How to Write Cold Emails That Convert
Guide
No matter your approach to outbound sales, two things are consistently true: you need to be able to send emails, and you don’t want those emails to land in spam. Starting back in February 2024, Google made significant changes to its email policies, which will impact how your emails are managed and received.
What exactly are these changes, and more importantly, how can you adapt your strategies not only to comply but also to improve your outbound sales results?
This guide will break down these recent changes and provide actionable strategies to enhance your email effectiveness in the new environment.
If you're wondering, 'How many emails can I send from Gmail per day?', navigating Google's email sending limits can initially seem complex, influenced by factors like account type, recipient status (internal or external), the email sending platform, and the number of recipients in CC.
Late last year, Google announced significant updates to Gmail's sending limits, effective from February 2024. These changes, aimed at enhancing user experience and security, signal a substantial shift for businesses sending outbound campaigns.
Under the new guidelines, organizations will now face restrictions based on the total number of emails sent across the organization. This represents a departure from the previous user-based limits.
Organizations sending over 5,000 emails per day will need to comply with these new rules. Many larger businesses will find themselves surpassing this threshold with routine operations, not accounting for additional outbound activities.
In response to Google's new regulations, all domains are required to implement SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) for email authentication, irrespective of the daily email volume. These authentication methods are crucial in verifying that emails originate from legitimate sources, effectively preventing email spoofing.
They have long been considered best practices for domain setup, particularly in outbound sales. If your domain is already set up for outbound sales, there's a good chance SPF and DKIM are in place. However, it's advisable to review and ensure that these authentication protocols are correctly configured to meet Google's updated requirements.
A major focus of Google's update is to enhance the user experience by significantly reducing spam. To achieve this, Google plans to adjust the deliverability of emails for organizations that exceed a 0.3% user-reported spam rate.
For example, if an organization sends out 1,000 emails and more than 3 of these are reported as spam, this could negatively affect the organization's email deliverability rates. Notably, emails flagged and sent to spam folders by automated inbox filters are not included in this calculation.
Organizations that primarily send solicited and expected emails, such as newsletters to subscribers, are less likely to be affected by this update. However, for organizations engaged in cold email outreach, adapting strategies to stay below the spam report threshold will be crucial.
Google has always recommended providing users with a straightforward way to opt-out of email communications. Despite this, a significant number of email senders have neglected to make the unsubscribe process easy or transparent.
Now, Google is enforcing this as a mandatory requirement for organizations sending more than 5,000 emails per day. Specifically, Google mandates:
Marketing messages and subscribed messages must support one-click unsubscribe, and include a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the message body.
This section will focus on practical steps to align with these limits, ensuring your email campaigns are not only compliant but also more targeted and effective. We'll cover key strategies for adapting your approach in light of these changes, ensuring your outbound communications continue to reach your audience effectively.
In the evolving landscape of email marketing, especially with Google's new limits, targeting the right audience has never been more crucial. Not only does targeting a broad Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) result in weaker results, but it may also to your emails being marked as spam, decreasing the overall deliverability for your campaigns.
In order to prevent this, you should focus on reaching more targeted, relevant prospects who are likely to be interested in your offering.
This is where Alice's capabilities become invaluable. Her sophisticated filtering system accesses an extensive database of verified leads, ensuring that your outreach is directed towards prospects who are most likely to be interested in what you offer.
This targeted approach not only enhances the effectiveness of your campaigns but also aligns with Google's focus on reducing spam and maintaining a healthy email ecosystem.
The challenge in today's crowded email landscape is not just finding the right audience, but also capturing their attention. With recipients inundated with numerous cold emails, personalization becomes key to standing out.
Alice offers a solution to this challenge. By generating deep insights into each prospect she’s able to write highly-personalized email sequences that not only lead to lower spam rates but crucially result in significantly higher response rates.
Google's new rules suggest an easy unsubscribe process for all high-volume email senders. This means including an unsubscribe link in every email, a feature that not only complies with Google's requirements but also respects the recipient's choice.
Alice’s AI technology streamlines this process. Her advanced response recognition automatically pauses email sequences for users who express a desire to unsubscribe. This proactive approach in managing unsubscribe requests significantly reduces the chances of your emails being reported as spam, ensuring better compliance with Google’s guidelines.
With Google’s stringent new email sending limits, it’s strategic to diversify your email outreach across multiple domains. Relying on a single domain poses a risk; if penalized, it could disrupt not only your outreach efforts but also your regular business communications.
Alice offers a smart solution with her AI Warmup feature. By registering multiple domains for cold outreach, you can gradually build a reputable sending history for each. Alice’s Smart AI Warmup feature automates this process, progressively increasing your email volume and building your domain's reputation over time, ensuring compliance with Google's new email sending guidelines.
Google's evolving email sending limits, both current and upcoming, signify a shift towards enhanced security and efficiency in email communication. For Google Workspace users and organizations, understanding and adapting to these changes is crucial. By focusing on targeted leads, personalizing emails, providing straightforward unsubscribe options, and wisely managing multiple domains, businesses can not only comply with Google's guidelines but also improve the effectiveness of their email outreach.
As we move forward, the emphasis on quality, relevance, and user experience in email communications will become increasingly important. Businesses that proactively adjust their strategies to align with these changes will be well-positioned to benefit from a more secure and efficient email environment.
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