Email Service Compliance

If you’re sending emails in bulk (>5000 emails/day), you need to know this. In a recent update, Google laid down a threshold of spam rate for bulk senders, which is less than 0.3%. This means two things: [1] You need to monitor the no. of spam complaints regularly - Spam complaints are NOT emails landing in your spam folder [2] You need to keep your spam complaints below 0.3% - Many of the companies I know have higher spam complaints First, start monitoring spam complaints by setting up Gmail Postmaster Tools for your domain. It’s a free tool by Google to check delivery errors, spam reports, domain reputation, and IP reputation. The more important question though is how to maintain spam complaint rates below 0.3%. The answer is simple - Be more relevant and valuable to users. For that, make sure to: [a] Segment your users (Use their activity, intent, and need to segment) [b] Understand what each of these segments want (Ask them questions) Send emails that are relevant to their needs. Don’t just sell but educate, entertain, and engage them [c] Bring novelty in each email. Don’t just keep sending the same sales-oriented email every day. If you don’t have any value to add, don’t send the email. There are other requirements for senders, too, like: [1] Authenticate outgoing emails by setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. DMARC may be set to p=none. [2] Enable one-click unsubscribe. And process unsubscription requests within two days. The deadline to set these up is February 1, 2024 - but they’re nudging senders to set them up already. In fact, setting these up earlier “may improve your email delivery”, the update said. For more details - read their email sender guidelines [link in comments]

Important Email Update! New requirements from Gmail and Yahoo Mail effective February 2024. 𝐄𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬: As part of their ongoing commitment to enhance email security and protect user inboxes, Gmail and Yahoo Mail have announced a set of new requirements for email senders, effective February 2024. The new requirements include long-standing best practices that all email senders should follow in order to achieve good deliverability with mailbox providers. What's new is that Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and other mailbox providers will require alignment with these best practices for those who send bulk messages over 5000 per day or if a significant number of recipients indicate the mail as spam. 𝐑𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: - SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a domain-based way to determine what IPs are allowed to send email on somebody's behalf. - DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) is a message-based signature that uses asymmetric cryptography to sign email and verify that a message was not altered in transit. - DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) builds on top of SPF and DKIM and instructs receivers to approve, quarantine, or reject email messages. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬: For senders of bulk messages, meeting these requirements is crucial to maintaining good deliverability and ensuring that your emails reach the intended recipients' inboxes. Failure to comply may result in emails being marked as spam or rejected by mailbox providers. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐝𝐨: Review your current email sending practices to ensure alignment with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. If necessary, update your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configurations to comply with the new requirements. Check the diagram showing how SPF and DKIM work together with your DMARC policy. #EmailSecurity #GmailUpdate #YahooMail #SPF #DKIM #DMARC #Authentication #CyberSecurity #EmailBestPractices

Are you sending more than 5k emails to Gmail accounts and is your spam rate <0.3%? 🤔 It's not a question you would have asked yourself a week ago. Google's latest announcement around new Gmail requirements as of Feb'24 will mean a good amount of companies will need to review their email-sending practices very soon if A) they're sending over 5k emails per day to Gmail users B) have a >0.3% spam rate A couple of things to note on the spam rate 1. Spam rate applies to all email traffic of the domain, not just sales/marketing 👀 0.3% is 3 emails marked as spam for every 1,000 emails sent This means you'll need to drive down spam rate for your email domain across every email motion whether you're sending newsletters, cold emails etc. 2. 0.3% spam rate requirement is for all the senders, not just those sending over 5K emails to Gmail users. What you should consider doing? 1. Monitor Postmaster Tools 2. Increase quality and reduce quantity (Easier said than done). 3. Warm-up EVERY mailbox you use to send emails to people you don't know 4. Introduce dedicated domains for email motions and do domain rotation 5. Reduce # of emails you have in a sequence. More emails sent to a recipient within a short timeframe = higher likelihood of spam report There's more, but ultimately think from a user's standpoint and reduce the likelihood of them reporting your email as spam. There are things that aren't in your control due to email fatigue. Some users # Don't open emails from unknown senders. They can't/won't manage it. # Automatically filter emails from unknown senders or use tools to block them. # Mark automatically as spam, even newsletters they signed up to, which is cruel :) The good news there's plenty of time for you to adjust. More info and a link to the article in the comments below.

