Do you send promotional emails? If yes, read on. Google and Yahoo! have introduced new rules for bulk email senders targeting Gmail and Yahoo! Mail users, effective February 1, 2024. Non-compliance may lead to spam marking or blocking.
Google Guidelines
Yahoo! Guidelines
Requirements in a Nutshell
For All Senders:
- Email Authentication: A crucial measure to prevent threat actors from domain spoofing, where cybercriminals send emails pretending to be your organisation.
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework): An authentication protocol preventing email spoofing, verifying if incoming emails are from an authorised IP address.
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): A protocol allowing organisations to take responsibility for messages by cryptographically signing them for provider verification.
- Low Spam Rates: Ensure recipients don’t mark your messages as spam above the 0.3% requirement to avoid blocking or spam folder placement.
Additional Requirements for Senders of Over 5,000 Messages Daily:
- SPF and DKIM Implementation: Companies sending to Gmail or Yahoo must use SPF and DKIM authentication methods.
- DMARC Policy: Implement Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance for domain-level email protection.
- DMARC Authentication: Detect and prevent email spoofing techniques used in phishing and other attacks.
- DMARC Alignment: Messages must align with DMARC, ensuring the Envelope From or DKIM domain matches the Header From domain.
- One-Click Unsubscribe: Include List-Unsubscribe headers and a visible unsubscribe link for easy, one-click unsubscribing. Respond to unsubscribe requests within two days.
Authenticate Your Emails
Ensure Gmail and Yahoo! Mail recognise your emails as legitimate. Set up three crucial records:
SPF: Identifies your servers and domains, verifying their ability to send emails for your company.
DKIM: A digital signature confirming the email’s origin from your organisation.
DMARC: Prevents email spoofing, guiding providers on handling emails failing SPF and DKIM.
Refer to your email platform’s instructions for creating SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records:
If your platform isn’t listed above, Google “[Your email platform] email authentication.”
Reduce Spam Complaints
Check past email spam complaint rates. If above 0.3%, urgently reduce it; below 0.1% is optimal.
Make Unsubscribing Easy
Follow the new rules: enable one-click unsubscribes. Users should effortlessly unsubscribe with a single link in the email. Process all unsubscribe requests within two days.
What happens if you miss the deadline?
If your company relies on email to communicate with your customers and you don’t implement email authentication, these changes are going to significantly impact the deliverability of your messages to customers with Gmail and Yahoo accounts. If you send over 5,000 emails to these accounts daily and fail to have SPF and DKIM, or don’t have a DMARC policy implemented, these non-deliveries will have an even greater impact on your business.
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