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Evolving Email Deliverability Landscape
Email serves as a potent tool for cultivating customer relationships, with an estimated 38:1 return on investment. Achieving successful inbox placement requires adherence to email deliverability and list hygiene best practices, crucial for fostering positive engagement and building a reputable sender profile. A robust sender reputation increases the likelihood of reaching the desired audience.
In October 2023, Gmail and Yahoo, two of the leading email providers, unveiled upcoming updates slated for early 2024, influencing email deliverability. This article explores these changes, their implications for marketers, strategies to align with the updates, and how Braze can assist in navigating the 2024 email deliverability landscape.
Gmail and Yahoo’s 2024 Email Changes
Gmail and Yahoo are introducing new measures for bulk senders to enhance the safety, security, and overall satisfaction of the email experience for customers. The objective behind these email deliverability requirements is to minimize inbox clutter, ensuring users receive only desired and engaging messages.
Yahoo’s requirements take effect from February 2024, while Gmail’s rules come into play starting February 1, 2024. As per these new measures, bulk email senders are required to:
1. Authenticate their emails
Email authentication safeguards users from fraudulent emails by preventing spammers and spoofers, as well as thwarting third-party attempts to impersonate brands and individuals. Various authentication methods, such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC), serve this purpose.
In preparation for 2024, Gmail requires bulk senders to ‘strongly authenticate’ emails using SPF or DKIM and DMARC, preventing spoofing and avoiding spam markings. Similarly, Yahoo’s 2024 authentication guidelines advocate for senders to ‘implement stronger email authentication’ through industry-standard methods like SPF or DKIM and DMARC.
Neglecting email authentication standards exposes bulk senders to impersonation risks by malicious third parties. Yahoo emphasizes that enforcing email authentication will enhance efficiency in identifying and blocking spam, preventing the influx of billions of unwanted messages into users’ inboxes.
2. Enable a seamless unsubscribing experience
Gmail and Yahoo aim to simplify the email opt-out process for users. Bulk senders must now provide a one-click unsubscribe option within email campaigns, utilising the ‘list unsubscribe’ header. Additionally, these senders are obligated to promptly honour unsubscribe requests, ensuring compliance within a two-day timeframe.
3. Not exceed set spam rate thresholds
The spam rate represents the percentage of emails marked as spam by users compared to the total received messages. Gmail and Yahoo are establishing spam rate thresholds for bulk senders, urging them to stay below these limits. Maintaining a spam rate close to 0.0% is advisable, as exceeding thresholds may lead to spam folder delivery or message blocking, especially if other factors are present.
Starting February 1, 2024, Gmail mandates that brands keep spam rates below 0.10% and avoid exceeding 0.3%. Simultaneously, Yahoo enforces a maximum spam complaint rate of 0.3% from February 2024 onwards. To comply, bulk senders should focus on delivering engaging content solely to recipients who have explicitly opted for it and strive to minimise complaints, ideally maintaining a 0.0% rate.
Impact of Email Deliverability Changes on Marketers
Failure to adhere to these email deliverability changes poses a significant risk to the effectiveness of bulk senders’ email marketing efforts. This non-compliance can lead to increased bounce rates, causing delays or complete non-delivery of campaigns. Even well-crafted emails may end up in spam folders, resulting in reduced conversions as recipients miss them. Gmail’s guidelines warn that non-compliant senders might face outright rejection or spam folder delivery. Consequences of non-compliance include elevated bounce rates, delayed deliveries, emails filtered to junk folders, diminished sender reputation, and a decline in email performance metrics like opens, clicks, and conversions.
Navigating the 2024 Email Deliverability Landscape with Braze
The Braze Email Deliverability team enables marketers to excel in every facet of email marketing, spanning from deliverability to conversions and long-term retention. Here’s an overview of two Braze offerings that support stronger deliverability.
1. The Braze Email Deliverability Centre
This self-service tool provides brands with insights into their email performance, monitoring data on sent emails and the company’s sending domain. Braze users can assess their sender reputation by IP address or sending domain, verify authentication, and pinpoint delivery errors to identify and resolve any issues affecting deliverability.
2. Braze Deliverability Monitoring and Premium Deliverability Services
Braze provides two professional service options to support your deliverability objectives:
- Email Deliverability Monitoring: It facilitates enhanced onboarding sessions and monthly one-on-one check-ins with a designated Braze Deliverability Consultant. It also guides IP and domain warming, along with monitoring, reporting, and consultation on deliverability strategy.
- Premium Deliverability Services: These services enable higher-touch onboarding and ongoing support from a dedicated Braze Deliverability Consultant. Your named expert serves as an extension of your email marketing team, offering comprehensive insights into your company’s sending reputation and performance, as well as assistance with strategic email initiatives.
Massive Rocket – A global Braze and Snowflake agency, offers client stakeholders (who are not in the tech team) ways to do a sanity check on these email deliverability requirements.
Final Thoughts
As we embark on the evolving journey of email deliverability in 2024, it’s clear that adapting to the changes introduced by major providers like Gmail and Yahoo is essential for marketers. The emphasis on email authentication, streamlined unsubscribing, and adherence to spam rate thresholds underscores the commitment of Gmail and Yahoo to enhance the overall email experience. Brands must not only comply with these measures but also view them as opportunities to foster genuine engagement and trust.
In this landscape of change, Braze emerges as a key ally for marketers, offering a robust toolkit to navigate these challenges. Whether you opt for self-service insights or leverage the expertise of Braze Deliverability Consultants, the goal remains the same: to maximize deliverability, conversions, and long-term customer retention.
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