Summary
Experts and marketers broadly agree that cold email prospecting presents considerable risks, including legal ramifications (GDPR, CAN-SPAM), damage to sender reputation leading to blacklisting, and reduced deliverability. Sharing infrastructure with transactional emails exacerbates deliverability issues. Key alternatives focus on building relationships and providing value: permission-based marketing, content marketing, social media engagement, lead magnets, Account-Based Marketing (ABM), and social selling. Personalizing outreach and ensuring relevance are crucial for improving engagement. Documentation emphasizes the importance of sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and adherence to legal requirements. List scraping and purchasing are strongly discouraged.
Key findings
- Legal Compliance: Cold emailing can violate GDPR and CAN-SPAM, resulting in fines. Explicit consent is required for EU citizens.
- Reputation & Deliverability: Cold emails damage sender reputation, leading to blacklisting and deliverability issues for ALL emails.
- Infrastructure Risks: Sharing email infrastructure between cold outreach and transactional/marketing emails negatively impacts deliverability due to B2B filtering.
- Relevance & Personalization: Lack of relevance is a major cause of spam filtering. Personalization improves engagement and reduces risks.
- Alternatives: Effective alternatives include inbound marketing, content marketing, ABM, social selling, and building organic lists with lead magnets.
- List Acquisition: Purchasing or scraping email lists is prohibited and damages deliverability.
- Authentication: Proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is crucial for deliverability.
- Blocklisting: Practices leading to blocklisting severely hinder deliverability.
Key considerations
- Legal Compliance: Adhere to CAN-SPAM and GDPR regulations. Obtain explicit consent where required.
- Sender Reputation: Prioritize protecting sender reputation by avoiding spam traps and low-quality lists.
- Infrastructure Segregation: Consider separate email infrastructure for cold outreach and transactional emails.
- Personalization Strategy: Invest in personalized outreach to improve relevance and engagement.
- Alternative Strategies: Shift focus to permission-based marketing, content marketing, ABM, and social selling.
- List Building Practices: Build an organic email list through ethical and permission-based methods.
- Authentication Implementation: Implement and maintain proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC).
- Monitoring for Blocklisting: Monitor IP addresses and domains for blocklisting issues.
What email marketers say
11 marketer opinions
The provided answers highlight the significant risks associated with cold email prospecting, including potential legal violations (GDPR, CAN-SPAM), damage to sender reputation, and blacklisting. As alternatives, marketers recommend a shift towards strategies that build relationships and provide value, such as inbound marketing, content marketing, social media engagement, lead magnets, and Account-Based Marketing (ABM). Personalizing outreach and ensuring relevance are also crucial for improving engagement and deliverability. Warming up email addresses and leveraging social selling are additional tactics to mitigate risks and enhance results.
Key opinions
- Legal Risks: Cold emailing can lead to violations of regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM, resulting in fines and penalties.
- Reputation Damage: Poorly executed cold email campaigns can negatively impact sender reputation, leading to deliverability issues and blacklisting.
- Inbound Marketing: Attracting potential customers through valuable content and organic means is a more sustainable alternative to cold outreach.
- Personalization: Tailoring messages to individual recipients and addressing their specific needs can significantly improve engagement.
- Relationship Building: Establishing genuine connections with prospects through networking and social media can lead to warmer introductions and increased trust.
- Warming Up IPs/Domains: Sending emails to a small group of contacts and gradually increasing volume to establish an email address reputation.
Key considerations
- Compliance: Ensure adherence to all applicable email marketing laws and regulations, such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM.
- Relevance: Prioritize relevance in messaging to increase engagement and reduce the likelihood of being marked as spam.
- Value Proposition: Focus on providing value to recipients upfront, rather than solely pushing for sales.
- Long-Term Strategy: Invest in building a sustainable lead generation strategy that relies on organic methods and relationship building.
- Alternative Approaches: Consider leveraging ABM, content marketing, and social selling as alternative strategies to cold email prospecting.
