Gmail Bulk Sender Guidelines: How to Secure Your Deliverability

To protect everyday users, most email service providers including Gmail, have rules in
place to prevent spam and unwanted emails. These guidelines ensure that users aren’t bombarded with irrelevant or
potentially harmful messages. Gmail has always had basic rules for bulk senders, but now, Google is introducing even
stricter bulk sender guidelines.

These changes are significant, and if you’re running a business or sending large volumes
of emails like more than 500+ daily, understanding them is crucial. Not following the new guidelines could hurt your
email deliverability, and engagement, and even risk getting your email account blacklisted. That’s not something you
want to happen.

So, let’s dive into the key updates and give you the tools to stay compliant and keep
your emails hitting Gmail inboxes.

What are Bulk Email Guidelines?

Would you believe that email communication from all these years, verifying the email is
still a challenging task? That’s why every major platform has bulk email sender guidelines, google is not an
exception from this. These rules are designed by all the platforms to prevent users from being bombarded with
unwanted emails.

Bulk email sender guidelines often include this:

Adhering to Anti-Spam Laws

It’s crucial to follow anti-spam laws to maintain ethical and legal email marketing
practices. For example, in the U.S., the CAN-SPAM Act sets clear guidelines on what constitutes spam, while the GDPR
in the EU focuses on protecting individuals’ data and ensuring consent. Following these regulations not only helps
you stay compliant but also builds trust with your audience.

Building a Clean Email List

Make sure you’re only sending emails to people who have explicitly opted in to receive
communications. Avoid using purchased or rented email lists, as these can lead to poor engagement, high unsubscribe
rates, and potential legal trouble. The best practice is always to build your list organically, ensuring people
genuinely want to hear from you.

Email Authentication

To safeguard against fraudulent activity and ensure your emails land in inboxes, it’s
essential to set up email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These tools help verify that your
emails are genuinely coming from you, reducing the risk of your messages being flagged as spam.

Handling Unsubscribe Requests

A critical aspect of bulk email sending is respecting recipients’ wishes. Always provide
a clear and simple way for users to opt-out if they no longer wish to receive emails, such as an “unsubscribe” link
at the bottom of your messages. This ensures that your emails remain compliant and that you maintain a positive
relationship with your audience.

Following ESP (Email Service Provider) guidelines if you want to maintain strong
communication with your audience. The consequences of ignoring these rules can be quite serious: 

1. Your email could be marked as
   spam
2. Your ESP might slow the delivery of
   your messages
3. Your Email IP address is blocked by
   ESP

If you want to send bulk email, you will be required to meet the new guidelines.

How to Send Bulk Emails on Gmail: Best Practices

1. Use Google Sheets and Google Apps Script for Automation

Gmail itself doesn’t offer a direct way to send bulk emails, but you can use Google
Sheets in combination with Google Apps Script to send personalized emails. With Google Sheets, you can easily manage
a list of contacts and automate email sending without violating Gmail’s limits.

Best practice: Use a Google Sheets add-on like Mail Merge with attachments or Yet
Another Mail Merge (YAMM) to send personalized emails to a large list. These tools allow you to track opens and
clicks, helping you manage your campaign better.

2. Keep Your Emails Short and Focused

When sending bulk emails, it’s tempting to create long, detailed messages. However, long
emails often get flagged by spam filters or ignored by recipients. Instead, keep your emails short, clear, and to
the point. Make sure the content is valuable and relevant to your audience.

Best practice: Limit the length of your email body, and include only the
essential information. If necessary, use links to direct recipients to your website for further details.

3. Maintain a Healthy Email Frequency

If you’re running a regular email campaign, make sure you don’t send too many emails too
quickly. Excessive emailing can trigger Gmail’s spam filters. Aim for a reasonable and consistent frequency that
aligns with the expectations of your recipients.

Best practice: For larger email campaigns, space out your email batches to stay
within Gmail’s daily sending limits. Avoid sending large volumes all at once.

4. Respect Gmail’s Sending Limits

As mentioned earlier, Gmail has strict daily sending limits. For regular Gmail accounts,
the limit is 500 recipients per day, and for G Suite accounts, it’s 2,000. Be mindful of these limits to prevent
temporary account suspension.

Best practice: If you need to send more than Gmail’s limits allow, consider using
a third-party email service provider like Mailchimp or SendGrid for larger campaigns.

5. Avoid Attachments and Large Files

Attachments, especially large files, can increase the chances of your email being
flagged as spam. Gmail restricts the size of attachments to 25 MB, but even smaller files can raise red flags with
spam filters.

Best practice: Instead of attaching files, use links to Google Drive or other
file-sharing services. This reduces the likelihood of your emails being flagged and ensures quicker delivery.

6. Test Your Emails Before Sending

Before sending a bulk email to your entire list, send test emails to yourself or a small
group. This allows you to catch any errors, check formatting, and ensure that your email doesn’t end up in the spam
folder.

Best practice: Send test emails to different email providers (Google, Yahoo,
Outlook, etc.) to verify deliverability across platforms. You can also use tools to check if your email is likely to
be flagged as spam.

Final Words

Sending bulk emails via Gmail can be an effective way to communicate with the audience,
but it’s necessary to follow the new ESP guidelines. Although implementing new changes may seem like a hassle, your
future campaign will benefit from reduced spam. To ensure strong email deliverability in the future, it’s essential
to use a reliable email verification service. Start by trying myEmailVerifier for free and experience how its tools can
help you maintain a clean, up-to-date email list and improve your sending reputation.