Recently, Google and Yahoo announced new email sender requirements for 2024. Here's how KW has you covered – rest assured that emails sent from KW Command and your Google Workspace @kw.com email account are already aligned with the new Google/Yahoo standards. There is no further action KW can take.
However, if you send bulk mail from a 3rd-party provider such as MailChimp, either via @kw.com or another custom @yourbusinessname domain, you should confirm that your 3rd-party vendor is also in compliance with these new rules. Below is additional information below that may be helpful.
Recommended action steps
Google states that the goal of these policies is to help senders secure their email systems, which can reduce spam complaints and ultimately improve mail deliverability for marketers like KW associates. It is worth noting these are long-established best practices; the only change is they are now being enforced.
The easiest way to determine your action steps is to think about how many emails you send per day to Google and Yahoo addresses. Overall, these rules will impact:
1. All senders of email, regardless of volume, to Google and Yahoo addresses:
- Click here to review Google's requirements for all senders.
- Click here to review Yahoo's similar requirements for all senders.
2. Bulk Senders have additional requirements to meet:
- For Google, a Bulk Sender is defined as anyone who sends more than 5,000 messages to @gmail.com or @googlemail.com addresses in one day.
- Click here to review Google's requirements for Bulk Senders.
- Click here to review Yahoo's similar requirements for Bulk Senders.
- Again, any third-party email providers sending mail on behalf of @kw.com may also need to take steps in their systems to ensure your bulk email is delivered as expected.
When will changes be enforced?
Google's timeline includes a progressive enforcement. The currently published dates are below. (Yahoo has also announced a similar timeline.)
- As of February 2024, bulk senders who don’t meet sender requirements will start getting temporary errors, with error codes, on a small percentage of their non-compliant email traffic.
- These temporary errors are meant to help senders identify email traffic that doesn’t meet Google's guidelines so that senders can resolve issues that result in non-compliance.
- In April 2024, Google will start rejecting a percentage of non-compliant email traffic, and will gradually increase the rejection rate.
- Bulk senders have until June 1, 2024 to implement one-click unsubscribe in all commercial, promotional messages.
Resources from common email providers:
Here are relevant instructions from common 3rd-party email providers about these changes. It's best to follow the recommendations directly from your provider. If they are not on the list below, they likely have resources published that can be searched via Google or the provider's help center.