How can healthcare organizations effectively manage graymail

Graymail refers to emails you opted into receiving but no longer find valuable or relevant. These are the newsletters you signed up for during a website checkout, promotional emails from brands you once purchased from, social media notifications, daily deals, and subscription updates.

Researchers Wen-tau Yih, Robert McCann, and Aleksander Kołcz from Microsoft formally define gray mail as "messages that could reasonably be considered either spam or good.” Their research also reveals that an estimated two-thirds of email users prefer to receive unsolicited commercial email from senders they've done business with, while one-third consider it spam, showing how subjective graymail classification can be.

The challenge with graymail is that it's not quite bad enough to delete immediately, yet not important enough to read. This leads many people to let these messages accumulate, creating inbox bloat that makes it harder to find important emails. Research published in "Shades of Gray: A Closer Look at Emails in the Gray Area" reveals this issue, noting that newsletters and automated notifications account for 42% of messages in user inboxes, representing a drain on productivity and attention.

Academic research published in "Personalized Spam Filtering for Gray Mail" reveals that studies analyzing large email datasets found that a considerable percentage of campaign-style emails fall into the gray mail category, with users showing inconsistent labeling patterns for identical messages. The research notes that it's common for users to report newsletters as spam rather than unsubscribing, even when they had previously signed up to receive those communications.

Read also: What is graymail?

The cost of ignoring graymail

The "Personalized Spam Filtering for Gray Mail" study states that even optimized spam filters perform poorly on gray mail because these messages come from legitimate sources and don't trigger traditional spam indicators. The research found that identical marketing messages sent to multiple recipients often receive inconsistent classifications, some users mark them as spam while others consider them legitimate.

Research from "Shades of Gray: A Closer Look at Emails in the Gray Area" states that gray emails are responsible for 75% of all spam complaints. The study also found that users regularly check their spam folders to verify that no important messages have been misclassified by antispam filters, turning inbox management into a time-consuming daily task.

Strategies for managing graymail

Conduct audits

Scroll through your inbox and identify patterns. Which companies email you most frequently? Which newsletters have you never opened? Which notifications do you actually need? This audit will reveal where your graymail is coming from and help you prioritize your cleanup efforts.

Unsubscribe 

The most effective long-term solution for graymail is to stop it at the source. Most legitimate marketing emails include an unsubscribe link at the bottom. For stubborn cases where unsubscribing doesn't work, use your email client's filtering options to automatically delete or archive messages from that sender. Most email providers also have "report spam" functions that, when used on persistent graymail, can help train their filters to better recognize unwanted content.

Research from "Shades of Gray: A Closer Look at Emails in the Gray Area" reveals that only about half of legitimate bulk email campaigns include the unsubscribe header, which may explain why managing subscriptions can sometimes be challenging. However, despite mailboxes being overloaded, consumers still read 18% of subscribed marketing emails and continue to sign up for email offers and mailing lists, suggesting that selective subscription management is more effective than blanket unsubscribing.

Create filters and rules

Create rules that automatically route newsletters, promotional emails, and notifications into dedicated folders. For example, you might have a "Newsletters" folder for content you want to read during downtime, a "Promotions" folder for shopping deals, and a "Social" folder for social media updates.

Adjust your notification settings

Much graymail originates from apps and services that notify you about updates. Visit each service's settings and customize which events actually trigger an email. Most platforms allow granular control where you can receive emails about direct messages but not likes, or about major account changes but not daily activity summaries.

Adopt better signup habits

Before providing your email address, ask yourself if you'll read and value the content. Consider using a secondary email address specifically for newsletters and promotional content, keeping your primary address reserved for important professional communication.

Maintaining your clean inbox

Schedule a monthly or quarterly inbox review to identify new sources of graymail and unsubscribe accordingly. The "Personalized Spam Filtering for Gray Mail" study emphasizes that effective graymail management requires understanding individual user preferences, as what one person considers valuable content another may view as clutter. 

Read also: Inbound Email Security

FAQs

How is graymail different from spam?

Graymail comes from legitimate senders you once interacted with, while spam is unsolicited and often malicious.

Why is graymail a bigger issue for healthcare organizations than regular businesses?

Healthcare staff rely on email for patient communication, so cluttered inboxes increase the risk of missing urgent or sensitive messages.

Can graymail pose a cybersecurity risk?

Yes, graymail can hide phishing attempts or lead to unsafe links if staff are desensitized by large volumes of promotional emails.

How can healthcare compliance policies address graymail?

Organizations can include graymail management in email retention and data privacy policies to reduce clutter without violating record-keeping rules.

Should employees be trained specifically on graymail management?

Yes, awareness training helps staff recognize and handle graymail efficiently, reducing time wasted on unnecessary emails.