Gray mail
What is gray mail?
Gray mail (or grey mail) are emails that fall between a wanted and an unwanted communication. An unwanted communication would be spam emails that are unsolicited or sent with malicious intent, often from suspicious sources. Whereas gray mail is typically communication from an organization or businesses that the recipient has an existing relationship with. However, the recipients no longer find these emails valuable or relevant. Gray emails are often bulk emails such as newsletters, offers, updates, or event announcements that users opted to receive but have lost interest in.
Key characteristics
Legitimate: These emails are sent by businesses, non-profits, or service organizations that are genuine and have had interactions with the recipient in the past.
Opt-in sources: Recipients actively provide consent initially to receive these messages.
Compliant: Gray mail senders often follow regulations like CAN-SPAM or GDPR, and include valid unsubscribe links that are honored.
High-volume: Bulk sending is common. Gray mail is often high-frequency campaigns, and they can quickly overwhelm inboxes.
Low engagement: These messages are often ignored, deleted, or archived without being engaged with, resulting in behavior that email providers track to help classify mail as gray mail versus high-priority mail.
Context-dependent: What is gray mail to one person (e.g., a product promotion) may be useful to another.
Gray mail vs. spam
Gray mail | Spam |
|---|---|
Sent with the user’s prior consent (opt-in). | Sent without consent, often illegally. |
Content is usually legitimate (offers, newsletters, updates). | Content is often malicious or deceptive (phishing, scams). |
Unwanted primarily due to irrelevance or frequency. | Unwanted because it is unsolicited and potentially harmful. |
Still compliant with email marketing laws. | Frequently violates anti-spam regulations. |
Common types of gray mail
Newsletters: Subscriptions that a user once opted into but no longer reads.
Promotional campaigns: Frequent marketing emails with sales, offers, or discounts.
Event reminders: Notifications about webinars, launches, or past registrations.
Product updates: Release notes or feature announcements that may not interest all users.
Account summaries: Periodic reports (e.g., “Your monthly activity”) that are rarely opened.
Impact of gray mail
On recipients
Contributes to email fatigue by cluttering inboxes, sometimes leading to indiscriminate marking of gray mail as spam.
Reduces the likelihood of noticing important or time-sensitive emails.
Recipients can get frustrated if unsubscribe options are hard to find.
On senders
Low engagement rates can damage sender reputation with mailbox providers.
Increases the risk of being filtered into “Promotions” or “Other” folders.
Unsubscribe or complaint rates are higher if recipients feel overwhelmed.
Inflated list sizes cost more to maintain without delivering ROI.
Gray mails run the risk of being marked as spam, affecting sender reputation and deliverability.
Best practices for managing gray mail
For businesses/senders
Preference settings: Allow users to choose different aspects of email communication like email frequency, topic, and formats.
Easy unsubscribes: For both compliance purposes and to clear your mailing list, ensure that a prominent one-click unsubscribe link is available.
Segmentation and personalization: Segment your audience based on behavior patterns or interests and tailor the content to each segment to ensure that your content doesn't become irrelevant to the recipient.
Re-engagement campaigns: Reach out to inactive subscribers with special offers or surveys before removing them.
Sunsetting policies: Suppress or remove contacts who remain unengaged after multiple attempts.
For recipients
Monitoring: Regularly review and unsubscribe from newsletters or promotions you no longer want.
Organization: Use filters or folders to separate essential communication from promotional emails.
Settings: Adjust notification settings within apps or services to limit automated updates.
Wrapping up
Gray mail makes up a significant percentage of emails in every inbox but it’s often overlooked. Effective engagement strategies and active inbox management are essential to maximize value and minimize frustration for both senders and recipients.