Gmail's New Requirements for Delivering Your Emails to the Inbox in 2024
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Email deliverability heavily depends on the new requirements set by email providers such as Gmail and Yahoo. These providers will introduce new requirements in early 2024 regarding email authentication, unsubscribing, and complaint rates. These changes are generating a lot of interest because deliverability is a key issue for email marketers.
Let's look at what will change and how you, the senders, need to prepare.
Authentication
Both email providers will require email senders to publish a DMARC record. In their own words, the two mailbox providers explained the change in their respective communications. In summary, Gmail will require those who send large volumes (over 5000 per day) to strongly authenticate their emails by following well-established best practices. Ultimately, this will help close the gaps exploited by attackers, thus threatening everyone who uses emails. Using DMARC allows senders to specify a policy for handling unauthenticated messages and provides a reporting mechanism to monitor these messages. Senders will now need to:
Learn more about:
- Understanding DMARC
- How to configure your DMARC at Mailpro.com
We can see among our own clients that a good half are not yet compliant with the new email authentication requirements.
Unsubscribing
Among the new requirements, the implementation of a one-click unsubscribe record in email headers will be mandatory. When sending campaigns through Mailpro, this header is automatically linked to the unsubscribe process. This is not the case for non-forged emails, for example, the SMTP gateway. Gmail will require large senders to give Gmail recipients the ability to unsubscribe from commercial emails with one click and to process unsubscribe requests within two days. Their focus is on the header record that allows email recipients to unsubscribe with one click, a feature described in RFC8058, and automatic in Mailpro campaigns. To be compliant, you, the senders must:
- Ensure that their emails are DKIM signed
- Implement List-Unsubscribe-Post (as described in RFC8058)
- Continue to include a visible unsubscribe link in the body of the email, and;
- Respond to all unsubscribe requests within two days.
Complaint and Unsubscription Rates
The maximum complaint rate threshold to avoid being marked as spam: It's important to know that many newsletter subscribers do not differentiate between unsubscribing and complaining. They use the easiest option available. From an engagement standpoint, complaints are as significant as clicks, except they indicate negative engagement. Therefore, it's necessary to keep these rates low, and maintaining this compliance requires ongoing monitoring. Gmail has communicated that to add another layer of protection, in the future, they will impose a clear spam rate threshold that senders must meet so that Gmail recipients are not overwhelmed with unwanted messages.
These requirements stem from discussions in communities, and you, the email senders, should not see these new requirements as "punitive." Following the rules means better deliverability and more engaged subscribers. Conversely, non-compliant senders will see an increase in delivery problems.
Learn more about Gmail´s SPAM policies