If you frequently send emails to your leads and clients, you should be aware of significant changes coming in February 2024 from both Google and Yahoo. These changes aim to enhance email safety, security, and relevance by controlling spam, phishing, and spoofing attempts. Additionally, they seek to safeguard the credibility and delivery success of legitimate email senders, including yourself.
To adapt to these evolving policies, you’ll need to follow a set of best practices:
- Email Authentication- Ensure the authenticity and integrity of your outgoing emails by employing SPF and DKIM protocols. Think of these as digital signatures that prove your identity and validate your message’s integrity.
- Implement a DMARC Policy- This policy dictates how receiving servers should handle unauthenticated or fraudulent emails from your domain. DMARC Policy allows you to specify whether to reject or quarantine such emails, preventing unauthorized senders from posing as you and harming your recipients.
- From: Headers- Maintain valid and consistent From: headers. These indicate the sender’s identity and email address. Ensure they match your domain, name, or brand for clarity.
| Do’s | Don’ts | |
| From: Headers | Use a valid and consistent email address matching your domain and name or brand (e.g., John Smith john@example.com). | Don’t use a generic or misleading email address or sender name (e.g., Gmail Team noreply@gmail.com). |
| Use a clear and recognizable sender name reflecting your identity or purpose (e.g., Newsletter from John Smith newsletter@example.com). | Don’t use different email addresses for each message. |
- Reply-to: Headers- Keep Reply-to: headers consistent with your domain, name, or brand, allowing recipients to reply to your messages with ease.
| Do’s | Don’ts | |
| Reply-to: Headers | Use a valid and consistent email address matching your domain and name or brand (e.g., John Smith john@example.com). | Don’t use an email address different from your From: header without a valid reason (e.g., John Smith john@gmail.com as your From: header and John Smith john@example.com as your Reply-to: header). |
| Use an email address capable of receiving and processing replies (e.g., Survey from John Smith survey@example.com) | Don’t use an invalid or unmonitored email address. |
- Return-path: Headers- Similar to the above, ensure that Return-path: headers also match your domain, name, or brand. These headers specify where bounce messages should be sent if your email cannot be delivered to some recipients.
| Do’s | Don’ts | |
| Return-path: Headers | Use a valid and consistent email address matching your domain and name or brand (e.g., John Smith john@example.com). | Don’t use an email address different from your From: header without a valid reason (e.g., John Smith john@gmail.com as your From: header and John Smith john@example.com as your Return-path: header). |
| Use an email address capable of receiving bounce messages (e.g., Newsletter from John Smith newsletter@example.com). | Don’t use an invalid or unmonitored email address. |
- List-id: Headers- If you use mailing lists or groups, maintain valid and consistent List-id: headers. These headers identify the list or group to which the message belongs and should align with your domain and list/group name.
| Do’s | Don’ts | |
| List-id: Headers | Use a valid and consistent identifier matching your domain and list or group name (e.g., Newsletter <newsletter.example.com>). | Don’t use a generic or vague identifier (e.g., List <list.example.com> or Group <group.example.com>). |
| Use an identifier clearly describing the purpose or topic of your list or group (e.g., Gardening Tips Newsletter <gardeningtips.example.com). | Don’t use an identifier different from your domain or list name. |
- Utilize ARC Headers- When forwarding email or using an inbound gateway, ARC headers help preserve the authentication results of the original sender, providing a transparent message history.
- Forward and Reverse DNS Records (PTR Records)- These records resolve your sending IP address to your domain name and vice versa, aiding server communication on the internet.
- Monitoring Tools- Monitor your email sending reputation and performance through tools like Google Postmaster Tools and Yahoo Complaint Feedback Loop. These tools assess how well you’re doing as an email sender, tracking delivery rates, open rates, spam reports, and abuse reports.
- Keep Spam Complaints Low- To maintain a positive sender reputation, send emails only to opt-in recipients, offer clear unsubscribe options, honor unsubscribe requests promptly, segment your email lists, and update your content regularly. These practices ensure that you respect your recipients’ preferences and don’t inundate them with unwanted or unsolicited email.
- Avoid Harmful Email- Avoid sending unwanted or unsolicited email, such as spam, phishing, malware, or adult content, as these types of emails can harm your recipients and violate their privacy and security.
By following these best practices, you can navigate the changing email landscape in 2024 and beyond with professionalism. This approach not only improves your chances of landing in recipients’ inboxes but also fosters trust and loyalty while growing your audience.
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