Last week, both Google and Yahoo made announcements outlining new requirements for email senders. Starting in February 2024, these new requirements will affect those sending 5,000 messages per day or more, which is approximately 150,000 messages per month.
With an eye towards increasing protections for Gmail and Yahoo!/AOL Mail users against phishing attacks, other email scams, and spam in general, these requirements mean that some email marketers & senders will need to make changes, and in general anyone meeting this sending threshold should take the time to review current sending practices.
What was announced?
Starting in February 2024, both Google and Yahoo!/AOL will require email senders to do the following:
- Authenticate your email: Senders will be required to authenticate their emails following well-established best practices, most notably signing DKIM for their “from” domain.
If you’re not familiar with DKIM, it’s an authentication method that signals to the inbox providers that an email coming from your domain can be trusted, i.e. you are who you say you are. DKIM makes it more difficult to spoof an email address, a common tactic in phishing attacks.
As part of our onboarding of new customers, the setup of DKIM is already a requirement, so we have you covered.
If you’d like to learn more about email authentication, you can check out this SMTP blog post.
- Offer an effortless unsubscribe experience. Commonly known as a “one-click” unsubscribe, this is intended to remove the high-friction unsubscribe experience; often requiring multiple steps to confirm you actually want to stop receiving emails. Starting in February, not only will senders have to enable one-click unsubscribe, those requests will need to be processed within two days.
Bonus Tip: For added benefit, consider including a list-unsubscribe header, which allows Gmail, Yahoo!/AOL and other providers to add an unsubscribe link to the top of your email messages. See the example below:
- Ensure your emails are wanted. While it seems obvious enough, there are a number of reasons that a willing subscriber may become less receptive to your emails – sending too frequently, less relevant content or offers, etc.
While many will simply unsubscribe, some do become frustrated enough to make a spam complaint. While this is never a good thing, this action will soon be watched even more stringently.
Gmail and Yahoo!/AOL will require senders to stay under a 0.30% spam rate threshold, and ideally they want to see you below 0.10%. While this may mean some extra diligence on your part, the best practices that contribute to having a good sending reputation are the same as they’ve always been.
What can I do to be ready?
Aside from making sure you meet the announced requirements, a review of your current metrics (email engagement, bounce rates, unsubscribe rates and spam complaint rates), and your sender score is a good first step to take.
This is also a good opportunity to review your overall email sending practices. Among those to consider are:
- Is it easy to opt in? A clear opt-in process, along with transparent language that communicates what a new subscriber will receive, helps set the right tone for engagement from the start.
- Are you sending a confirmation email? Easily achieved with a simple auto responder, sending a “thank you for subscribing” message confirms that someone is subscribed, and it’s another opportunity to remind them what to expect going forward – type of content, frequency, and so on.
- Are your lists clean? Routinely validate the email addresses in your lists by using a service like SMTP’s Reputation Defender. Too many hard bounces will have an effect on your sender reputation, so this simple step can save you from future sending issues.
- Where in the world are you sending? Where your subscribers and customers are located matters, as you will need to be compliant with legislation like CAN-SPAM, GDPR, CCPA and other laws depending on the countries you send to. Make sure you understand the basics related to opt-ins, unsubscribe requests, and handling of data at minimum.
A note for our SMTP customers
With almost 20 years in the industry, we’re used to adapting to change, and on a daily basis we routinely work with you to help you establish and maintain a good sending reputation.
Since the announcement, our deliverability team has been communicating with Gmail and Yahoo! to better understand the potential impacts. You can expect to hear from us very soon with guidance on how you can be ready to meet these new requirements, and as always our support and deliverability teams will be there to help as needed.
Added protection for end users against increasingly more sophisticated phishing attacks and email scams is a good thing, and should increase trust of the legitimate senders who land in the inbox. That being said, any change comes with some adjustments, and we’re here to help you be ready to continue delivering great results with your email sending.
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