Are you sending job alerts to subscribers? It will be a pity if they stop receiving them... Email job alerts are the bread and butter of job boards and aggregators, and every company in online recruiting and talent acquisition uses email. Starting in February 2024, Google will have stricter requirements for delivering emails from senders to Gmail. The requirements are even more stringent for those sending 5000 or more email messages daily to Gmail accounts. These changes will impact almost any job board or aggregator with 10000 subscribers. Why 10000? If you send job alerts, 50% of your subscribers likely use on Gmail. How do I know this? I have built five high-scale job alert infrastructures, sending over 20 million daily emails, and the experience taught me that Gmail is one of the most important channels to optimize for deliverability. There are two critical new guidelines: 1️⃣ Keep spam rates reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.10% 2️⃣ Offer a one-click unsubscribe option The second one is critical and has enormous implications for job boards and aggregators. Most platforms today (a quick test with ten known names in the US – 9 out of 10 did not have that) do not support one-click unsubscribe. You have until June to build it. What's complicated about this, you are saying? Just put a link in the email. But here is where you have to read between the lines. It is not enough to have a URL in the email that unsubscribes the user.  One-click unsubscribe should be implemented according to RFC 8058 by adding List-Unsubscribe headers to outgoing promotional messages. This part will be painful for job boards running on platforms that manage email alerts for you. It is up to you to ensure they comply with the new requirements. Reach out already today. T I have written a detailed blog post outlining all of the changes and made a deep dive into what it means precisely for job boards, aggregators, and job board platform providers. Full article: https://lnkd.in/dkJ3JhNU #google #email #gmail #ses #deliverability

Can I send that cold marketing email without consent?   Just this month, I was asked the same question by three very different people: a general counsel, a privacy leader, and a head of marketing   And since it's a super common question, and one that holds up email marketing campaigns around the globe - we created the Email Marketing Compliance Guide.   Because when companies work across borders with privacy regulations like CAN-SPAM, GDPR, ePrivacy, CASL, Australia’s Spam Act, and Brazil’s LGPD, every country has a different take on what’s allowed.   Some say you need opt-in consent. Others say you don’t.   And then companies might question what even counts as a marketing email.   Yet if companies don’t understand global compliance rules as they enter new markets (or send marketing emails to the ones they already do business in), companies are risking more than just poor performance.   They could be violating the law.   And damaging consumer trust.   That's not a risk businesses can afford to take.   So we created the Email Marketing Compliance Guide to help companies guide decisions and answer questions on whether or not they can send that cold email.   Inside our guide, companies will get clarity on: ✔ Privacy laws and email marketing requirements across the US, Canada, EU, UK, Australia, and Brazil ✔ How to spot the differences between commercial and transactional messages ✔ Tips on consent requirements, opt-out rules, and how to avoid misleading email content ✔ Steps for creating a compliant email marketing program ✔ The importance of a preference center ✔ And more!   It’s written for marketers and leaders who need to move fast and stay compliant.   No guesswork. No fluff. Just clear, actionable guidance.   Whether your company is scaling into global markets or refining current email marketing programs, our guide will help you meet compliance obligations, respect your audience, and build trust.   And our Email Marketing Guide comes to you ungated. No name or email required.   Download it here today (no email required) https://lnkd.in/edJAW6WV ♻️ Share the guide with your marketing and privacy friends!

