Youbee Media proudly works alongside chosen experts to strengthen the support we’re able to offer clients. We were recently introduced to Dale Meyers, by Anna Short from Boo! Marketing. Dale heads up Incondite Media and is a fully certified Mailchimp expert and partner. With over 8 years experience in email marketing, Dale knows everything there is to know about Mailchimp and getting the most out of your email campaigns.
Anna Short says:
“Dale at Incondite has a simple approach from beginning to end which makes it really easy to have him support me on client work / projects.”
We asked Dale to share some information with our audience about the latest Gmail and Yahoo rules, and let us know how this will impact email marketing for businesses.
Stay out of Spam
Starting in February 2024, Google and Yahoo are bringing in new sending requirements to help protect inboxes from spam and unsafe emails. These practices aim to create a safer, more enjoyable experience for Gmail and Yahoo email users.
For senders, these new requirements can seem daunting at first. To help ensure your email campaigns stay out of spam, we’ll go through the steps you need to take to boost and maintain your inbox reach.
If you send more than 5,000 emails in one day to Google and Yahoo email addresses, you must:
- Authenticate your emails.
- Enable easy unsubscription.
- Maintain a low spam rate.
Following these steps will help you to stay compliant, and improve your email hygiene. Let’s get started with the changes you need to make to have your emails land in the inbox.
Step 1: Authenticate your emails
Email authentication helps ensure that an email sent from your domain is legitimate and not being exploited by attackers. To be compliant, you need to authenticate your emails using security protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
- Sender Policy Framework (SPF) allows you to specify the IP addresses or domains that can send emails on your behalf.
- DomainKeys Identified Email (DKIM) is a standard that lets you add a digital signature to the emails you send. This allows email providers like Yahoo and Gmail to verify that an email came from you.
- Domain-Based Messaging Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) is a security protocol that aligns your SPF and DKIM policies and defines how mailbox providers should handle an email that fails an authentication check.
You can add these security protocols to your domain by updating your DNS settings with your domain provider (i.e. GoDaddy).
Bonus tip: Be sure to align your sender email with your domain. For example, if your sending domain is “example.co.uk”, your sender email should be [XXXX]@example.co.uk.
Step 2: Enable one-click unsubscription
The new email deliverability rules require you to implement a one-click list-unsubscribe, and process unsubscribes within two days.
If you’re a Mailchimp user, they will take care of this for you!
Making it easy for someone to unsubscribe might sound counterintuitive, but recipients should be receiving your emails because they want to. Not because they can’t find the tiny unsubscribe button hidden in your emails.
Step 3: Maintain a low Spam rate
Spam complaints are used by mailbox providers to determine how trustworthy a sender is. The more complaints you receive, the more likely your emails will land in the junk folder.
From February 2024, Google and Yahoo will enforce a clear spam rate threshold of 0.3% that senders must stay under to ensure recipients aren’t bombarded with unwanted messages, meaning three complaints for every 1,000 emails.
To maintain healthy email deliverability, you must:
- Avoid emailing people without permission, and never purchase email lists.
- Create targeted segments to help send relevant content.
- Include a visible unsubscribe link in every email you send.
- Remove subscribers who haven’t engaged with your email campaigns in over 3 months.
If you have further questions regarding the new sending requirements, or email related queries, head to Dale's website, www.incondite.co.uk for further information.
Similarly, if you'd like to find out more about how you can incorporate email marketing into your marketing strategy, get in touch with our team onhello@youbeemedia.co.uk. Youbee Media provides marketing consultancy, Workshops, and ongoing social media management to support your growth.
