|| Update: The deadline for this has been extended to June 2024

|| We have added further details from April 2024 in this article

Gmail and Yahoo are set to make important changes in delivering messages beginning in February 2024. These new security updates will impact brands sending over 5,000 messages on any given day, and some Optimove clients may be affected.

The great news for you is that Optimove has already begun doing the hard work for you behind the scenes. These changes align with the best practices we've been orchestrating for you for years to increase your sender reputation and increase your overall inbox deliverability.

What do you need to do?

You will need to make a couple of changes, which we have fully documented below. The steps you will need to take:

Maintain spam complaint percentages to Gmail and Yahoo subscribers below 0.3%. Since this is tied to your sending domain, you are required to use Google Postmaster Tools.
DMARC authentication must be set up for the sending domain. DMARC is a standard that builds upon the existing DKIM and SPF authentication. This change will require you to go to your DNS hosting provider.
Incorporate the RFC 8058 compliance standard List-Unsubscribe header to all promotional email messages. This will allow your subscribers to immediately unsubscribe from your email list without additional steps, confirmations, or links to your website.

Maintaining <0.3% Spam Complaint Percentages

You must set up a free Google Postmaster account to understand the spam complaint rate specific to Gmail subscribers.

As this is tied to your sending domain, you must take this action within your team.

To do this, visit Getting Started with Google Postmaster Tools. Here, you will find a step-by-step guide to setting up your account, verifying your domain, and interpreting domain-related data.

For future troubleshooting and expert advice from the Optimove team, please make sure to add our expert Email Marketing team as one of the Domain Users to allow us to provide insight and help maintain your domain. Please add the following address: dana_s@optimove.com. If you have any questions about this step, contact your CSM for further details.

Setting Up DMARC Authentication

DMARC is a standard that builds upon the existing DKIM and SPF authentication. It communicates to an ISP what they should do when they receive an email that an SPF or DKIM. You will need to add DMARC to your DNS to stay compliant. If you are unsure of whether this is already configured, please contact our expert Email Marketing team to provide further guidance for free.

To set up DMARC authentication:

Go to your DNS hosting provider and create a record.
Select TXT DNS record type.
Add the host value ‘_DMARC’. If your DNS provider does not automatically append your domain name, adjust the host value to include your domain ‘_dmarc.domain.com’.
Create your DMARC record and add it to the DNS TXT value. A simple DMARC record should look like: ‘v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc_agg@vali.email’. The rua tag defines where the DMARC reports should be sent. Included in our example DMARC record is Valimail’s monitoring address, as they provide free monitoring.
Hit the save/ submit/ submit button and verify your DMARC record has been added correctly to your DNS.

Each DMARC record needs to define a policy, which can be one of three options: none, quarantine, or reject. Although Gmail’s requirement for DMARC is to set it at p=none, this is a minimum bar. P=none instructs the receiving mailbox provider to take no action on an email that fails an SPF/DKIM check.

The best and most secure setting is what’s called DMARC at enforcement, p=reject or p=quarantine. However, this requires additional work to ensure that this record incorporates all of the 3rd parties sending on behalf of your domain. Publishing the record incorrectly could cause your mail from these providers not to be delivered. Work with your technical personnel to ensure that your DMARC is properly formatted and affords you the greatest level of protection.

Use a One-Click Unsubscribe

Both Gmail & Yahoo will be requiring senders to provide recipients with an easy way to unsubscribe from your messages. Having a one-click unsubscribe makes it easy for people to opt-out and if you’re sending more than 5,000 messages per day, your marketing/promotional messages must support one-click unsubscribe.

If Optimove is managing your Unsubscribe process:

If you currently have Subscription Tracking enabled because Optimove is managing your unsubscribe process, we’re automatically meeting Google & Yahoo’s requirements for your one-click Unsubscribe through the List-Unsubscribe function in the header of your email campaigns.

Not sure what the List-Unsubscribe is? It’s the opt-out option in the header of emails, like the one seen below from Gmail:

This feature is automatically and conveniently configured - already implemented in your campaigns for you. It allows your users to easily unsubscribe to your emails with a single click - adding their account update to both Optimove and to the Global Unsubscribe list.

|| Note

All promotional senders must be RFC 8058, or one-click List-Unsubscribe header compliant. The List-Unsubscribe header only needs to be implemented on promotional messages.
While almost all of Google & Yahoo’s delivery requirements for bulk promotional senders must be implemented by February 1, 2024, all bulk promotional senders have until June 1, 2024, to complete the implementation of List-Unsubscribe headers across all promotional messages.
Failure to do so will result in Google and Yahoo rejecting the delivery of your messages to their subscribers, directly impacting deliverability.

If you are managing the unsubscribe process:

For OptiMail users, Optimove has been managing the unsubscribe process, implementing the List-Unsubscribe header to your promotional headers since late 2023 in preparation for Google and Yahoo's impending changes.

However, for users currently self-managing their unsubscribe process, you have until June 1, 2024, to include the List-Unsubscribe header into all promotional sends. Until then, as long as you are implementing a best-practice and CAN-SPAM or GDPR-compliant unsubscribe process, Google and Yahoo will continue to deliver your messages pending you do not have any other deliverability-related issues.

To help you meet the RFC 8058 compliance requirement by June 1st, Optimove’s product team is working on a custom solution that will help to automatically append your email campaigns to include this required header to your promotional messages. Check back at The Academy for more updates regarding this custom solution as we prepare you for the June 1st compliance deadline.

If you are self-managing your Unsubscribe process:

While formatting your email headers for a one-click List-Unsubscribe isn’t an option if you currently have Subscription Tracking disabled because you’ve decided to manage your own unsubscribe process internally, Google has offered an additional option for one-click unsubscribe that adheres to their updated requirements.

Let recipients review the individual mailing lists they’ve subscribed to. Let them unsubscribe from lists individually, or all lists at once.

With this being said, if managing your unsubscribe process on your own, your template footers must include an “Unsubscribe” link separate from any “Manage Preferences” link so that users can globally opt-out from all emails - and do so with a single click (i.e. not after being asked “Are you sure you want to unsubscribe from all emails?”).

For example, your email footer should look more like this, to meet Google & Yahoo’s updated requirements:

How Optimove is Helping You

The even better news is that Optimove has already handled the following requirements for you, as part of your integration with us:

All sending domains must have both DKIM and SPF authentication. SPF authenticates the IPs that send from a specific domain, while DKIM verifies the email itself.
All sending domains/IPs must have valid forward and reverse DNS records. These are also referred to as PTR records and the forward and reverse lookup can be done using an A-record.
For marketing/promotional messages, enable one-click unsubscribe by adding the List-Unsubscribe header to messages. This adds the “unsubscribe” button next to the From address in the header of the email.

Got questions?

If you still require guidance in making sure you are maintaining best practices for sending to Gmail and Yahoo customers, please contact our Email Marketing specialists.