The 2024 marked a significant turning point in the world of email communication. In this crucial year, Google and Yahoo introduced new requirements for email senders, particularly for bulk senders who send large volumes. These measures, aimed at combating spam and phishing, have transformed email authentication and deliverability best practices into mandatory requirements.
Meeting these requirements is not just about compliance; it is an opportunity to demonstrate to Mailbox Providers and your recipients that you are a reliable sender. This will not only protect your reputation but also ensure that your emails actually reach your recipients, avoiding the risk of being classified as spam or, worse, not delivered at all.
In this article, we will delve into the main requirements set by Google and Yahoo, offering practical advice to ensure you are always in line with the new rules.
Why these new requirements?
Google and Yahoo engage in a daily battle to protect their users' inboxes from spam and phishing, delivering only emails that users genuinely want to receive.
In this regard, they state:
Neil Kumaran - Group Product Manager of Gmail Security & Trust
Marcel Becker - Sr Director of Product Management at Yahoo
The new requirements are introduced with the goal of making users' inboxes even more secure and free from any abuse. They represent a cornerstone for distinguishing good and reliable senders from spammers, keeping the latter's emails at bay.
Best practices become must-have
If you work in email marketing, you already know there are specific essential best practices for Deliverability and Brand Protection. Gmail and Yahoo have turned these guidelines into indispensable requirements.
But don't worry! This is great news. The requirements are indeed a plus for both senders and recipients. And very likely, many of them are already checked for you without you even knowing it!
Who are the requirements for?
For all senders – especially bulk senders.
Google and Yahoo have introduced essential requirements for all senders and some extras for bulk senders. Who are bulk senders? Those who send more than 5,000 emails in a day.
Want to know if you are a bulk sender? Here's a simple guide to understanding it:
- Identify the sending domain, the domain of the sender's email address for your email communications
- Identify all sender email addresses on this domain that you use for your email communications, from any sending system, not just Magnews
- For each email address, calculate:
- how many emails it sends in a day to Gmail contacts (with domain gmail.com and googlemail.com)
- how many emails it sends per day to Yahoo! and Aol contacts (with domain yahoo.*, aol.com, rogers.com, sky.com, verizon.net, y7mail.com);
If the total emails sent in a day to Gmail or Yahoo contacts exceed 5,000, then you are officially a bulk sender.
Requirements for bulk senders
Configure DMARC for the sending domain
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is an email authentication technology designed to protect domains from spoofing, an attack where malicious actors use domains of known organizations and brands to send spam, phishing, or other fraudulent emails.
Implementing DMARC offers numerous benefits:
- Domain protection: enables you to defend your domain from spoofing and phishing
- Security for users: reduces the risk of users receiving fraudulent emails
- Strengthening domain and brand reputation: enhances user trust in email communications
- Improved deliverability: increases the likelihood that emails are correctly delivered to their recipients, reducing the risk of being classified as spam or blocked
Gmail and Yahoo require that for the sending domain (the domain of the "From" visible to the final recipient), there is a valid DMARC record, with policy at least at "none".
The minimum required configuration is:
v=DMARC1; p=none
Note that this configuration is just the starting point and does not provide complete protection against misuse of your domain. If your domain already has a DMARC record configured, it's not necessary to modify it unless you intend to optimize the current configuration.
Don’t know if your sending domain already publishes a DMARC record? Verify it with DMARC ADVISOR.
Our team of experts is available to assist you in configuring and optimizing DMARC for your domain. Contact your sales representative for more information.
Meet DMARC alignment
DMARC alignment must be met through DKIM alignment and/or SPF alignment (both recommended):
- DKIM alignment: achieved when the sending domain matches the domain certified with DKIM. In Magnews, achieve this alignment by configuring DKIM for your sending domain.
- SPF alignment: achieved when the sending domain is aligned with the technical sending domain, technically known as the Return-Path, Envelope Sender, Mailfrom domain, for which the SPF record is configured. The technical sending domain may match or be a subdomain of the sending domain. In Magnews, you can achieve this alignment by customizing the technical sending domain.
Enable easy user unsubscription
If a user no longer wants your emails, you must make it easy for them to say stop, otherwise, you risk them marking it as spam. A simple gesture, but with a very negative effect on your reputation as a sender and on future email delivery.
For this reason, email communications must:
- contain a clearly visible and functional unsubscribe link in the email body
-
support one-click list unsubscribe: a feature that adds an additional unsubscribe link in the email client, allowing the user to unsubscribe with a single click. The good news? Magnews handles this for you!
Depending on the email client used, the unsubscribe link may appear differently, but on Gmail, for example, it will appear like this.
Requirements valid for all senders
There are requirements that all senders must meet.
Keep the spam complaint rate low
If you send emails, you have a great responsibility: ensuring that your contacts receive only what they want to read. It is crucial to maintain their interest and, above all, avoid them clicking the "Report as spam" button. Spam complaints can damage your reputation and compromise your email delivery.
Gmail and Yahoo establish that the spam complaint rate must remain below 0.1% and never exceed 0.3%.
How can you monitor this rate?
- For Gmail: using Google Postmaster Tools.
- For Yahoo: accessing Magnews and consulting the summary report of communications or journeys.
Do not use Gmail and Yahoo email addresses as "From"
If you use a @gmail or @yahoo email address as the sender to send emails from Magnews, or from any other system that is not Gmail or Yahoo, your emails may end up as spam or not be delivered at all.
This happens because Gmail and Yahoo have adopted stricter rules to ensure the security of emails sent with their free addresses.
To avoid email delivery issues, Magnews prevents the use of free email addresses like @gmail and @yahoo, as well as other providers like @hotmail, @outlook, @libero.
The sending email address of your communications should lead contacts back to your brand so they are more confident and incentivized to open them:
- Set as sending and reply-to email address an existing monitored mailbox to receive and manage any requests from your contacts
- The domain of the sending email address should match the domain of your brand/organization or its subdomain
- Configure DKIM and DMARC for the domain of the sending email address, the sending domain
Other requirements guaranteed by Magnews
Lastly, but no less important, we present other fundamental technical requirements already guaranteed by Magnews:
- SPF and DKIM authentication for the Return-Path domain, which we call the technical sending domain
- PTR record for sending IPs
- A record for the Return-Path domain
- Emails must be formatted according to the standard for the format of internet messages (RFC 5322)
- One-click list unsubscribe, a feature that allows users to unsubscribe from emails with one click on a button, without the need for further intermediate steps. Learn more about List-unsubscribe headers: RFC 2369 and RFC 8058.
What happens if you do not meet the requirements?
The emails you send will be classified as spam or worse, blocked and not delivered to your contacts.
In Magnews, undelivered emails are recorded as "Soft bounce", and you can analyze them via the report Bounce Analysis available for all sent communications.
What you need to do, in summary, to be compliant
To ensure the proper delivery of your emails to the recipients:
- correctly configure DKIM and DMARC for your sending domain
- send only to contacts who have consented and want to receive your communications
- maintain spam complaint rate below 0.1%
- allow easy unsubscription
- follow the best practices of email marketing and deliverability