How to Master Google's & Yahoo's New Email Sender Requirements
JAN 2024
By Caitlin Elgin
By now - hopefully! - you've heard that Google and Yahoo are introducing some new sender requirements in February of 2024. While a lot of the requirements may sound overwhelmingly technical, the good news is it's likely you're already meeting most of their requirements if you are following healthy sending and segmentation practices. Here's a look at what the changes are and how you can prepare for them.
Who's Impacted?
All senders, but especially those sending 5k or more emails per day - including transactional emails.
What are the requirements?
Set up DMARC authentication for your sending domain.
DMARC authentication is part of your website's domain settings and helps servers identify your email address as a legitimate sender. In order to meet Google's new requirements, your root domain settings will need to be configured with a DMARC policy record containing p=none.
Use a tool like DMARCian or ValiMail to check if you have the appropriate DMARC record in place. If not, you'll need to edit your website's domain settings via your domain host.
Make sure your "from" address matches your sending domain.
Not only is it no longer recommended to use a shared sending domain, emails coming from your dedicated domain must come from an email address that matches the root sending domain. For example, if you are sending from yourbrand.com your sender email address should include the same domain, such as hello@yourbrand.com. Most brands should already be on a dedicated sending domain (we can help with a strategy to set one up if you're not!), but now is a good time to review your "from" address settings.
Make unsubscribing extra-accessible.
Gmail will be requiring every email to have a one-click unsubscribe link to make it easier for people to opt out of messages. Klaviyo will be automatically applying this feature to your emails - but you'll still need to check that there's at least one visible unsubscribe link somewhere in your messages.
Maintain healthy sending practices.
Google will have stricter requirements for spam complaints going forward - you'll need to keep your spam rate under 0.30%. The good news is most brands are well within this range if you are already following good sending practices.
When should I start?
As soon as possible! New policies officially roll out in February, so it's a good idea to start getting ahead of it.
Need help? We're here for you! Contact us at hello@fluencyfirm.com to get started.
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