In early 2024 both Google and Yahoo enforced a new set of email sender requirements in order to ensure a “safer, less spammy inbox”. These changes apply to all senders that email Gmail and Yahoo addresses, but especially those that qualify as “bulk senders”. 

In a nutshell, the guidance requires senders to authenticate their emails, make unsubscribing even easier, and not exceed a reported spam rate. 

Luckily you probably already meet many of the new requirements as they’ve long been considered best practice for good email hygiene–but as for the rest, read on to assess your next steps.

1. Who do the email sender requirements affect?

a. Anyone that sends emails to recipients with inbox providers Gmail and Yahoo
b. Bulk senders, sending 5,000 or more emails per day to Gmail and Yahoo addresses (including transactional emails)

2. What changes do you need to make to meet the new sender requirements?

Everyone:

• Keep spam rates below 0.3%
• Keeping your spam rates low has always been crucial for good email deliverability. To reduce your spam rates you should: only email people who have consented to receive marketing emails, implement double opt-in and welcome emails, make it easy to unsubscribe, enabled global unsubscribes, avoid spammy language and content
• Don’t impersonate Gmail ‘From:’ headers 
• SPF and DKIM email authentication for your domain
• Ensure sending domains or IPs have valid forward and reverse records
• Format messages according to the Internet message format standard
• If you are a Klaviyo customer, the latter three requirements will be automatically enabled for you come February 2024

Bulk Senders:

• Set up DMARC email authentication for your sending domain - see Google's step by step instructions here
• Sender domain in ‘From:’ header must be aligned with either SPF or DKIM domain - and cannot be a shared domain (i.e. sent via klaviyomail.com)
• This step requires you set up a dedicated domain for sending bulk emails by creating a subdomain like send.yourdomain.com
• One-click unsubscribe and a clear visible unsubscribe link in message body
• Making it easy for your recipients to unsubscribe from marketing emails is already highly recommended.
  For one-click unsubscribe requirements Klaviyo will implement a “list unsubscribe header” for all marketing emails going to Gmail and Yahoo inboxes, so if you’re a Klaviyo customer you don’t need to do anything here

These new requirements needn’t be daunting - ultimately improving your email delivery and sender reputation by complying will only benefit your business (and I’m sure each of us as consumers will appreciate getting less spam!).

What Can Mucky Puddle Do For You?

We are a full service marketing agency in Glasgow, specialising in email marketing, web development and more. Whatever you need to do to meet the new sender requirements–whether that’s adjusting your email marketing strategy to reduce your spam complaint or coordinating technical updates to authenticate your domain–our expert team of web developers, digital marketers and technical specialists are on hand to make the process as effortless as possible. 

Contact us today to go through 2024 with a glowing sender reputation and engaged email marketing audience.

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Further Reading

Klaviyo, How to meet Google and Yahoo's email sender requirements in 2024, Accessed 06/12/2023
https://academy.klaviyo.com/2024-new-sender-requirements-checklist/1817230

Google, New Gmail protections for a safer, less spammy inbox, Accessed on 29/11/2023
https://blog.google/products/gmail/gmail-security-authentication-spam-protection/

Postmaster @ Yahoo & AOL, More Secure, Less Spam: Enforcing Email Standards for a Better Experience, Accessed on 29/11/2023
https://blog.postmaster.yahooinc.com/post/730172167494483968/more-secure-less-spam