”
Google has taken steps over the years to protect its revenue streams, such as adding tabs to Gmail to categorize promotional and social emails. Phelan believes the move is another way to address the problem. The natural reaction, he says, is to filter out the noise by using tactics like authentication to determine who gets into your inbox.
Kerr agrees that this move has a lot to do with keeping the inbox at the center of people's daily activities. “[Google is] It's not stupid,” she said. “They know that more and more customers are choosing other channels, like SMS and in-app messaging. It's like a parent saying, 'I gave you three chances.' is.”
Take our MarTech salaries and careers survey
From AI to layoffs, it's been quite a year. How was it? To help us understand the current state of martech salaries and careers, please take a quick survey.
Survey finds B2B companies are unprepared for mass email restrictions
Companies in the B2B sector, where outbound email is an important part of their sales strategy, must learn how to deal with these bulk email limitations.
According to a report by Customers.ai, which sells tools to help businesses better identify website visitors, spam rates reported in many B2B sectors are lower than the 0.1% suggested by Google and Yahoo. far above the level and even above the 0.3% threshold for senders. Never reach.
The average spam complaint rate across the B2B sector was 2.01%, with a range of 1.1% to 3.1%.
In fact, for the nine most spammy industries identified by Customers.ai, the company couldn't find a single sender that scored below the 0.3% threshold. To learn more about Customers.ai research and its methodology, visit the company's blog.
What about your Google Workspace inbox?
But there's good news for B2B mass emailers. There is an exception if you are sending to a business email account running on Google.
A Google Workspace inbox is an email account managed by your company or institution that resides on Google servers. Initially, it was unclear whether the bulk email limit would apply to Google Workspace accounts, but Google has finally confirmed that it does not.
Email sender guidelines don't apply to messages sent to Google Workspace accounts. Sender requirements and enforcement by Google only apply when sending emails to a person's personal girlfriend Gmail account.
Google email sender guidelines
A multichannel approach helps protect your email
Outbound sales teams in the B2B sector are getting a lot of attention regarding new bulk email limits. Unlike marketing, cold sales in B2B mainly relies on his two channels: email and phone.
“On the B2B side, this all goes back to money,” Phelan says. “Cold email is pervasive in the toolbox and everyone uses it.”
While marketers in some organizations may prefer their sales teams to communicate less by email, the reality is that it's easier than ever to send out a high volume of cold emails.
Phelan wants marketers to lead the outreach for account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns. A multichannel approach to ABM means that prospects are exposed to messages in addition to email, such as display ads and social media. What are the downsides to an ABM approach? It takes more effort to plan and build than email.
Natalie Jackson is director of demand generation at CBIZ, co-host of the podcast Humans of Email, and a MarTech contributor. She agrees that a multichannel approach not only prevents marketing organizations from violating new bulk sender restrictions, but also provides more insight into marketing channels and revenue sources. This includes putting marketing in a position to see how sales outreach compares to other channels.
“These changes are 100% an opportunity for marketers to bring even greater involvement into the customer journey and prospect experience,” Jackson said. “Emails cannot exist in silos. You can see this in your email engagement reports. If you only look at email reports that are sent, you won't be able to understand what interactions are influencing recipient behavior. What is the impact of one-on-one interactions? Sales engagement tools? Social media? Websites? Advertising?”
With a comprehensive view of outreach and results, marketers can protect their email domains and better determine the performance of different channels and tactics.
“If we as marketers don't have insight into these interactions, we limit our ability to influence revenue streams,” Jackson says. “Visibility into other transmission systems is certainly necessary, but there are reasons beyond reachability.”
Get Martech! every day. free. It's in your inbox.
