Email Providers

Have you noticed the flood of new developments from major mailbox providers? In some ways we shouldn't be surprised - Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft want to keep users engaged in their inboxes (where they’re exposed to advertising!). Most of these changes are here to stay, which means email marketers need to adapt. Over the past few months, we’ve seen quite a lot of changes: AI-generated summaries, AI-powered personal assistants, reductions in inbox storage, subscription managers, catch-up features, reductions in complaints rate guidance, and plenty more! Perhaps most important is Gmail now prioritising the Promotions tab by “Most Relevant” rather than “Most Recent,” which means engagement matters more than ever. Rather than looking for shortcuts, focus on understanding the signals Gmail uses to determine inbox placement and optimise for those. With Black Friday just around the corner, I know many of you are wondering how these changes will impact your programs, and you’re not alone. Danielle Gallant and I unpack all these developments on our latest Email After Hours episode. Which are most important, how will they affect your subscribers' behaviour, and how should you respond? Some practical takeaways: ◾Apply SEO tactics to your email content to ensure AI summaries surface the right content from your emails.  ◾Don’t send all-image emails, or embed text in images, that can’t be properly read or interpreted by AI.  ◾Let subscribers opt down and snooze rather than losing them completely. ◾Focus on amplifying mailbox provider engagement metrics like clicks, forwards and replies. ◾Design for Gmail’s new “nudges” feature with clearly defined offer windows and schema-ready elements.  ◾Consider implementing BIMI to build trust as AI-powered scams become more sophisticated. The landscape is shifting quickly, but these changes aren’t necessarily bad for email marketers willing to adapt their strategies. Check out Email After Hours to hear our full breakdown on iTunes, Spotify or Youtube. EAH also lives here at: https://lnkd.in/eFi7WikM What mailbox provider changes are you most concerned about heading into Black Friday?

Deliverability is the byproduct of how mailbox providers continuously evaluate sender behavior over time, not something that stabilizes once configuration is complete. There is no single or repeatable approach. Content may carry less weight today, and in many cases that is true, yet small wording changes can still push messages to spam. The same applies to URLs. One sender can use shared tracking domains with no impact, while another gets hit immediately. The static layer is the foundation. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC must be implemented correctly and consistently. When they are, they behave in a predictable way and eliminate an entire class of technical failure. But they do not explain most of the day to day differences in inbox placement. Those differences come from the dynamic layer. Reputation, historical behavior, user interaction, volume consistency, timing, content patterns, and mailbox provider specific signals all interact and shift over time. This is where inbox placement starts to differ from sender to sender, even when the technical setup is identical. You will often hear from deliverability experts that audience quality is the foundation of everything. Conceptually, that is correct. In practice, it is not always operationally realistic at scale. You cannot always limit sending to only highly engaged users and still meet business goals. There is no universal fix and no claim of having cracked deliverability. The work is understanding how the system behaves for a given sender and adjusting based on real signals. So WTF is deliverability? It is being confident on Monday, confused on Wednesday, and debugging a new “edge case” by Friday. #Deliverability

There's a lot of noise right now about Gmail open rates being inflated by image prefetching. That behavior isn’t new. Gmail has been doing some version of this for years. That’s worth calling out for folks who aren’t aware, but when I see people treating this like a brand new explanation for what’s happening right now… that’s where things start to fall apart (including my patience). What’s changing right now doesn’t look like “more of the same”… it looks like something else shifting in how engagement is being recorded. Across ESPs and senders, I’m seeing Gmail opens trending slightly down since late February / early March… while clicks are holding steady. If this were just more prefetching, you’d expect opens to go up… or at least stay flat. A downward trend with stable clicks points to fewer automatic opens being triggered, not more. So yes, something does seem to be shifting at Gmail. Just not in the direction being claimed. --- This is a good example of where deliverability advice starts to fall apart. It needs more context… not years-old behavior reframed as something new and urgent. A metric moves. Someone notices. A post goes up with arrows and urgency. And suddenly practitioners are optimizing for the wrong thing… or panicking about a problem that doesn’t match what’s actually happening in production. The inbox doesn’t care about the post. It responds to behavior. --- That gap between what’s being said and what’s actually happening is exactly why I built a crash course on deliverability fundamentals… and a workshop on inbox visibility. I've spent years inside ESPs, alongside mailbox providers, and in anti-abuse organizations. I know what they're actually evaluating. And I’m tired of watching people point senders in the wrong direction. So if you want to understand how deliverability actually works — not just what's (re)circulating on LinkedIn this week… links in comments. 💌

