There are only a few differences between setting up Amplemarket with your Gmail or Outlook accounts. These are all related to their native extensions and both will work. The 3 major differences are:
- The emails will be tagged with labels in Gmail, and they will appear in folders within Outlook.
- When enabling your warm-up feature you'll see that you have a different way of setting up the rule depending on your provider.
- Microsoft's stricter approach to email outreach compared to Gmail's more flexible policies
Microsoft (Outlook/Office 365) typically enforces more stringent policies regarding email outreach compared to Gmail. This difference is significant when considering which platform to use for your outreach campaigns:
- Lower sending limits: Microsoft often imposes stricter daily sending limits (typically around 300-500 emails per day) compared to Gmail's more generous allowances (up to 2,000 emails per day for Google Workspace accounts).
- More aggressive spam filtering: Microsoft's spam detection algorithms tend to be more sensitive to patterns associated with mass outreach, resulting in quicker account restrictions when unusual sending patterns are detected.
- Faster to implement blocks: According to numerous reports from email marketing professionals, Microsoft tends to implement account restrictions more quickly than Gmail when detecting potential spam-like behavior.
- Stricter enforcement of anti-spam policies: Microsoft's documentation explicitly discourages using their services for "unsolicited bulk email" and they actively monitor for such activities.
- More complex reputation recovery: Once flagged in the Microsoft ecosystem, users often report it takes longer to restore sending reputation compared to Gmail.
Given these differences, we generally recommend using Gmail for outreach campaigns for the following reasons:
- More gradual enforcement of sending limits
- Greater tolerance for properly warmed-up outreach campaigns
- Better deliverability rates for legitimate outreach
- More straightforward process for managing and monitoring campaign performance
- Easier integration with most outreach tools and CRMs
Whichever platform you choose, following these best practices will help maintain good deliverability:
- Properly warm up new email accounts before beginning outreach
- Maintain consistent sending patterns
- Personalize your messages
- Keep engagement rates high
- Follow all applicable email regulations (CAN-SPAM, GDPR, etc.)
- Use Amplemarket's warm-up feature to establish sender reputation
While both platforms can work effectively with Amplemarket, Gmail typically provides a more forgiving environment for email outreach campaigns, especially for teams new to email outreach or those sending higher volumes.