Gmail & Yahoo! are enforcing DKIM, DMARC & SPF

The correct setup of SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) and DMARC (Domain‑based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) has been very important over the last several years to ensure high levels of delivery of your emails into the inbox.

Why authentication matters

SPF, DKIM and DMARC are the three configurations that prove to receiving mail servers that your email genuinely comes from your domain — and hasn't been spoofed. Get them right and the major gateways trust your mail; get them wrong (or leave them unconfigured) and your messages are increasingly likely to be filtered or blocked.

What Google & Yahoo! now require

Google announced that, as of 1 February 2024, it now requires these three configurations to be set up correctly if your domain sends to more than 5,000 Gmail addresses per day. If not, delivery of your emails to Gmail inboxes is likely to be blocked.

Yahoo! similarly announced it will require SPF, DKIM and DMARC for “bulk senders” to Yahoo! accounts, with rollout of the mandate also starting 1 February 2024. We expect the volume that constitutes a bulk sender to be similar to Google's.

Aside from SPF, DKIM and DMARC, Google and Yahoo! have additional requirements. Using eNudge assists you with many of them, including one‑click unsubscribe and compliance with email standards. We're proud that eNudge achieves a 10/10 score when tested via the independent mail‑tester.com — you can read more in how eNudge achieved a 10/10 deliverability score.

Keep spam complaints below 0.3%

Both Google and Yahoo! now also require that your spam reporting stays below 0.3%. The number of people who report your emails as spam reflects how your emails are perceived by recipients. Australia arguably has less of a “hit the spam button” culture than some countries, but there are still things you can do to reduce the likelihood that people you legitimately added to your list mark your email as spam. Consider:

• Relevance. Sending to the appropriate cohort within your list, with content that's highly relevant to that audience, goes a long way to reducing spam complaints.
• Easy to unsubscribe. It's a Spam Act requirement to make unsubscribing easy. eNudge does this via the automated unsubscribe link in the footer — but including it in the body using the #unsubscribe# personalisation field is a good idea too.
• Easy to skim. People often skim‑read, at least the first time. Headings, images and clean layout help readers find your key messages and decide whether to read in detail later — and even a skim reminds them you exist.
• Uncontentious. Inflammatory topics make emails more likely to be marked as spam, sometimes out of spite. If you must address a contentious issue, consider doing so on a web page the reader reaches by clicking.
• Obviously from you. People pattern‑match on your sender name, logo and layout. A wildly different‑looking email can read as “not really you”, and therefore spam.
• Not too frequent. Frequency is subjective. Ask your audience how often they'd like to hear from you — the eNudge survey tool can help — or set up categories like “weekly updates” and “monthly newsletter”, exposed as public categories in preference management.
• Mobile responsive. Lots of email is read on mobile. If yours doesn't use larger fonts and narrower images on mobile, you may frustrate readers into unsubscribing. All eNudge templates are mobile responsive.

If you'd like help making your emails less likely to be marked as spam — or you don't yet have a DKIM associated with your emails — don't hesitate to get in touch.