Who will be impacted?
To keep inboxes safe and spam-free, new requirements are being introduced for bulk email senders by Google (starting March 31) and Yahoo (starting Feb 1). These new requirements will impact all senders who have not verified their domain. Failure to meet these standards could lead to emails being delayed, blocked, or marked as spam. This would notably decrease email deliverability to Google and Yahoo email addresses.
For detailed guidance and insights, we've linked directly to the official articles by Google and Yahoo regarding their new sender requirements. These resources provide comprehensive information to help you navigate these updates effectively.
Freshsales impact areas
Users will not be able to send any emails, transactional or bulk, from unverified domains or those with disconnected mailboxes These include emails being sent from sales sequences, workflows, bulk emails, or individual emails.
What you must do to avoid any disruptions
Set up DKIM and DMARC: To boost your email deliverability, it's essential to implement DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) and establish a basic DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) record for your email domains.
Verify your domain: You can do this in one of the following ways -
Verify domain manually: You can verify all senders manually by adding the DNS records of your domain to your DNS Manager.
Note: This can be done by the Admin for all members in an org.All users connect their inbox: All your users need to connect their inbox. Connecting your inbox automatically ensures verification of a sender.
Note: This only verifies individual email addresses. Each team member must connect their inbox individually to ensure they are verified.
Click here to know more about how to verify your domain for better email deliverability.
Keep your spam complaints low: Keep your spam rates below 0.10%, as reported. We recommend you use tools like Postmaster to get insights on your email deliverability rate, spam rates, and other insights. Regularly monitor your spam complaint rates from Google and other email services. Learn more about spam rates here.
Unsubscribe: Add a one-click unsubscribe in your emails to allow recipients to easily and immediately opt-out, to comply with the new email standards.
DMARC Record Configuration Options
When setting up your DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) policy, you have two main options to choose from:
Option 1: Implement a p=none DMARC Record
Description: Create a DMARC record with a policy of "none" (e.g., "v=DMARC1; p=none;"). Include a rua tag to specify an email address for receiving aggregated DMARC reports.
Impact: This option tells Gmail and Yahoo that even if your emails fail SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) checks, they should still be delivered. This safeguards your email sending but does not prevent potentially harmful emails that spoof your address from being delivered.
Advantage: You can track unauthorized email activity using DMARC reports.
Example DMARC Record: "v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:yourreport@email.com;"
Option 2: Implement a p=quarantine or p=reject DMARC Record
Important: Verify that your domain is properly authenticated before setting up a "quarantine" or "reject" policy.
Description: Choose a stricter enforcement policy with "quarantine" (emails are marked as spam) or "reject" (emails are not delivered at all).
Impact: Quarantine Policy: Emails may be sent directly to the spam folder, undergo temporary quarantine, or face stringent anti-spam checks.
Reject Policy: Emails that fail SPF and DKIM checks are not delivered.
Example DMARC Records: Quarantine: "v=DMARC1; p=quarantine;"
Reject: "v=DMARC1; p=reject;"
For detailed guidance on setting up a DMARC record on your domain, refer to our comprehensive KB article or consult this external resource.
For assistance with adding DNS records, please click on the following links for specific instructions from GoDaddy, Namecheap, Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Cloudflare.
By adhering to these steps, you can ensure high deliverability and compliance with the new email sending standards set by Google and Yahoo.