Starting in February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo plan to enforce new sender requirements. These measures aim to protect users' inboxes from spam more effectively while ensuring legitimate emails are received.
To ensure your emails reach your audience's inbox, you'll need to comply with the new sender requirements that we will list below.
We're offering free account reviews to all businesses who want to make sure they are complying with the new 2024 email requirements.
Who Do The New Sender Requirements Affect?
If you’re sending messages to anyone using a Gmail, Googlemail, Yahoo or Google Workspace address, you’ll need to follow these requirements.
In the UK and US, over 50% of businesses now use Google Workspace, with a total of 3 Billion users worldwide. To put it simply, if you are not complying with these new regulations then there is an extremely high chance your emails will no longer even make the inbox.
Additionally, if you’re sending more than 5,000 emails a day, you’ll have to follow a couple of extra bulk sender requirements. We’ll point out which ones in the section below.
What Are The Requirements For All Senders?
There are three main requirements that all senders should comply with:
Set up DKIM Email Authentication for your Domain
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is a protocol that allows an organisation to take responsibility for transmitting a message by signing it in a way that mailbox providers can verify. Implementing this email authentication technology is one of the best ways to protect your employees and customers from targeted email attacks.
Set up SPF Email Authentication
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is used to authenticate the sender of an email. With an SPF record in place, Internet Service Providers can verify that a mail server is authorised to send email for a specific domain. An SPF record is a DNS TXT record containing a list of the IP addresses that are allowed to send email on behalf of your domain.
Maintain Spam Rates Under 0.3% in Postmaster Tools
You will need to keep your spam complaint rate under 0.3% as per Gmail's Postmaster Tools. If your spam complaints exceed 0.3% regularly, your emails will likely be delivered to the spam folder with a slim chance of returning to the inbox.
If you haven't created your Google Postmaster Tools account, we recommend doing so. You can view your spam complaint rate from Google email addresses and other valuable data there. Additionally, you should monitor your complaint rates from Yahoo, Microsoft, and other email addresses by examining your email campaign statistics.
Recommended: Using A Dedicated IP For Email Newsletters
Having a dedicated IP means that you are the only one responsible for its reputation. This is important because one of the major factors in determining what emails land in the inbox, without being blocked or filtered, is the reputation of the IP address sending it.
All email sender providers will have the option for using a dedicated IP Address, but be aware that the price may vary.
Extra Requirements For Over 5.000 Emails Per Day
If you send more than 5.000 emails per day, you will have to comply with these two extra requirements:
Set up DMARC Email Authentication for your Sending Domain
DMARC is an email authentication method that extends SPF and DKIM. It instructs mailbox providers on how to handle emails that fail the SPF, DKIM, or both checks and claim to be from your domain, potentially indicating spoofing.
DMARC benefits businesses by providing another layer of protection that guards against attacks like impersonation fraud, where an attacker uses a legitimate domain to send a fraudulent message.
Align your Sending Domain with your SPF or DKIM Domain
The email address you use to send emails needs to align with the domain you authenticated with SPF or DKIM. This alignment ensures that the DKIM and/or SPF signatures on your emails match the domain authenticated in your email account.
For example, if you authenticate the domain 'mycompany.com', you should send your emails from email addresses such as 'abby@mycompany.com' or 'james@news.mycompany.com'.
Other Requirements Already Completed By Your Email Provider
Valid DNS Record
All major email providers ensure sending domains or IPs have valid forward and reverse DNS records (PTR records).
Correct Email Format
All major email providers already format emails according to the Internet Message Format standard (RFC 5322).
Option To Unsubscribe
All major email providers already support one-click unsubscribe and includes a visible unsubscribe link in marketing and subscribed emails. In most cases, this can be found in the footer of the email.
For a deeper dive into Google and Yahoo's new sender requirements, refer to Google's email sender guidelines and Yahoo's sender best practices.
Your commitment to meeting these requirements ensures continued success in delivering impactful emails to your audience.