Amongst customers and on my network, I’ve seen continued chatter around the new bulk send requirements from Google and Yahoo. As most of you are aware, these new regulations will hit February 1, 2024. Like Outreach CEO Manny Medina said a couple of weeks ago, don't worry - these changes are positive for our industry. These new requirements are actually reinforcing best practices Outreach has been encouraging customers to adopt over the years. And as Outreach’s President of Product and Technology, I’d like to dive into this a bit more.   Last week, Google elaborated on its email sender guidelines and clarified they do not apply to messages sent to Google Workspace accounts. Sender requirements and Google enforcement apply only when sending email to personal Gmail accounts (@gmail.com accounts). We know these new regulations will impact our customers - those sending B2C communications more quickly than B2B - and will work with you to help update your settings to avoid business disruptions when these changes roll out. While these regulations impact personal emails, we can’t be sure it will be this way forever so we recommend organizations adopt our best practices now. How do you get a prospect to read your email? Send better, more relevant emails with personalized content that is targeted at a specific persona. As we've been recommending for years, we advise all of our customers to follow these best practices when sending emails to get more ROI: - Use Persona-based messaging to drive an Account-based selling motion - Limit use of automated email steps in sequences, and vary content when doing so - Limit exposure to unnecessary spam complaints by auditing your contact database to remove personal Gmail accounts and ensure that you are sending to corporate emails for all B2B prospects and customers  And I want to reiterate that we are here to help you through these changes. We want to partner with you to design a more efficient, strategic, organized sales process to unleash seller productivity and ultimately help your organization generate revenue. Our customers always come first - if you have any questions, please reach out, and the Outreach team will be happy to help you. 

Seriously folks, enough with the fear mongering! YES, Google and Yahoo are forcing senders to comply with their requirements. And YES, you do need to follow *all* of them. But there's a whole lot more to the story than "be fully compliant by Feb 1 or else!" Google has actually updated their Email Sender Guidelines since the announcement was made, indicating a phased approach to their rollout...this is publicly listed information. So, even if you are not compliant on Day 1, you’re not gonna see a huge spike in bounced emails or anything like that. They will start by deferring non-compliant mail streams. Here's a timeline you can rely upon (for now, anyway): 1️⃣ Starting in February - if you’re not compliant, you will start to see 4xx (or temporary) responses to a tiny fraction of your email. This means that the mail will likely still get delivered, but it will be delayed and take a few retries before the mail is successfully delivered. Monitoring your email sending activity is going to be your next step post-checklist. I’ve heard that the temporary bounces they’ll be returning will pretty clearly point you in the direction of why your mail is being deferred. The tricky part is the mail is ultimately being delivered, so you might miss this signal if you aren’t looking at your logs or paying really close attention to realize your mail is being delivered with a delay. 2️⃣ By the beginning of April, they will start rejecting a percentage of non-compliant mail – and this includes compliance with all of the requirements Google has outlined in the Email sender guidelines they’ve published in their Help Center, except for the one-click unsubscribe. 3️⃣ You’ve got until June 1st to implement one-click unsubscribe. I know some ESPs are working to provide their customers with a solution here, but in a lot of cases, it’s the customer who has to implement this. If you have questions, reach out your ESP! That's it for now. Happy to answer any questions people have on this, but my #1 recommendation is to re-read the announcements from Gmail and Yahoo instead of what someone on LinkedIn is saying (even when it's me). And my ask for those in the #emailgeeks community is to educate, and stick to the facts. Instilling fear by sharing half-truths is not helpful. #emailmarketing #email #yahoo #gmail #deliverability

Friendly reminder to all brands using email scraping tools to make an extra dollar: This is ruining your deliverability reputation, probably costing you at least 20% of your email results, and you're putting people off by messaging them without consent. It takes 1-3 months to fix, and you don't want to do that in Q4 if you want strong results. Also, it's illegal in the EU. 4 reasons to avoid doing that and stick with the plan. 1. No legal basis: Regulators are cracking down on data processing without proper justification. 2. Weak security: Major fines are being issued for inadequate technical measures. 3. Risky Automation & AI: Using automated decision-making without human oversight is drawing penalties. Regulators have now made AI compliance a key focus. 4. Data Retention: Companies are being fined for not having clear data deletion policies and schedules. Here's a list of the latest penalties charged in September 2025 1. A Polish bank was fined over €4.3M for unlawfully scanning customer IDs. 2. An Estonian company got a €3M penalty after a data breach impacted 750,000 people. Consider this your good fortune approaching before it's too late. #GDPR #DataProtection #Privacy #Compliance #Fines #DataPrivacy

