As we approach 2024, Google and Yahoo recently announced significant changes are on the horizon for email marketing, and it’s crucial for us to stay informed and adapt. These updates will impact not only our cold email outreach strategies but also newsletters and promotional emails.
If you want to stay out of SPAM, read on…
What’s Changing:
1. Stricter Enforcement of Email Authentication: Google and Yahoo will start enforcing DKIM and DMARC records on all DNS records. This means we need to ensure our email systems are properly authenticated to maintain our domain sender reputation and thus email deliverability.
2. Mandatory One-Click Unsubscribe Links: Marketing emails must now include one-click unsubscribe links. This is not just a best practice but a legal requirement under the CAN-SPAM Act. The major email marketing platforms already include an unsubscribe link on every email by default, but cold email platforms do not. This will now be required, or your emails will go straight to SPAM, plunging your sender reputation and tanking your deliverability.
3. New Spam Rate Threshold: This is the most impactful change of all. A new, lower spam rate threshold is being implemented. With a threshold of merely 0.3%, it means that if just 3 out of every 1,000 recipients mark an email as SPAM, all your Gmail and Yahoo emails will go straight to SPAM, destroying your sender reputation.
How to Stay Compliant and Out of SPAM:
1. Transition from G Suite to Outlook or Private SMTP Servers for Cold Email Outreach: Google has indicated a reduced tolerance for cold emails. Its advisable to consider alternatives like Outlook for your cold email campaigns.
2. Regularly Verify and Update Email Authentication Records: Use tools like EasyDMARC.com to ensure your SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and BIMI records are correctly set up. This will help in maintaining a healthy sender reputation. If your domain does not currently have these records, now is the time to get them setup.
3. Focus on Email List Hygiene: Regularly clean your email list by removing unsubscribed and bounced emails. Avoid emailing large segments of your list after long periods of inactivity. Be consistent in your email marketing and keep your audience engaged.
4. Provide Value in Your Emails: Before sending out newsletters or promotional materials, engage your subscribers with valuable content like lead magnets, free trials, or services.
5. Implement a Double Opt-In System: For instance, your lead opts-in for a lead magnet by providing their email address, then receive an email asking them to click a button to confirm their subscription to your list. This ensures that your subscribers genuinely want to receive your emails (not just your freebie), reducing the likelihood of SPAM complaints. This may result in a slower list growth, however leads that double opt-in tend to be more engaged and interested in your products or services.
6. Hyperfocus on Your Target Audience: Personalize your emails and ensure that the content is highly relevant to your recipients. Use A.I. to add personalization to your emails. Avoid mass cold emails to unrelated audiences.
7. Adapt Your Email Warming Strategy: Increase the number of warming emails sent per day to improve deliverability and avoid being marked as SPAM. Warming emails can be an effective strategy even if you’re not doing cold outreach.
8. Hire a Professional: Hire a professional email marketer to run your outreach or all your email marketing efforts. The pros have resources to maintain your email deliverabilty and keep your business emails out of SPAM. It’s much easier to keep you out of SPAM then to try to get you out later.
Despite these challenges, it’s not the end of cold email marketing. By adapting our strategies and focusing on providing value, we can navigate these changes successfully. Remember, these updates are primarily aimed at protecting personal users inboxes.
Let’s embrace these changes as an opportunity to refine our email marketing strategies and continue to grow and scale our businesses.