Updated 1/26/2024

Google and Yahoo have announced new requirements that bulk email senders must meet to continue to have successful delivery of emails to their domains. While these requirements have long been considered best practices, both companies are now making them mandatory starting February, 2024.

Links to the announcements are provided below.

• Yahoo - https://blog.postmaster.yahooinc.com/post/730172167494483968/more-secure-less-spam
• Google - https://blog.google/products/gmail/gmail-security-authentication-spam-protection/ 

For easier understanding, the requirements can be categorized into three broad categories:

1. Email Authentication
2. Easy Unsubscribe
3. Keeping Spam Rates Low

Email Authentication

To protect end users, email must be properly signed and authenticated using these standards: Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain Message Authentication Reporting & Confirmation (DMARC).

As a GrowthZone customer, if you have followed our best practices and added the suggested records to your DNS records, you are already in good shape for this category. We've had all three of those standards in our documentation as the recommended DNS entries for quite some time. 

As long as your DNS is validated in GrowthZone, you are good to go.

Easy Unsubscribe

GrowthZone has you covered in this regard. We've recently reviewed and updated our code to ensure that the often-talked-about "one-click' unsubscribe is included in both our standard GrowthZone emails and the Email Designer emails. There is no action needed from you - all outgoing emails now include the One-click Unsubscribe. 

In regards to unsubscribe there is one simple thing you can check - ensure that you have not removed your unsubscribe link from your email footer. Locate your email footer under Setup, Email Settings. Scroll down to the large "Unsubscribe Message" editor. Ensure this message has the unsubscribe link included in the message body, along with the best practice suggestion of displaying your name and contact info in the footer. If needed, see the FAQ below for how to put the unsubscribe link back.

Keeping Spam Rates Low

This category is where the real work comes - day to day management of your email lists. 

Taking the time to ensure that the people on your lists do want to receive your emails is so very important. If your recipients mark your email as 'spam', your spam complaint rates goes up. When that happens, you are putting deliverability at risk. 

If you want to keep an eye on this rate for Gmail emails, you can create your own Google Postmaster Tools account. See instructions from Google. You may need to get assistance from your IT person to get setup properly.

To help you review best practices for sending and creating emails, take a look at these resources offered by GrowthZone.

• Article "Why Emails May Not Reach Your Members". Read article.
• Webinar recording "5 Ways to Ensure Emails Get Through". Watch recording.

What's next? Does GrowthZone have any changes planned?

There is planned improvements coming in the next couple weeks for one particular situation. However, if you only send from a single domain, this will not apply to you.

Up to this point, the Growthzone DNS validation process has only looked for and supported the validation of a single email domain. In the next several weeks you will see our validation tool improved in several ways. 

• "Verify Email DNS" will check DNS records for all domains that you might send from
• Reasons for validation failure will be displayed

Once that support is in place, staff will see a new warning message when sending an email from a domain that has not been validated. 

If you are wondering if this will apply to you, click "Send Email" somewhere in GrowthZone (under Communication in the left-nav for example). Then take a look at the email addresses that are listed in the "From" drop-down menu. Every email address shown here will need to have valid DNS records if you wish to send from that address without risk. 

For example, an association that sends email from susan@mychamber.com and also sends email from susan@myfoundation.com would have a valid reason to have both of these email domains shown in their From list. Going forward, both of those domains need to be supported in your DNS records. GrowthZone will only have validated one of those two thus far without the upcoming improvements. (Note: The one that GrowthZone will have validated is the domain listed in the default from email address under Email Settings.)

Final words

As standards evolve, GrowthZone will continue to monitor and adjust to the constantly changing world we live in. GrowthZone is excited about and committed to being on this journey with you of constant improvement. 

Thank you for your partnership and for choosing us as your association management software. 

--GrowthZone Product Team

FAQs

Q: Where do I verify my Email DNS records in GrowthZone?

A: Refer to GrowthZone's knowledgebase article. View article.

Q: What are the required DNS records that we need to put in place?

A: Refer to GrowthZone's knowledge base. View article.

Q: Do you have any resources to help me understand more about SPF, DKIM, and DMARC?

A: Yes. We love these 3 videos by Postmark, an email delivery service that is well-known in this area. They take a light-hearted, but easy to understand approach using puppies, kitties, and ducks in their explanation. Check them out here.

Q: Does this information apply to me? I'm not sure that I qualify as a bulk sender.

A: Google classifies a bulk sender as one who sends 5,000 or more emails/day to Gmail accounts. However, in their guidelines, those sending less than 5,000 a day still must meet minimum requirements which include almost all of the same requirements. 

Q: What are the extra requirements for those sending over 5,000 emails/day?

A: The most notable, easy-to-explain difference is that a DMARC record is not required in your DNS unless sending over 5,000 records. However, GrowthZone has upgraded our validation code to require a DMARC record in order to be considered a valid sender from GrowthZone. With this new requirement, whether you qualify as a bulk sender or not, your configuration will be at the highest level of requirements going forward. This is a good idea to have anyway plus it prepares you for the future and ensures best deliverability rates for things we can control.

Q: What if I don't have a DMARC record in my DNS records?

A: GrowthZone customers that validated their Email DNS successfully within GrowthZone prior to the inclusion of the DMARC record as a requirement (which began 1/23/2024) will continue to show as valid (with or without the DMARC record included). However, if you try to validate your DNS again in GrowthZone, the new minimums will be checked. If your DNS records do not include a valid DMARC record, your DNS validation will fail. It will not be able to be validated until you add the DMARC record.

Q: What happens if I send email from GrowthZone and don't have my DNS validated in GrowthZone?

A: When the GrowthZone validation is set to false (not validated), then emails sent from your domain through GrowthZone have a very high chance of getting marked as spam and your sender reputation will likely take a downward trend. Your emails are sent out but recipients could see in the email header information stating your email was sent from your domain but "via growthzoneapp.com". That is not what email servers or recipients like to see - it looks suspect and so may not get through to your recipient.

Q: What if I send email from a Gmail.com or Yahoo.com (or other similar email domains). Are those supported?

A: Supported yes, but not recommended. When selecting a From address with a gmail.com, yahoo.com or other similar 'generic' domain, you'll see a warning message reminding you that this address is more likely to be seen as spam. Recipients may question it's legitimacy because it is not sent from a domain owned by your association - it looks suspicious. However, GrowthZone will send the email for you but will append the GrowthZone domain (growthzoneapp.com) to the 'from' email address to improve deliverability. 

Q: How do I add the Unsubscribe link back into my email footer if it removed?

A: If the unsubscribe link is missing from your Unsubscribe Message, you can add it by clicking the "Code View" </> button in the editor toolbar. Then add this specific HTML in your message. 

<a href="{{ UnsubscribeUrl }}">To unsubscribe click here.</a>

If you are unfamiliar with HTML, please get assistance from someone that is familiar with HTML. GrowthZone support is always happy to assist as well.