Checked my spam folder yesterday and found SO MANY DTC brands that used to be in my promotions tab. Even found double opt-in messages in there. Seems like Google/Yahoo updates are working hard to protect consumers from receiving unwanted messages 👏 For us, email marketers that means taking time to update our sending strategies and tighten the engaged segments. If segmentation was not your top priority before, it definitely should be now! Segmentation allows you to target people based on their intent, their interests, the stage of their customer journey, demographics, location and more. Some basic tips: 1. Check your flow filters. Make sure that people are not receiving your Browse, Cart and Checkout Abandonment flows all at the same time. Think about whether people in your Welcome or Thank You flows need to receive your email campaigns. 2. Make sure to send to your Engaged Segment only. And remember, Open Rates are not the true indication of engagement. 3. Send relevant content. Engaged segment is great, but imagine how many different customer personas are there! You have VIPs, prospects, one-time buyers, low AOV, high AOV, and discount shoppers - they all resonate with a different message. So take the time to really look at your audience and craft compelling offers for them. 4. Send more text-based emails. It is not a secret that text-based emails tend to land in the inboxes more frequently than the image based. So utilize that knowledge, especially if you need to fix your reputation among inbox providers. Plain text emails have the power to stand out among the other promotions tab messages and feel much more personal than the image-based sent-to-everyone flashy email. 5. Clean your list and set up proper exclusion segments. Remove spam trap accounts, unengaged, chronic bouncers, and those who have long story of not opening. What else will you add here?

Microsoft dropped their new rules today for high-volume senders... They are expected to come into enforcement in just over 30 days. The main update. Any messages for high-volume senders (more than 5K per day) that don't pass SPF, DKIM and DMARC will: a) Get routed through to the junk/spam folder. b) Start to be completely blocked if this isn't resolved. This might ring a bell because Google and Yahoo did something similar in late 2023. So, if you pass DKIM, SPF, and DMARC -- What's the big deal? These guidelines typically signal additional tightening of spam filtering in general, so I wouldn't be surprised if you see deliverability issues start to increase. Some of the recommended guidance from Microsoft includes: 1. Clean your lists: Ideally, on a monthly basis (Allegrow has your back). 2. Clear Unsubscribe Options: Provide visible, functional opt-out mechanisms, especially for marketing emails. 3. Valid Sender Addresses: Use legitimate "From" or "Reply-To" addresses that match your sending domain and can receive responses. Interestingly, Outlook specifically mentioned that they reserve the right to take NEGATIVE ACTION, particularly against senders who breach email hygiene or authentication standards. So, bounces increase the chances of your emails being flagged for filtering + blocking. Outlook has stated this applies to ‘Outlook.com - our consumer service, which is supporting hotmail.com live.com’, probably because of the backlash Google support received when they announced similar policies for workspace users. Although this applies specifically for messages sent to those types of inboxes (at the moment), it does apply to senders FROM ANY email provider or service. The first comment will provide the full post from MS.

If you haven’t updated your email setup since 2022… There’s a good chance your emails are getting ignored—or blocked completely. Google and Yahoo rolled out three major changes that most online business owners still don’t fully understand. And ignoring them? It’s not just risky. It could be the reason your emails aren’t getting delivered. Here’s what changed: 1️⃣ You can’t use a Gmail (or Yahoo) address to send marketing emails anymore. If you’re sending from anything other than your own domain, your deliverability is already suffering—and you may not even know it. 2️⃣ Every marketing email must include a one-click unsubscribe. No more hiding unsubscribe links in tiny fonts or making people “log in to manage preferences.” If it’s not simple, you’ll rack up spam complaints—and that hurts your sender reputation. 3️⃣ Your domain must be authenticated (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). This isn’t just a technical checkbox. It’s how inbox providers determine if you’re legitimate—or a potential threat. If you skip this step, your emails could land in spam… or be silently rejected before they’re ever seen. And here’s the part most people miss: Authentication isn’t set-it-and-forget-it. You need to monitor it regularly and adjust your DMARC enforcement policy as your list grows and your sending volume increases. Inbox rules are getting tighter—and what worked before no longer cuts it. If you're not sure whether you're fully set up (or if your ESP just gave you a vague green checkmark), DM me "CHECK" and I’ll check yours out.

