Mastering Email Compliance in 2024: A Simplified Guide for Regional Businesses

Navigating the Shift in Email Compliance

Your emails are landing in the spam folder, right? Well if they are, you’re not alone. At the start of February Google and Yahoo shifted the goalposts for email compliance, resulting in far more business emails landing in the dreaded spam folder.

If you've found yourself scratching your head over Google and Yahoo's latest email requirements, you're not alone. Many of us have been left wondering how to adapt email processes to ensure our messages still land in the inbox. But here's the good news: understanding and navigating these changes can be straightforward.

So let’s walk through it, step by step.

Understanding the 2024 Email Sender Requirements

Starting in February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo have implemented new rules that impact bulk sending of emails (think your email newsletter, etc).

In short, both email providers have defined several key checks to ensure that email is authentic and to reduce phishing and spam. Sounds great right?

Well, the issue is that if your email doesn’t pass those checks then Google and Yahoo will either dump your email straight in spam, or not deliver it at all.

And considering that Google and Yahoo power something like 75% of email addresses in Australia, this might mean that three quarters of the emails you are sending aren’t even landing in the inbox. Ouch!

In simple terms the three things that have changed are:

• Email authentication is now required using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for all bulk senders
• One-click unsubscribe is mandatory to help readers easily opt out of unwanted emails
• A spam-rate threshold (as low as 0.3%) will be enforced.

Let’s use that last point as an example… if you send 1,000 emails and 3 of your readers mark that email as spam, then Gmail will simply block the rest of your emails from being delivered until you can fix/repair your spam complaint rate.

Of course, these new standards are actually a good thing. The amount of spam that all of us are receiving should reduce dramatically. But it does mean that you need to ensure your business email hygiene is top notch.

If you’re interested in learning a little more about these requirements you should check:

• Google - New Gmail protections for a safer, less spammy inbox
• Yahoo - Sender Requirements & Recommendations

Step-by-Step Guide to Compliance

1. Authenticate your email

Have you ever received an email saying it was from your bank… when you knew (deep down) that it wasn’t? It’s referred to as spoofing, and it’s relatively easy to do.

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are authentication protocols that help manage this, and require you to authenticate individual senders (such as Outlook, or Mailchimp) to be able to send emails on behalf of your email address.

Let’s imagine that you send me an email through Mailchimp. When my Gmail account receives the email, Gmail quickly checks your domain to ensure that Mailchimp is allowed to send emails on your behalf. If it can’t find a legitimate SPF, DKIM and/or DMARC record at your domain it will drop the email straight in my spam.

So, authenticating your senders with valid SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records is critical in ensuring your emails land in people’s inbox.

2. Support easy unsubscribe

It might seem counterintuitive, but making it easy for readers to say goodbye is actually a good thing. It’s about showing respect for your audience's choices and, in turn, ensuring that those who stay are genuinely interested in what you have to say.

So, the best practice here is to ensure you have a one-click unsubscribe link in all your bulk emails. Large senders (like Mailchimp) may already be doing this, but it is still necessary to check that you have this feature turned on.

3. Keep spam complaint rates low

No business likes their email to be labelled as spam. Sometimes it happens when the reader doesn’t remember when/why they signed up to hear from you in the first place, or maybe your emails just aren’t filled with the same value that your readers expect. (Of course, you never added someone to your email list without their permission either).

But it happens. It’s unlikely that your spam rating will be a perfect zero at all times.

But the issue is that the threshold that Gmail and Yahoo are enforcing is really low… like 0.3%. As mentioned earlier, that’s only 3 people out of 1,000 marking your email as spam.

So, sending fantastic, value-filled emails is absolutely the best practice going forward.

In the meantime, you can sign up for a free Google Postmaster account or Yahoo Complaint Feedback Loop account to keep tabs on your Spam Rating.

4. Remove Invalid Recipients

This is just good hygiene, but it will massively help with keeping your spam rates low too.

Check your email database. Look for anyone who has not opened or engaged with your emails in a long time, check for any recipients who have resulted in a soft or hard bounce (email not valid anymore, etc)… and delete them from your list entirely.

You’ll be left with a curated email database of people who genuinely engage with your emails (and are unlikely to mark your emails as spam).

5. Comply with RFCs 5321 and 5322

While most email marketing apps take care of this behind the scenes, there are actually standards about how your subject line, message, attachments, and email address are coded in your email.

The standards are pretty dry reading (as an example, did you know that the standards outline a line length limit of 998 characters, and that if your email is formatted in a way that allows >1000 characters in a line it just won't be delivered).

Point is, your email sender needs to conform to these standards or your emails won’t be delivered.

6. Have a valid forward and reverse DNS record for your sending IPs

Your email marketing app may be doing this for you already, but it’s important to check.

In simple terms, a Reverse DNS associates an IP address with your domain name, to help verify that emails are coming from a reputable source.

7. Ensure mail servers are secure

So you know that having an SSL Certificate is important for your website (that little padlock in the top corner when you visit your website), right? And that sites that don’t have that little padlock often show a message saying “this website is insecure, they might be trying to steal your information” (or similar).

Well, setting up TLS (Transport Layer Security) and ensuring that your SSL is covering your mail server are equally important in ensuring that your email is passed securely, and it’s a critical check that Google and Yahoo are looking for when delivering your email.

Don’t let email compliance scare you!

To be honest, all these checks and balances have been best practice for a long time. If you’ve been successfully sending bulk emails to your database in the past then chances are you’re already doing most of it already.

But, if email deliverability is something that’s important to you it’s absolutely time to do a quick audit and double check that you’re definitely ticking off each of the items above. The alternative is clear… Google and Yahoo just won’t deliver your emails if you aren’t ticking EVERY item off properly.

And at the end of the day, these changes are a good thing as we’ll all benefit from fewer spam emails hitting our inbox!