Google and Yahoo to enforce stricter email guidelines; Indian marketers prepare for compliance

Effective February 1, 2024, Google will enforce stricter email guidelines to fight spam. Marketers sending bulk emails through Gmail will have to refrain from sending unwanted or unsolicited emails, and ensure a straightforward process for recipients to unsubscribe. In contrast, Yahoo has not announced a particular date for the implementation.

To do this, marketers should set up email authentication using Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC), Sender Policy Framework (SPF), and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) security protocols to ensure successful email delivery.

In a blog published on October 3, 2023, Neil Kumaran, group product manager, Gmail Security and Trust, states, “You should not worry about the intricacies of email security standards, but you should be able to confidently rely on an email’s source. So we're requiring those who send significant volumes to strongly authenticate their emails following well-established best practices.”

The same blog had a quote from Marcel Becker, senior director - product, Yahoo, where he says, “Yahoo looks forward to working with Google and the rest of the email community to make these common sense, high-impact changes the new industry standard.”

Here is how the Indian email marketing sector is equipping itself to adapt to the guidelines set forth by Google and Yahoo.

Sriram G, vice president - deliverability, Netcore Cloud

This is going to affect email marketers and bulk senders sending over 5,000 emails. It is not only Google and Yahoo implementing this but also being followed by GoDaddy. Any bulk sender, who is an agency or an email marketer has to follow these guidelines to avoid bouncing of mails or any deliverability issues.

If people do not implement the changes well, there will be deliverability issues like the email not reaching the recipients and getting bounced. We (Netcore Cloud) have also started providing a blue tick alongside the name of the company to convey that the brand is verified. So DMRAC, DKIM, and SPF are very crucial email authentication protocols, and play key roles when it comes to email marketing.

Brands and agencies should start prioritising the implementation so that their email campaigns will work with some effectiveness and maintain a good positive sender reputation. The guidelines will not affect transactional emails including OTPs, and credit card statements. It will be affecting promotional emails instead.

Brands should start monitoring the spam complaint ratio on the postmaster pages of Google and Yahoo. Google’s postmaster has a free registration page where marketers can go ahead and check how their domain reputation, spam complaint ratio, and others are performing.

Chirag Parmar, AVP - marketing (L&D), WebEngage

The impact of the new guidelines is going to be far beyond not being able to meet KPIs. Email for the longest time has been the cheapest channel for connecting with audiences. With the new guidelines coming in, we are looking at a reduced inbox placement rate. This means there will be a substantial reduction across all of these metrics.

With the effectiveness coming down, brands will now have to move towards more costlier methods of engagement, which again are already highly moderated. As for email marketers in particular, this would mean an increase in their technical knowledge of email operations and an SOP for running White Hat email marketing campaigns.

Authenticating emails has always been a good and prescribed practice by all email service providers. Due to the insurgence of malicious practices, this is a very welcome change spearheaded by Google and Yahoo. While the technical authentication setup is a one-time exercise ensuring your DMARC, SPF, DKIM, and Google Post Master reports are in check, the larger piece of the puzzle is keeping the sender’s intent in check.

With the new guidelines keeping a constant check on spam scores, anything upwards of 0.3% of the audience reporting a business as SPAM will have a huge impact on domain reputation.

With many nations creating norms and regulations around data privacy, there’ll soon be an end to Gray-Hat marketing techniques and brands will have to justify every data point they are capturing about their users. As an end consumer, this makes me happy. As a marketer, it dreads me to think how the entire marketing ecosystem is going to evolve and traditional digital marketing techniques will soon become obsolete.

Maanesh Vasudeo, senior VP - media operations, LS Digital Group

Any brand has 2 types of email initiatives one for existing database with them and one for acquiring new customers. On the pure new customer front, in light of a lot of guidelines, most marketers stay away from sending promotional mailers themselves. They onboard partners who have their own database and those partners typically operate based on specific goals, such as cost per website visit or cost per lead, which is called a performance metric.

Whatever changes Google or any mailing giant implements, it directly affects the supply ecosystem. The smaller players who do not use any tools will be more significantly impacted, most larger players have already invested in marketing automation platforms/tools. These platforms are created by technology companies who consistently upgrade their email delivery systems to match the latest regulations.

For the past eight to nine months, the frequency of scams and phishing has increased. Since this is new for the market, the best it can do is issue advisories.

Marketers will likely view the guidelines with the perspective that if they become stricter, the questions, problems, and complaints they are receiving will significantly decrease.

Nitin Singhal, managing director, Sinch India

At Sinch, we have proactively implemented various security measures such as IP Whitelisting, warmup procedures, and ensuring the inclusion of logos in our emails, which is fundamental for establishing the legitimacy of our email communications.

DMARC, SPF, and DKIM are the authentication protocols that form a robust defense against email spoofing and phishing attacks. Adhering to these protocols not only enhances the credibility of marketers and agencies but also improves email deliverability and ensures that legitimate emails reach recipients' inboxes.

Embracing segmentation, personalisation, and value addition forms the cornerstone of effective email marketing. While email remains a powerhouse, exploring alternatives can future-proof customer engagement.

Ultimately, it is all about offering value, respecting choices, and putting users in control. By diversifying our toolkit and keeping user-centricity at the heart of it all, we will not just survive but thrive in this exciting new marketing era.