In early 2024, Gmail and Yahoo will enforce anti-spam rules that could impact your email marketing business. I'll describe the changes and what you must do.
Getting tough on spam
Both Gmail and Yahoo announced tough rules with the same objective in mind: to reduce the amount of spam their clients receive. There are many similarities in their approaches and a couple of small differences.
| Gmail | Yahoo |
Start Enforcement | February 1, 2024 | First quarter of 2024 |
Bulk sender target | Parties sending 5000+ emails a day to @gmail.com and @googlemail.com addresses. | Parties sending 5000+ emails a day. Though not clear, likely covers messages to Yahoo and AOL accounts (e.g. yahoo.fr, yahoo.com, etc.). |
Authenticate with DKIM, SPF, and DMARC | ||
Allow for easy unsubscription | Yes. One-click unsubscribe. Process unsubscription requests within two days. | Yes. One-click unsubscribe. Process unsubscription requests within two days. |
Low spam rate | Below 0.3% | Below 0.3% |
Consequences
If you're a bulk sender (e.g. 5000+ emails/day) and you don't follow these rules, your messages will likely be marked as spam by the Inbox service provider or blocked altogether.
Are you impacted?
These rules won't affect every email marketer. You are not impacted if:
You use your own domain to send messages (e.g. [email protected]) instead of a general email service provider (like Gmail or Yahoo). And
You signed a DKIM.
If both conditions describe your email operations, then you are not impacted. You can stop reading this article.
How can I check my sender email?
Go to tinyEmail.
Click the Account icon.
Click the Sender details tab.
In the screenshot below, the tinyEmail user sends email messages from a personal domain (i.e. not a Gmail or Yahoo domain). That's good news.
Check your DKIM sign status
Now, on the My Account page, click the DKIM tab. Check if you have DKIM verified with us or not.
In the screenshot below, the user has a verified DKIM with tinyEmail. That's good news.
I'm impacted. What do I need to do?
Change your sender email address. Send email from your brand domain (e.g. [email protected]) and not a generic email address like Gmail or Yahoo. (e.g. [email protected]). Learn how.
Sign a DKIM with tinyEmail. Learn more
Make sure your DMARC is properly set.
v=DMARC1
p=none
What if you can't make the changes?
You really should complete the steps mentioned above. They're not hard to do and don't require much time to complete.
If you can't meet these requirements by the February 1 deadline, we'll help you out with a temporary solution so that you can send emails.
We're extending a helping hand until you make the required changes yourself.
We will change your From sender to a system generated from sender, which adheres to Gmail guidelines.
We will set the Reply to address to your sender details. If someone replies to one of your automations or campaigns, you can receive the message email.
That's it.
Now you know the spam rules and the changes you have to make.