[IMPORTANT] New Gmail + Yahoo requirements explained

This is important so I'll cut to the chase: Gmail and Yahoo (the two biggest mailbox providers) recently announced [several NEW requirements for senders](. These new requirements are super strict... And they will affect *ANY* sender that sends bulk emails, starting from February 2024. If you use email marketing in your business to mail your list, that's you. There's no escaping it... And if you WANT to keep using email marketing to sell your stuff, then it's CRITICAL you pass these new requirements. Because if you don't... Starting this February, Google and Yahoo will mercilessly mark most of your emails as sp@m... And you can say goodbye to making money from your list! Now... Why are they doing this? Why are they making our lives more difficult? Simple: They want to dramatically cut down email sc@ms, fake senders, and sp@m in general. Which -- ultimately -- is a good thing for honest email marketers with us. It weeds out bad actors... And allows more breathing room for the good guys. Problem is... ensuring that you're ready BEFORE the changes take effect is quite technical... And it WILL cause major headaches for most people. Fortunately, it's not all bad. Because -- despite only 3 weeks until these (drastic) changes take effect -- there's still time to make sure you're ready before the changes. So what do you have to do? After researching this topic for quite some time... ​ Here's a no-nonsense list for you with all the new requirements: ​ 1 - You must pass SPF and DKIM (usually, your ESP already does this for you) 2 - You must set up a DMARC policy for your sending domain 3 - The domain in the sender's "from header" must be aligned with either the SPF domain or the DKIM domain (so both have to show your verified sending domain) 4 - You must ensure that sending domains or IPs have valid forward and reverse DNS records (again, usually your ESP already handles this automatically) 5 - You must keep sp@m rates reported in [Google Postmaster Tools]( below 0.1% (!) (which is GOOD for senders that build a genuine relationship with their subscribers... and BAD for "churn & burn" senders that only want to monetize their list, nothing more) 6 - You must have a one-click unsubscribe through the email headers (again, your ESP usually takes care of this) 7 - You must NOT bulk send anymore from "gmail.com" addresses (instead, you can only bulk send from verified domain email addresses -- Good: "csaba@gameofconversions.com" / Bad: "csaba.borzasi@gmail.com") *** ** * Wheeew... Quite an exhausting list of technical stuff, wouldn't you say, {NAME}? 😅😅😅 Most people I know of would rather listen to a 10-hour loop of "Never Gonna Give You Up" than make these changes themselves. And you know what? I totally understand. I don't like it either... But it is what it is. Ultimately, it's going to benefit us, honest marketers... But right now, there's a price to pay. And either you pay with your time... or you pay with your money. Honestly, if the mere thought of the list above terrifies you, I recommend you outsource this. I'm sure you can find plenty of good people on Fiverr or Upwork who can help you with this. If not, you can also find specific guides online for each element on the list above. Now that you have a CLEAR, CONCISE list... You at least know exactly what needs to be done. So hope you've found this helpful ;) To your email success in 2024! -Csaba ​ P.S. -- PRO TIP: After you set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC... And you start sending from a verified sending domain, your email deliverability might take a hit for a few weeks. (because mailbox providers are calibrating your new details) Therefore, it's REALLY important that you try to get as many engagement signals from your subscribers as possible. Things like clicks, replies, and anything that shows they enjoy reading your emails. So could you do me a solid, {NAME}? Could you please hit reply and say "Got it", "Thanks", "Have a nice day"... or anything you want, really? This shows Gmail and the other mailbox providers that you like reading my emails... And you actively want to keep receiving them. Otherwise, you might not successfully receive my future emails and/or they might land in your sp@m folder. Let's avoid that, shall we? :) Just hit reply and send me something to help future deliverability. Thanks - appreciate it! ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Please add csaba@gameofconversions.com to your address book or whitelist us. Want to change how you receive my emails? You can easily [Update your profile]( or [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address is: 113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205