Google’s new bulk sender guidelines spell trouble for B2B
In October, Google and Yahoo unveiled a crucial update to their bulk sender guidelines.
This new regulation, which went into effect on February 1, affects both bulk emailers (those who send more than 5,000 emails to Gmail accounts daily) and general Gmail users, and introduced authentication requirements and defined thresholds for spam complaints. Specifically, they have defined a spam complaint threshold of 0.3%.
Our preliminary analysis of the announcement was that this 0.3% threshold wouldn’t be a major problem for most email marketers. For large companies with an established customer base and large inbound lists, this update would likely help those companies. They are likely to have a low complaint rate and can expand their outbound efforts more easily and safely.
The smaller, less established companies, especially those in the B2B world that may be using more aggressive outbound email marketing strategies or have leaned on ABM to establish their brands, would likely be in trouble.
And it turned out we were right.
Spam complaint rates in the B2B space
To better understand how these new sender guidelines would impact outbound marketing and sales, especially in the B2B space, we studied spam complaint rates across industries.
Our findings showed that complaint rates were well above the 0.3% threshold set by Google and Yahoo. In fact, it wasn’t even close! The average spam complaint rate in the B2B space was 2.01%, with a range between 1.1% and 3.1%.
Even worse, for the top 9 most spam-prone industries, we couldn’t find a single sender that scored below the 0.3% threshold. When you break it down by industry, it becomes increasingly clear who the biggest offenders are:
- B2B software: The spam complaint rate peaks at 3.2%, with a range of 1.3% to 4.3%.
- Political issues and election communications: Rates hover around 2.9%, ranging from 1.5% to 3.4%.
- Sales and Marketing Services: Experience a rate of 2.8%, with a broad spectrum from 2.0% to 5.3%.
- Recruitment: a rate of 2.1% is applied, varying between 1.7% and 3.1%.
- Retail and e-commerce: You will face a rate of 2.3%, with variations from 0.5% to 2.9%.
- Real estate: offers with a rate of 1.9%, ranging from 1.5% to 3.4%.
- Education and training providers: Show a rate of 1.7%, within a range of 0.4% to 2.1%.
- Financial Services: Experience a lower rate of 1.1%, ranging from 0.7% to 1.9%.
- Healthcare and pharmaceuticals: have the lowest rate at 0.9%, with a range of 0.7% to 1.4%.
This data isn’t entirely surprising when you think about it. B2B software companies and sales and marketing companies typically do a lot of outbound traffic. The healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, on the other hand, are subject to quite strict laws and regulations in the field of communications.
B2B sales and marketing teams must adapt quickly
This data points to a critical problem for B2B outbound marketing. For companies that rely heavily on outbound emails to generate and sell leads, this is a significant hurdle. Reaching the new threshold of less than 0.3% seems daunting, if not impossible. The good news is that there are strategies to reduce these hurdles:
Increase transactional email volume: If we want to reduce the spam complaint rate, we may want to increase the total number of emails sent and optimize email volume. Increase the number of non-spammy, transactional emails, such as order confirmations, tracking updates, or follow-up purchases. These are less likely to be marked as spam and can balance your overall email stats.
Prioritize warm leads: Target your emails to high-intent users (think those who visited your pricing page or added something to their cart). Website visitor identification tools can be invaluable here.
Provide clear and numerous unsubscribe options: The unsubscribe option must be easily accessible and in multiple places. Hidden or hard-to-find unsubscribe links increase your chances of being flagged as spam.
Use intent-based email lists: In some cases, you can’t avoid cold emails. What you can do, however, is use intent-based email lists that can help you create more appropriate messages that resonate with potential customers. The more you know about what your audience is interested in, the more personalized the message you can create.
Adapting to these new guidelines is crucial for B2B companies. While outbound traffic hasn’t disappeared yet, it is a bigger challenge. The good news for users is that this new complaint rate threshold should improve the email marketing and outbound space as a whole.
These new guidelines will force B2B marketers to evolve their outbound strategies and build better campaigns. For users, this means less spam and more relevant emails. For marketing and sales teams, this should mean better targeting, more personalization, and less laziness.
The result? Improved sales and lead time. Ultimately, major email providers like Google and Yahoo are focused on creating a better user experience and this means less spam. For B2B teams, the answer is simple: don’t be a spammer.
We’ve listed the best sales management software.
This article was produced as part of Ny BreakingPro’s Expert Insights channel, where we profile the best and brightest minds in today’s technology industry. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Ny BreakingPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing, you can read more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro