Gmail is enhancing its security with new regulations targeted at bulk email senders.
Set to take effect in February 2024, these rules focus on authenticating email senders, making unsubscribing easier, and keeping spam levels low.
These changes are a big leap forward in email security, but they might have salespeople wondering how they'll affect your sales strategies, more specifically your email outreach.
In this post, you’ll get a summary of Gmail’s new anti-spam regulations, and what that means if you are using a sales engagement platform like Mixmax.
Key takeaways from Gmail’s new anti-spam regulations
Gmail, recognizing the vital role of email in daily communication, is enhancing its security measures, especially against evolving threats like spam, phishing, and malware.
Gmail has introduced new regulations for bulk senders (those sending over 5,000 messages per day to personal Gmail addresses only) to further safeguard inboxes.
These rules focus on three key areas:
- Email authentication: Bulk senders are required to authenticate their emails, confirming their identity. This measure, aimed at tightening security, has already led to a 75% reduction in unauthenticated messages received by Gmail users.
- Easy unsubscription: Gmail mandates a straightforward unsubscription process for recipients, requiring a one-click option to opt out of commercial emails. This simplification is designed to enhance user experience and control over inbox content.
- Spam rate threshold enforcement: To combat unwanted emails, Gmail will enforce a spam rate threshold for bulk senders, ensuring recipients are not overwhelmed with spam.
These steps are part of a broader initiative, supported by industry partners like Yahoo, to standardize email security and hygiene. The goal is to continually improve email security and user-friendliness through ongoing collaboration within the email community.
6 ways to prevent your sales emails from being unsubscribed
Although these new Gmail bulk sender security updates do not apply to Gmail workspace accounts (name@company.com), it's still best practice to send personalized emails to your recipients instead of mass generic messages (that people want to unsubscribe to).
Here's how you can achieve that.
1. Personalize your email sequences
Gone are the days of the spray and pray email method. It just doesn't work anymore. At Mixmax, we emphasize crafting emails that resonate with each recipient.
This is made possible by allowing users to manually manage email sequences. This means you can personalize emails in a sequence for each individual recipient.
This approach not only makes your emails more effective but also aligns with Gmail's intention to minimize unwanted emails, ensuring your messages are seen as valuable and not as spam.
2. Use AI to help with email personalization
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a game-changer for creating more personalized emails. ChatGPT is a great tool for this, but not having to use multiple different apps to personalize your emails would make your life much easier, not to mention saving you a ton of time on context-switching.
Mixmax's AI Compose feature is built right into its sequence editor and lets sales professionals use AI prompts to craft personalized emails. But this tool goes beyond just generating content; it also allows for the fine-tuning of existing emails.
For example, you can input an existing email draft and ask AI Compose to shorten it, make it sound more professional, make it sound friendlier, etc.
3. Create manual emails within your sequences
Creating manual emails in a sequence involves deliberately interrupting the automated sequence to allow for direct, personal input from the sender. This strategy is instrumental in crafting messages that resonate on a more personal level with each recipient, moving away from the impersonal nature of mass emailing.
Mixmax offers this capability, allowing sales reps to add a manual email to their sequence. This pause in automation is an opportunity for reps to write emails that are 100% personalized, addressing the specific needs and interests of each recipient.
By implementing this feature, Mixmax not only enhances the effectiveness of your email outreach but also ensures compliance with Gmail's new regulations aimed at reducing the volume of generic, unsolicited emails.
4. Use multi-channel outreach
Multi-channel outreach means you don’t only have to rely on email when it comes to reaching out to your prospects. With multi-channel prospecting, you can contact prospects via:
- LinkedIn (or other social channels)
- Phone call
- SMS
With Mixmax, you can set up multi-channel touchpoints directly within your sequences as it integrates with LinkedIn Sales Nav and has a built-in phone dialer.
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5. Work out of your inbox
Mixmax seamlessly integrates with Gmail and is accessible directly through the inbox. This lets you send individual messages based on previously saved templates, which can easily be edited and personalized.
Plus, with the Mixmax Sidebar that is also accessible through your inbox, you can look up LinkedIn Sales Nav or Salesforce data to further help with personalization.
6. Include unsubscribe links & sync with your CRM
It's crucial to respect the recipient's preferences and provide an easy way to opt out of communications. Unsubscribe links are not just a best practice; they are a key element in maintaining trust and transparency with your audience.
Mixmax values the recipient's experience, which is why our platform makes unsubscribing straightforward and hassle-free, even letting you unsubscribe an entire domain from your sequence.
You can also set up a rule to automatically update contact and lead unsubscribe status in Salesforce to ensure your entire tech stack is aligned. This not only meets Gmail’s new requirements but also helps maintain a positive relationship with your audience.
Secure email practices
Security and authenticity in emailing are cornerstones of our service. This focus ensures that Mixmax users are already ahead of the curve in meeting Gmail’s new validation standards, offering peace of mind regarding email security.
Committed to your sales success
To our dedicated sales professionals, rest assured that Mixmax is fully equipped for these upcoming changes. We are committed to ensuring that your email strategies remain impactful, respectful, and in line with the latest standards.
While Gmail’s new regulations mark a shift in the email landscape, for Mixmax users in sales, it’s an opportunity to boost prospect engagement with personalized outreach.
