Marketers’ Guide To Inboxing In 2024: Meet And Beat The New Sender Requirements

Google and Yahoo are shaking up the email marketing game, and it’s time to get in on the action.

The inbox landscape is about to undergo a makeover, with new sender requirements rolling out early next year. Although the two email giants have come forward with a list of standards for bulk senders (more than 5000 emails per day) , the following three require more effort to achieve:

• Implement email authentication
• Provide one-click unsubscribing
• Keep spam rate below 0.3%

While the official commencement of these requirements is set for February 1, 2024, at EasyDMARC, we strongly recommend getting started as soon as possible and having things done before the due date.

Why are these standards mandated?

Google and Yahoo have designed these requirements to ensure that recipients receive relevant, wanted content while minimizing the intrusion of spam.

What happens if you miss the deadline?

Missing the memo on these new standards could mean your campaigns end up in the black hole of spam. Non-compliance may also lead to damaged sender reputation and even domain or IP address blacklisting.

In this guide, we’ll explore the impact of these new requirements on your marketing campaigns and provide actionable insights to meet and beat these standards.

Implement Email Authentication

Email authentication with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is the first line of defense against spam since it verifies that the sender is who they claim to be. It’s your own special pass to the VIP section of the inbox.

Here is a video explaining in simple terms what these protocols mean and how they defend against spam.

Implementing email authentication protocols requires technical knowledge, such as domain management and DNS record configuration. Therefore, complying with this point of the new sender guidelines might require cross-functional collaboration with your company’s IT department. However, if you’d like to tackle this task yourself, EasyDMARC has a rich Knowledge Base of articles and guides you can use.

Make It Easy To Unsubscribe

Google and Yahoo now require bulk senders to give recipients the ability to unsubscribe from commercial emails with a single click.

This one-click exit strategy also works in your favor since making unsubscribing as simple as possible for your recipients boosts open rates, clicks, and sending effectiveness. It’s very easy to do when you’re using email marketing platforms like Sendgrid and Mailchimp. Even if you forget about it, they will automatically add the ‘unsubscribe’ button to your emails.

But another challenging factor is to ensure your recipients opt in to get messages from you. And it’s not only just adding a custom field in your forms. You also need to:

• Ensure recipients subscribe to your messages by confirming each recipient’s email address before you send them a message.
• Send messages on a regular basis to make sure recipients want to remain subscribed.
• Unsubscribe recipients who do not respond to or open your messages.

Rethink About Spam

Achieving the required 0.3% spam complaint rate demands a strategic approach. Traditional cold email techniques won’t cut it. Even with two different email verification tools and cleaning mailing lists with up to 90% accuracy, email marketers find around 5% of the emails in their cold email campaigns are blocked, bounced, and landed spam.

Transactional emails offer a more favorable landscape, but even then, advanced list hygiene and behavior segmentation are crucial.

In the recent 2-3 decades, the word ‘spam’ has become synonymous with unsolicited and often intrusive messages.

Google and Yahoo require you to send emails your recipients want, which means sending more informative rather than selling content. Spam words cannot be avoided when selling, so limit them and monitor them more closely.

Moreover, monitoring your email campaigns more closely is a proactive step in ensuring compliance with evolving standards. Regularly review your messaging strategy, keeping a keen eye on industry trends and platform updates that may impact the way emails are processed. This not only enhances deliverability but also helps maintain a positive sender reputation, ultimately ensuring that your messages reach the intended audience.

And yes, Postmaster tools are very important for tracking why your emails might not be delivered and when recipients mark your emails as spam, but content is king. So, be human-readable and human-friendly in every email, and you’ll see increased results daily.

Meet The New Requirements With EasyDMARC 

If you find yourself overwhelmed looking at the list of requirements and don’t know where to start, we’ve got you covered. Here’s how EasyDMARC will assist you in meeting and beating the new sender requirements:

Guidance

We understand that implementing email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC require technical expertise. That’s why we offer all the necessary resources and provide step-by-step instructions and insights to help you navigate the process. 

Easy Implementation

Our platform lets you set up your records in a few clicks, as well as manage and configure DNS changes immediately from your EasyDMARC dashboard.

Smooth DMARC Enforcement

Our comprehensive report analyzer allows you to easily identify your legitimate sending sources and reach your email authentication goals.

Smart Monitoring and Alerting

Through our platform, you can continuously monitor, analyze, and gain full visibility into your email channels. You’ll get alerts on broken records and potential domain abuse, ensuring your email authentication mechanisms are up to date.

Get in touch with us today to ensure you comply with the new standards well ahead of the February 2024 deadline.