B2B Senders: Do you have to comply?

I've heard the question more than once: "Do Gmail and Microsoft's new sender requirements really apply to us? We're B2B. We're not sending to consumers."

Why you might think not

I get where that comes from. A lot of the focus lately around new sender requirements from Gmail and Microsoft has seemingly been on consumer email. Gmail.com, Outlook.com. The free stuff. Webmail. Both Google and Microsoft have different platforms (and different sender requirements) depending on whether you're talking about free consumer mail or paid business-hosted mail. Gmail.com versus Google Workspace. Outlook.com versus Microsoft 365. They aren't the same thing, and they don't always play by the same rules. And as I've explained in prior blog posts, webinars, and so forth, a significant amount of the stricter new enforcement happening lately is very much only happening on the consumer side.

So it's easy for B2B senders to convince themselves they're in the clear. "We're not sending to Gmail.com. We're sending to decision makers at businesses." Sending to companies, talking about things that companies buy, as opposed to, I dunno, selling ice cream cakes directly to people who want to eat ice cream.

But: Gmail still matters. A lot. Even in B2B. And I see two main reasons for that.

Reason 1: Consumer first, business later

Mailbox providers test and roll out changes in their consumer environments first. Gmail.com and Outlook.com are the proving grounds. That's where they can change the rules unilaterally, at scale, with fewer headaches. There's no enterprise contract to tiptoe around. There's no third-party integrations to break. It's just the mailbox provider and the user.

Once Gmail and Microsoft see success with new filtering or compliance checks in the consumer space, many of us think that they'll then start to bring those same rules (or similar ones) to Workspace and Microsoft 365. Maybe not immediately, and maybe not in the exact same form. But it's coming, if you ask me. So avoiding these requirements is NOT a future proof configuration.

Reason 2: Your B2B list probably includes a lot of Gmail

Let me use my own list as an example. The Spam Resource newsletter is a B2B thing, right? It's email deliverability consultants, compliance folks, marketing ops pros. People who work in the business of email. And yet?

• 36% of my subscribers signed up using a gmail.com address.
• Another 26% used a custom or business domain that's hosted by Google Workspace.
• Total: Just under 62% of my "B2B" subscribers are using a Google platform to receive my emails.

Is that a quirk? I'm in a niche industry, certainly. But, this is an example of real-world behavior. And I think it is fair to assume that people use personal addresses for business stuff all the time. Or they're a consultant, a freelancer, or a small business owner, and their personal Gmail account is their business email.

On the Microsoft side of things, I've got a bunch of subscribers from custom or business domains hosted by Microsoft 365. But I also have a fair number of subscribers to my list who are subscribed from email accounts at domains like Live.com, Hotmail.com, Outlook.com, and even MSN.com. Here, it's more of an 80/20 split, with the majority using custom domains via Microsoft 365, but the point remains the same: On my B2B list, I have B2B subscribers using Microsoft consumer mailboxes to receive my emails.

These numbers are undoubtedly skewed slightly by SEGs (Secure Email Gateways) which are often configured to be "in front of" Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. This results in an MX record not pointing directly to Google or Microsoft for a given domain, so they don't show up in results here.

And so, the point is

Anyway, back to the point: You're not off the hook. Not even if you're strictly B2B. Gmail (and Outlook.com) requirements do still apply to you, across enough of your list, that non-compliance means deliverability pain.

TL;DR? You can't ignore those new rules. Don't dismiss them as only relevant to B2C or ecommerce marketing senders. If you're sending email at scale, you've got skin in the game.