How to send cold emails in 2024, without getting banned by Google. Here are my email best practices for 2024: - Warming up - Use Plain-text - Avoid email burst - Contact the right person - Personalized emails only - Using a separate domain - Sending <50/day per person - One email one core message - Add one-click unsubscribe link - Configure ARC, DMARC, DKIM, and SPF - Don’t use HTML and CSS to hide content - HTML signature (avoid pictures and links) - Avoid spam words: free, limited, NOW, or win 5000 daily emails include: - direct emails - cadence tools - marketing automation - transactional emails (password reset, alerts, etc.) Spam - Avoid a spam rate of 0.30% or higher - Aim to keep your spam rate below 0.10% - Tip: Use the Postmaster tool to monitor spam rate That is 3 out of 1000 emails can be spam. Not much. You can not rely only on email for outbound. This means: - Cold calling is a must - Be in online communities - Use intent data to target better - Conferences and in-person meetings are crucial - Use LinkedIn for personal brand and social selling Diversification is key. P.S. How are you preparing outbound in 2024?

New Strategies For Keeping Your Emails Out of Spam 👇 You might be making amazing emails. But if no one sees them, they won’t drive revenue. Step 1: Your Domain Has a Credit Score (And You Probably Don’t Know What It Is) Inbox providers like Google and Yahoo assign a kind of “credit score” to your domain based on how people interact with your emails. Open rates, clicks, replies = build a good credit score → inbox. No engagement, high bounce/spam complaints = bad credit score → spam folder. Use GlockApps to check yours (not a sponsor I just like them). They’ll give you test email addresses, you send a campaign, and they’ll show you exactly where you’re landing (Inbox vs Promotions vs Spam). Goal: You want 75%+ inbox placement. Step 2: Set Up Your Technicals (Takes 5 Minutes) This is non-negotiable. Missing this = guaranteed spam. Make sure the following records are correctly set up: SPF DKIM DMARC If you're using Klaviyo, this is pretty painless and most of it is automated. You just need to manually add a DMARC record (Klaviyo has an article in this if you look it up). Once it's done, it's done forever. Step 3: Warm Up Your Domain (Even If You’ve Been Sending for Years) Think of warming up your domain like building trust with inbox providers. You wouldn’t apply for a $100k loan with zero credit history. Same thing here. If you’re switching domains or have low open rates, treat your list like it’s fresh: Example Warm-Up Cadence: Start with 250 contacts. Then 250 → 500 → 1000 → 2000 Send unique campaigns every other day. Monitor open rates and only scale when engagement stays strong. Even with a massive list, you can get to full sends within 1 month. Step 4: Send Consistently! In 2025, going silent for weeks and blasting your full list out of nowhere is a huge red flag. Set a minimum cadence of 2 emails per week, even if it’s just a simple text-based update. This keeps your domain “active” and builds positive sending history over time. Step 5: Engagement Is Necessary Open rates, clicks, and replies tell inbox providers, “Hey, people actually want this.” Shoot for: 50%+ open rates 0.5%+ click rates <0.1% spam complaint rate Pro tip: If you’re not hitting those numbers, STOP sending to everyone. Instead, build a 30-day engaged segment (people who opened/clicked in the last 30 days) and only send to them. Once you’re consistently hitting 50%+ open rates, expand to 60, 90, 120-day segments. Bonus: Simple Emails = Higher Engagement Fancy designs are cool. But inbox providers love engagement, not aesthetics. Mix in text-based founder emails. Keep buttons clear. Add PS sections. Make it feel personal. It’s not just better for engagement, it builds trust and makes people want to open the next one.