Email Marketing Solutions

Unless you’ve been burying your head in the sand for the past 3 months, you’re probably aware that there are new requirements for bulk email senders in 2024.

Specifically, to anyone who’s emailing Yahoo or Gmail users. (So in reality, all of us. About 44% of people in the USA use Gmail to access their email and 26% use Yahoo…)

A lot of the reports and what you may have read, or at least what I’ve read, comes across as a “doomsday” scenario for bulk email senders.

But in reality, it’s not that bad. Or at least it isn’t for brands and companies that have already been adhering to best sending practices. For those that haven’t… you might have some work to do.

Who Does This Affect?

Specifically, this affects anyone who sends more than 5,000 emails per day to Gmail or Yahoo users.

This includes sends across different accounts within the same sending domain. So if XYZ@sendingdomain.com sends 2,000 emails to a Gmail account and 123@sendingdomain.com sends 3,000… you still hit the threshold.

For most ecommerce and B2B senders, this is a pretty low threshold. So unless you’ve got a really small list or you’re doing hyper targeted outreach, you need to make sure you’re up to speed.

Realistically… regardless of whether or not you hit this threshold, the following steps and recommendations are going to be beneficial for you.

What Do You Need To Be Aware Of?

The first thing to note, is that the “recommended” spam threshold of 0.3% is no longer a recommendation.

It’s a requirement. 

If you see your spam complaints rise above 0.3%, you’re going to have a hard time hitting the inbox.

With that in mind, Google has outlined three major components that you need to ensure that you are taking care of to hit the inbox more consistently:

First – Authenticate your email domain.

This means that you have SPF, DKIM setup at a bare minimum. Having DMARC set up as well only helps.

Second – Enable easy unsubscribe.

To put it simply, a user should only have to click ONE time to unsubscribe from your email.

Third – Send “wanted” email.

This is something that EVERYONE needs to be doing. Send email that people want. 

What Steps Should You Be Taking?

Alright, so what should you be doing? Let’s unpack each of these steps:

First, your ESP (Klaviyo, MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, etc.) will help you set up SPF and DKIM. 

If you’re operating off of a shared sending domain, they’ve probably already taken care of this step. But if you’ve set up or are using a dedicated sending domain (which you should be if you are a large sender, IMO) you’ll have to ensure that you’ve got SPF and DKIM set up correctly through your DNS (or hosting platform).

The steps for doing this differ with each ESP, so I’m not going to attempt to break each one down here. Reach out to support and they will most likely be able to assist you.

Or if you want to chat with an expert (me!) you can book a call here.

Next, enabling easy, one-click unsubscribe is another step that most ESPs will help you with. Some are already putting a one-click unsubscribe in the subject line (which I really like). 

Others (like Klaviyo) have it immediately upon opening the email.

But at the bottom line, all someone should have to do to unsubscribe is click one link, one time.

So no follow up questionnaires, or multi-step processes.

How do you check this?

Act as a subscriber. Go through your unsubscribe process. How easy is it to unsubscribe from your emails? If it takes multiple steps, reach out to your ESP and see what support they offer.

Or, once again… you can book a call with an email expert here.

Finally, the last step is the biggest one. And it’s going to fall squarely on your shoulders.

Send wanted email.

This seems simple, but it’s the most important factor in staying out of spam.

Send valuable email that your subscribers want to read and interact with.

This could be educational content, inspirational content, or just entertaining content.

And if you do it right, you can still sell within each of these emails.

How Can You Ensure Solid Deliverability For All Of 2024?

Before Febuary 1, reach out to the support team at your local ESP (or me…) and make sure that you have your authentication set up and your one-click unsubscribe.

That’s the easy part.

After that, I have TWO recommendations:

First – segment your list

No need to go crazy here (but you can if you want to.)

All you really need is an engaged segment. The days of blasting your entire list are officially over.

If you want to take it a step further, segment your engaged list buy buyer type.

This will allow you to craft an email strategy that is differentiated within your list.

Which leads me to my second recommendation…

Create a 30-60 day content calendar.

Plan out your promotions, your launches, your sales… and then weave in “value” content.

Shoot for a 3-1 or 4-1 value to promotional content ratio.

Then identify how you are going to craft messaging for your VIPs, one-time buyers, and your “window shoppers.”

You can also plan out how you’re going to try and re-engaged your unengaged subscribers.

Once you do this the first time, it will get easier.

Sit down with your team, at least once a month (twice a month would be better) to check out how things are going, and to ensure that you are still planning ahead.

Next Steps…

Are you ready to take your email marketing to the next level in 2024? Here are three ways that I can help:

First – connect with me on LinkedIn here. I share daily posts about what’s working in email marketing (along with other stories.) You can also DM me there with specific questions.

Second – Join my email newsletter. I send a weekly newsletter with a deep dive into something that’s working or a “how-to” like this blog post.
Third – Book a call here. It’s a quick, no obligation 20-minute call where we can chat about anything email related.