Send Business Emails & Newsletters? Know these Important Changes to Email Deliverability Rules

Don’t let your emails go into customer SPAM! Be sure you take these steps to ensure your emails get through.

Last October, both Yahoo! and Google announced they will be tightening up their bulk sender policies. The goal is to reduce the spam that hits our email inboxes from bulk email senders. To try to combat this, Yahoo! and Google (Gmail), will restrict unauthenticated email coming into their systems.

If you send bulk emails from your business to your customers or other email lists, YOUR emails may soon be blocked.

These new rules take effect in February 2024 (so, NOW). While these changes are intended to protect our email inboxes from spam, for many businesses these changes could also block the delivery of the legitimate emails they are sending out. It’s important for businesses to understand what this is all about to make sure their emails are compliant with the new rules so your emails continue to be delivered.

What are the New Email Requirements?

The following is adapted from “Changes to Email Deliverability Rules and How They Could Affect Your Business,” Zebralove Web Solutions.

“From” Email of Bulk Mailings Must be Authenticated

Authentication verifies that an email is coming from who it is claiming to come from (versus being spam or phishing). The current best practice for this is to make sure certain DNS records are in place behind the scenes of your website.

How do I know if my domain has these records?
Contact your website developer or hosting company to see if your domain DNS includes the required records.

Enable One-Click Unsubscribes

It’s SO annoying to go through multiple steps to unsubscribe from an email list. Well, Google and Yahoo! have caught onto our frustration. If you use email platforms like Constant Contact or MailChimp, another email/newsletter service you should be compliant. Contact their tech support if you are unsure.

Low Spam Score

There are certain email characteristics that are associated with spam or unsolicited emails. Suspicious domains and links have a significant influence on this score. Combat this by 1) never buying email lists, only send emails to your legitimate contacts; and  2) make sure you have an opt-in or other permission from an email before you add them to your promotional emails.

One of the best ways to stay in someone’s inbox is to make your emails worth reading.

Send Out Emails of Value

We send out a lot of email newsletters and other communications for clients through bulk email providers, so the last few weeks have been busy getting their website records updated to comply with these new rules. If it cuts down on spammy emails – I’m all for it!   

There’s a trick to designing and writing email marketing materials. They need to be designed so that they look legitimate, professional, and are branded for your business. If you want people to sign up and stay on your list, you have to include content that is valuable. Emails, even when you are promoting or selling something, should include information that is helpful, informative and useful.

If you need help with your email newsletter or digital promotional materials – we can help!

My colleague and web development partner, Zebralove Web Solutions, has a great explanation of these changes as well on their BLOG. They also offer web hosting, so if you’d like to work with a local web hosting company with terrific customer service (they do this type of update at no additional charge), reach out the them!