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0 pointsdarylteo2y ago0 comments

I "know" that.

I'm asking how does Google differentiate between a transactional and a non transactional email?

They also say in their guidelines

> *Marketing messages and subscribed messages* must support one-click unsubscribe, and include a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the message body.

So how is Google determining what is a Marketing/Subscribed message? If they're not, then am I required to tack on this header to ALL emails regardless of type or risk getting binned?

0 comments

jcrites2y ago

If you’re sending transactional emails like password resets or MFA, then the emails will have close to a 100% open rate. This is (likely) an important factor that Google uses to judge whether email is transactional, or more generally whether it is desired by recipients, alongside other factors like having a very low complaint rate.

MaxGabriel2y ago

100% open rate on transactional emails feels too high to me. Something like an e-commerce purchase might kick off multiple emails (purchase made, shipped, arrived), none of which the user opens

stubish2y ago

Kicking off a chain of emails a user cannot easily opt out of could well be the sort of emails users want to lose. There probably should be a one-click 'stop emailing me' button, for this and future purchases. Which would be a support burden, yes.

3 more replies

jcrites2y ago

Sorry, to clarify, I only mean this particular type of transactional email: password reset, MFA.

But even for other types of transactional emails, like shipment confirmations, I would expect the open rate to be much higher and/or the complaint rate to be much lower than for marketing email.

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JimDabell2y ago

> If you’re sending transactional emails like password resets or MFA, then the emails will have close to a 100% open rate.

So I can disable a competitor’s email functionality by triggering a whole bunch of password reset requests for all discoverable usernames?

renewiltord2y ago

If they support SMS 2FA they need to be prepared for this too because it costs a lot. Yeah, so people need to ensure that reset is at least a little hard to abuse. After all, it's a bad experience for their users if they receive a shit ton of reset emails anyway.

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jcrites2y ago

That could potentially cause them problems, yeah, if you were able to do that endlessly. In practice most companies will have some kind of rate limiting in place around features like that (by IP, cookie, captcha, etc.)

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mitthrowaway22y ago

I rarely open 2FA emails, because usually the displayed preview is all I need.

quickthrower22y ago

I open way less than 100% of password resets - because some are malicious.

orliesaurus2y ago

Ahhh I see what you mean now, but it wasn't clear in your initial question.

Gmail's algorithms analyzes, and has been doing over the last ~20 years, a combination of factors to classify emails as promotional or transactional!

Nothing in the code itself of your email will indicate that, other than the presence of an unsub link + the rest of the footer (which is the obvious sign that's a marketing email)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

jcrites2y ago

MaxGabriel2y ago

100% open rate on transactional emails feels too high to me. Something like an e-commerce purchase might kick off multiple emails (purchase made, shipped, arrived), none of which the user opens

stubish2y ago

3 more replies

jcrites2y ago

Sorry, to clarify, I only mean this particular type of transactional email: password reset, MFA.

But even for other types of transactional emails, like shipment confirmations, I would expect the open rate to be much higher and/or the complaint rate to be much lower than for marketing email.

1 more reply

JimDabell2y ago

> If you’re sending transactional emails like password resets or MFA, then the emails will have close to a 100% open rate.

So I can disable a competitor’s email functionality by triggering a whole bunch of password reset requests for all discoverable usernames?

renewiltord2y ago

1 more reply

jcrites2y ago

1 more reply

mitthrowaway22y ago

I rarely open 2FA emails, because usually the displayed preview is all I need.

quickthrower22y ago

I open way less than 100% of password resets - because some are malicious.

orliesaurus2y ago

Ahhh I see what you mean now, but it wasn't clear in your initial question.

Gmail's algorithms analyzes, and has been doing over the last ~20 years, a combination of factors to classify emails as promotional or transactional!

Nothing in the code itself of your email will indicate that, other than the presence of an unsub link + the rest of the footer (which is the obvious sign that's a marketing email)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse