Yahoo and Gmail try their best to shield users from unsolicited and spam emails. They have decided it was about time to make email deliverability best practices as definite rules in 2024’s sender requirements. So, where does this leave you as a bulk email sender/marketer? Simply put, you must follow crucial best practices for email authentication and spam prevention to guarantee your emails reach your customers’ inboxes. Let’s see how you can do this.

Avoid Sending Marketing Emails from Default Domains

As of 1 February 2024, you can no longer continue sending your business emails from a @google.com or a @yahoo.com (I call them ‘default domains’) domain email address. This applies to both individuals and businesses. Though late, but done rightfully, Google and Yahoo, with this decision, have set the norm for businesses to own their registered domain names for sending marketing emails. This policy also guarantees that your personal email is no longer spammed with potentially malicious and spammy marketing emails if you’re a customer.

Ultimately, the only alternative to default domains you are left with is owning your own domain name. Conveniently, that’s exactly the next step we recommend.

Own a Brand/Personal Domain Based Email

Doing online business without a personal domain in 2024 will become harder for you. As far as buying a domain goes, you can always get it from popular sites like Namecheap.com and GoDaddy.com. Domain names come at various rates; generally, shorter domains are more expensive than longer ones. However, having a shorter domain name is always advised to keep yourself recognizable.

Owning a domain is not the end. You’ll also need at least one dedicated email (based on your newly bought domain name) for your marketing campaigns. Apart from serving as a name for your online business, it also provides added benefits for your brand visibility. To top it off, you must gradually increase the count of bulk emails to stay within the safe limits of email service providers like Google and Yahoo.

DMARC Verification

DMARC (Domain based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) policy is a protocol utilized by email servers to verify the authenticity of emails and safeguard domains against use. To ensure a DMARC policy, for your domain it is recommended to incorporate the “v=DMARC1” and “p=none” tags, which indicate the level of enforcement of the policy. Additionally it advises setting up an email address under the “tag to receive DMARC reports. This enables you to monitor email messages sent using your domain for any spoofing or phishing attempts. Although not currently mandatory, having a “rua” tag is advisable as it prepares your policy for any tightening of sender requirements by inbox providers. You also have the option to explore third-party tools to simplify the updating and management of your DMARC policies.

Match the Sending and the Root Domains

Though you are very likely to do this by default while setting up your website or domain, but in any case, do ensure that the root address of your marketing email is the same as your domain name. For instance, if you have a domain named ‘abc.com’, then some valid email addresses for your email sender accounts would be:

• info@abc.com
• send@abc.com
• Or, contact@abc.com

You have the freedom to choose the text before the ‘@’. However, when managing larger websites and business, pointed to by various domain names, this minute detail often gets overlooked. Hence, as a good practice, do ensure that you fulfill this mandatory requirement in 2024.

Let them Unsubscribe

To improve the user experience, Google and Yahoo have made it mandatory for business emails to provide an unsubscribe button to stop getting your emails. Now, here are two lessons to be learned. Firstly, it is ethically right to provide an option for users to opt-out. Secondly, you have to optimize the email frequency for your marketing campaign. Sending emails 3-4 times a week has been shown to give optimal results, though a more personalized email frequency, with modern email marketing tools, can help you level up your email effectiveness. 

Avoid Being ‘Spammy’

Perhaps the most important lesson in email marketing is to avoid being spammy. Remember, it is all about the frequency of your marketing emails that can make or break your marketing campaign. Spamming inboxes with marketing email is annoying for customers and is a big no-no for email service providers.