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What are the requirements and implications of the Gmail Verified Sender Program Pilot?

Summary

The Gmail Verified Sender Program Pilot was introduced primarily for U.S. political campaigns, aiming to ensure their emails were delivered to the inbox by adhering to rigorous deliverability standards. While it offered a pathway for these senders to potentially bypass spam filters, it came with extremely strict requirements designed to test compliance with best practices. The program (which was a pilot and has since evolved or concluded) highlighted Google's commitment to reducing unwanted email, even from politically sensitive senders, by holding them to high authentication and engagement standards.

What email marketers say

Email marketers widely discussed the Gmail Verified Sender Program Pilot, with many expressing surprise at its strictness, particularly regarding the high spam complaint threshold. There was a general sentiment that if political senders could meet these rigorous requirements, they likely wouldn't be experiencing deliverability issues in the first place, suggesting the program was a way for Google to prove that deliverability challenges stemmed from sender practices, not algorithmic bias. Concerns also revolved around the practical feasibility of implementing advanced authentication standards and the potential for a surge in unsubscribe requests due to new user interface elements.

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks indicates that the strictness of the Gmail Verified Sender Program Pilot appears to be incredibly high at first glance. They suggest that the requirements outlined by Google seem very stringent, making it challenging for political senders to comply fully. This initial assessment reflects a broader concern among email marketers about the feasibility of meeting such demanding deliverability standards.

14 Sep 2022 - Email Geeks

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks expresses significant concern over the 5% spam rate threshold for the pilot program, describing it as crazy high. This sentiment highlights the difficulty many bulk senders, especially in the political arena, face in maintaining such low complaint rates. They note that exceeding this threshold would result in a violation of the program's spam policy.

14 Sep 2022 - Email Geeks

What the experts say

Email deliverability experts viewed the Gmail Verified Sender Program Pilot as a necessary step by Google to address the long-standing complaints from political campaigns about alleged deliverability bias. Experts highlighted that the stringent requirements of the program (e.g., strong authentication, low spam rates, proper unsubscribe mechanisms) were simply reflections of existing email best practices. They asserted that any sender, regardless of political affiliation, who met these standards would inherently experience good deliverability, thereby disproving claims of unfair filtering. The pilot was seen as an educational tool, designed to bring political senders up to par with general email hygiene expectations.

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks asserts that no political mailer can realistically fulfill the stringent requirements of the Gmail Verified Sender Program Pilot. They specifically mention that almost none use DMARC (and certainly not in reject mode), and that most platforms do not support List-Unsubscribe-Post. This highlights a significant technical gap between current political email practices and Google's expectations.

14 Sep 2022 - Email Geeks

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks clarifies that their support for these strict requirements is unwavering, despite the difficulty they pose for senders. They strongly believe that any sender who can meet these high standards would not experience Gmail delivery problems. This reinforces the idea that the pilot program serves to highlight existing best practices, rather than imposing new, arbitrary hurdles.

14 Sep 2022 - Email Geeks

What the documentation says

Google's official documentation for the Gmail Verified Sender Program Pilot outlined clear, strict technical and behavioral requirements for participation. These requirements echoed and, in some cases, intensified, existing email best practices, particularly regarding email authentication and user feedback mechanisms. The documentation specified criteria for domain age, sending volume, spam complaint rates, and explicit unsubscribe options, indicating a concerted effort to ensure emails from participating political campaigns were genuinely wanted by recipients and properly secured against abuse.

Technical article

Google's Gmail Help documentation on the Verified Sender Program Pilot clarifies that it was exclusively open to specific political committees. These committees had to be actively registered with the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) during the 2022 U.S. elections. This strict eligibility criterion indicates the program's targeted scope and its direct link to regulatory bodies overseeing political campaigns in the United States.

14 Sep 2022 - support.google.com

Technical article

Google's Gmail Help documentation outlines a crucial spam policy for the pilot program. It states that if participants have more than 5% of their emails in a single day marked as spam by users, it will constitute a violation of the Program Pilot’s Spam policy. This very low threshold emphasizes Google's commitment to user experience and its intolerance for high complaint rates, even for pilot participants.

14 Sep 2022 - support.google.com

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