Marketer view
Email marketer from LinkedIn recommends personalizing outreach by researching prospects, tailoring messages to their needs, and providing value upfront instead of generic sales pitches, as a warmer alternative to cold emails.
11 Sep 2021 - LinkedIn
Marketer view
Email marketer from Woodpecker explains building genuine relationships with prospects through networking events, social media engagement, and providing helpful content can lead to warmer introductions and reduce reliance on cold outreach.
9 Sep 2021 - Woodpecker.co
What the experts say
4 expert opinions
Experts agree that cold email prospecting carries significant risks for email deliverability. Sharing infrastructure for cold outreach with transactional or marketing emails can negatively impact deliverability due to B2B filtering. Sending unsolicited emails damages sender reputation, especially if marked as spam, affecting all email campaigns. The perception of relevance is crucial, and cold emails often struggle with this, increasing the risk of filtering. Furthermore, engaging in practices that lead to being placed on blocklists can severely hinder deliverability, causing emails to bounce or land in the spam folder.
Key opinions
- Shared Infrastructure Risk: Using the same infrastructure for cold emails as for transactional/marketing emails can negatively impact deliverability.
- Reputation Damage: Unsolicited emails, particularly those marked as spam, damage sender reputation.
- Relevance is Key: The perceived relevance of an email is critical for inbox placement; cold emails often lack this.
- Blocklist Impact: Being listed on blocklists severely hinders email deliverability.
Key considerations
- Separate Infrastructure: Consider using separate infrastructure for cold outreach to protect transactional and marketing email deliverability.
- Reputation Management: Prioritize protecting sender reputation by avoiding spam triggers and focusing on relevance.
- Relevance Optimization: Strive to make cold emails as relevant as possible to the recipient to increase engagement and avoid spam filters.
- Blocklist Monitoring: Monitor IP addresses and domains for blocklisting and take immediate action to address any issues.
Expert view
Expert from Spamresource explains that blocklists are lists of IP addresses and domains known for sending spam. Being listed on a blocklist can significantly hinder email deliverability, causing emails to bounce or land in the spam folder.
23 Feb 2024 - Spamresource
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise shares that the perception of relevance is crucial for inbox placement. Cold emails, by their nature, often struggle with relevance, which increases the risk of being filtered or marked as spam.
4 Aug 2021 - Word to the Wise
What the documentation says
4 technical articles
Email marketing documentation emphasizes several key points related to cold emailing: using purchased or rented email lists is prohibited and can lead to account suspension, sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is critical for deliverability and avoiding spam filters, compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act is mandatory (accurate headers, physical address, opt-out), and explicit consent is required under GDPR for emailing EU citizens. Violations of these guidelines can result in penalties.
Key findings
- List Acquisition: Purchasing or renting email lists violates terms of service and harms deliverability.
- Authentication: Proper sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is crucial for email deliverability and preventing spoofing.
- CAN-SPAM Compliance: Adhering to CAN-SPAM Act requirements is essential for legal email marketing in the US.
- GDPR Consent: Explicit consent is required for sending marketing emails to EU citizens under GDPR.
Key considerations
- Organic List Building: Focus on building an organic email list through permission-based marketing practices.
- Implement Authentication: Ensure that SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are properly configured for your sending domain.
- CAN-SPAM Adherence: Comply with all CAN-SPAM Act requirements, including providing an opt-out mechanism and a physical postal address.
- GDPR Compliance: Obtain explicit consent before sending marketing emails to individuals in the EU.
Technical article
Documentation from Mailchimp emphasizes that using purchased or rented email lists is against their terms of service and can lead to account suspension. They advocate for permission-based marketing and building an organic email list.
22 Jul 2021 - Mailchimp
Technical article
Documentation from SendGrid explains that implementing sender authentication methods like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is crucial for improving email deliverability and avoiding spam filters. These methods verify the sender's identity and prevent spoofing.
17 Sep 2023 - SendGrid
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