The Colab Brief- 109: R.I.P. to the Spray and Pray

Welcome to The Colab Brief

Author

Ash + Lizzy
March 09, 2024

If you don’t already know what this newsletter is about, I’m sorry to alarm you as you were just quietly scrolling through your email inbox on a lovely Saturday morning. 

Today’s edition is about mass pitching and nothing else. 

Read Time: 2 minutes. 

For some PR pros, time is almost up. April 1 marks the end of a very disturbing era. 

Let me back up.

On February 1, 2024, Google announced a series of rules that would be coming into place to protect Gmail users from unwanted mass emails. It has since been confirmed that Google will “start rejecting a percentage of non-compliant email traffic starting in April.” 

Here’s the skinny for those of you who don’t speak Google. The guidelines are focused on three main buckets: 

  1. Authentication of outgoing emails

  2. Reported spam rates

  3. The ability to easily unsubscribe from email lists.  

In short, mass email senders, which Google qualifies as 5,000 messages a day or more, to personal Gmail accounts will be affected. Initially, bulk senders will get temporary error codes on their non-compliant emails, giving them a chance to resolve any issues that may lead to noncompliance.  

Shortly thereafter, however, Google will start rejecting the non-compliant emails, and will gradually increase the rejection rate over time. 

Another announcement component is that bulk senders must keep their reported spam rate (outgoing messages marked as spam by recipients) below. Ten percent and must never go above .30 percent. 

Now, it’s not really worth getting into the acronyms of it all (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), but this will impact not only PR pros, but the clients they work with as well. 

5,000 emails may sound like a lot. And you, personally, may never send 5,000 emails in a day. However, many agencies, and many companies in general, do. The usual suspects are newsletters, promos, and customer and partner emails. 

But some PR agencies (who we have anonymously and publicly ashamed before) use a technique tactic called “Spray and Pray.” This happens when a PR person queues up a pitch and sends it to thousands of people at once (can you imagine having such an ego that you thought thousands of people cared about what you had to say?). Spray and Pray usually results in <1% interest, loads of unsubscribes, a handful of nasty emails, and reporters calling you out on Twitter. 

Carly, we’re here for you.

Keep in mind that this new requirement is not 5,000 bulk emails per person per day. It is 5,000 bulk emails per domain per day. So even if you and your 10 coworkers are sending 500 emails per person per day, you’re on the hook. 

Now, it’s not all doom and gloom. Bulk-emailers should see this as an ✨ opportunity ✨ rather than and obstacle. Use this as a chance to optimize your other channels. Dust off your company's LinkedIn, add some oomph to your press page, segment your newsletters, and embrace webinars. The possibilities are endless!

But more than anything, Spray and Pray-ers should know that restrictions on these types of actions are going to get stricter over the years to come. Before we know it, we’re going to bring it all the way back around, and the only people you’ll be able to email are your MySpace Top 8. 💗

Until next week -

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