Social media is rented land. Email is owned land. We've all heard it a thousand times. But... that saying is misleading... Because getting your message into someone's inbox? That's controlled by the same kind of algorithms that control your Instagram reach. Gmail. Yahoo. Outlook. They decide if your carefully crafted email gets seen or dies a silent death in the promotions tab (or worse, spam). And we're watching it happen (again) right now. Microsoft is jumping into the DMARC authentication game, which means they're about to start judging your emails even harder. Some businesses will be fine. Others will watch their "owned audience" disappear overnight. Different platform. Same algorithm story. The inbox providers have ONE priority: Keep their users happy. Not you. Not your business. They track: - Open rates - Reply rates - How many delete emails - Whether people mark you as spam Break their rules and you're toast. No matter how many emails you've "collected." Does this mean you shouldn't build an email list? No. Email is still the backbone of any business. It still converts better than almost anything else. But stop lying to yourself that you "own" this channel. Instead: - Treat your list like a relationship, not a possession - Send emails people actually want to open - Stay technically clean with your sending practices - Diversify your communication channels The winners won't be the businesses with the biggest lists. They'll be the ones who earn the right to show up in the inbox. Are you earning that right?

📢 Important Update for Email Marketers - Google’s New Email Sending Standards 📧🔒 In the world of email marketing, change is constant, and it's essential to adapt to evolving standards. Google, a major player in the email ecosystem, has recently made significant updates that directly impact how eCommerce brands conduct their email marketing campaigns. Let's break it down: 📬 The Old Way: Previously, email marketers had more flexibility, often sending emails through their Email Service Provider's (ESP) server, borrowing the domain's reputation. Some even used personal Gmail accounts for this purpose. But times have changed! 🔐 Google's New Requirement: Google now demands that you prove you're a reputable sender. To achieve this, you'll need three key components: 1️⃣ SPF & DKIM Records: These records authenticate your domain and confirm that emails originate from a legitimate source. 2️⃣ A DMARC Record: DMARC protects your domain from phishing and spoofing, enhancing email security. 3️⃣ A Branded Sending Domain: In the past, emails might have come from your address but used an ESP's server. Now, you need your private domain. It's like moving from sharing a car with your friends, all of whom have different levels of care when driving, to having your own car that you bear the sole responsibility for. ✅ Here's the Breakdown: SPF and DKIM Authentication: These are the building blocks, ensuring your emails are recognized as genuine. DMARC Policy Implementation: While not mandatory for immediate enforcement, it's highly recommended. It's Gmail's way of understanding DMARC's complexity, and full enforcement offers the best protection against domain spoofing. Alignment of Sending Domain: The domain in your 'From' header must match either the SPF or DKIM domain. Consistency is key for reliable identity verification. Valid DNS Records: Maintain correct forward and reverse DNS (PTR) records for traceability and legitimacy. One-Click Unsubscribe: Make it easy for recipients to opt out of subscription-based emails. It enhances user experience and aligns with Gmail's requirements. Maintaining Low Spam Rates: Keep spam rates below 0.3%. This metric directly reflects your reputation and email practices' effectiveness. The world of email marketing is becoming more regulated, and it's our responsibility to meet these new standards to continue reaching our customers effectively. Adapting to these changes may seem daunting, but they ultimately lead to a safer and more trustworthy email environment for everyone involved. Embrace the transition and ensure your brand remains a reputable sender in the eyes of Gmail! #EmailMarketing #EmailSecurity #DMARC #SPF #DKIM #Google #DigitalMarketing #eCommerce #BrandReputation Feel free to share your thoughts or experiences in the comments below!