This is very important – you probably already heard that Google, just as Yahoo, introduced new rules for cold emailing this month (February 1st, 2024).
What are the changes?
1. You need to have your email authenticated
2. Enable easy unsubcription
3. You must make sure you’re sending wanted email
Let’s go one-by-one…
Authentication
Nothing changes from the “usual” set-up I implement with clients and students already (DMARC, DKIM, SPF) to improve deliverability. If you don’t have this, now it’s a must.
Unsubscribe link
Self-explanatory. Make it easy for people to unsub (ideally with 1-2 clicks).
Sending “wanted” email
According to Google, this relates to spam rates. If your spam rate is good, it signals that the emails you’re sending are wanted.
If your spam rate is bad, it indicates your emails are not wanted.
What should be your spam rate?
Domains with 0.3% spam rate (3 out of 1,000 emails marked as spam) and above will be put on Google’s naughty list.
This is quite strict in my opinion. But not much we can do about that.
How to make sure people don’t mark your emails as spam?
→ Step up your targeting. There must be a clear, logical reason why the content of your email would be helpful to the recipient
→ Enable unsub links
→ Be smart about your cadence structure (not too long, not too frequent)
→ Don’t be annoying in your emails
Also, use the right email warm-up provider to help with your spam rate.
Is this “the end” of cold emailing?
I saw a lot of doom & gloom articles floating around on this topic.
However, it’s safe to say that these changes are not the end of cold emailing.
Why?
These changes are only applicable to “bulk” senders, i.e. senders sending over 5,000 emails per day.
…and most likely you’re not sending 5,000 emails per day (approx. 100k emails per month).
I never was and never will be an advocate of this kind of high-volume, spray and pray approach.
To me, this approach is synonymous with spam (no targeting, no personalization, low relevance).
But, important to say that we can’t rule out that similar rules won’t be introduced to “non-bulk” senders in the near future.
The bottom line is this: Google’s efforts and related guidelines for less spammy inboxes are all sound:
→ authenticate (this impacts deliverability already)
→ keep your spam rate as low as possible (this impacts deliverability already + we want to bring value to the marketplace)
→ experiment with unsub links
If you have any questions or thoughts on this, I’m more than happy to chat!