You’ve heard scary things about DMARC, Google and Yahoo changing the rules on how emails get delivered to the inbox…
You know the changes are coming in February 2024 – and right now it’s like the whole town knows there’s a monster coming over the hill; everyone is freaking out.
You’re a person who sends emails for their business, so you DO need to know about this stuff.
I’m glad you’re here – you’re already winning 🙌
And the good news is you DON’T need to panic.
This blog is about the email deliverability rule changes coming to Google and Yahoo inboxes from Feb 2024 that will impact all email senders.
I’m Kay Peacey – world leading ActiveCampaign expert – so we’re focussed on ActiveCampaign emails and how the changes will impact teams using ActiveCampaign to send emails. But most of it applies whichever platform you’re using to send emails, so stick around either way.
We’ll cover:
- what’s changing
- what’s staying the same
- understanding the details
- three things to do now so you’re ready in January 2024 for next steps
If you’re a bit hazy on what email deliverability is, or have never learned about it, go start on our blog that explains email deliverability from scratch – then come back here afterwards.
If you want to check to see where you stand and what needs doing now this blog and video shows you how to check your email authentication quickly for any platform
Follow these steps to keep your ActiveCampaign emails out of the spam folder
Watch Kay Peacey explain why you don’t need to panic about DMARC for ActiveCampaign emails
Try ActiveCampaign now with a two week free trial
Understand why the Google inbox changes are good for everyone
Volumes of email traffic are super-high and getting higher all the time.
Spammers, con-artists, robots and AI assisted cold-emailers galore are swamping the world with unwanted emails.
The Mailbox Providers (that’s Google, Yahoo etc) are the guardians of our inbox citadels.
Mailbox providers are the gatekeepers who send unwanted emails to the trash before we ever see them; without mailbox providers keeping most of the trash out we’d all abandon our inboxes tomorrow.
The changes coming in Feb 2024 from Google set the bar higher for email to get delivered, so that less unwanted email will get through to our inboxes.
This is a good thing for everyone who receives, looks at, sends, writes or uses email in any way, so embrace the change, and go see what you need to do as a sender to stay on the right side of it.
Know what is not changing about ActiveCampaign deliverability best practice
There are many things NOT changing about email deliverability for ActiveCampaign users.
Four things ActiveCampaign users must do to make sure emails get delivered reliably
- Understand who’s who in the email deliverability game
- Be an obviously and clearly authentic email sender
- Send emails people want to read to people who want to hear from you
- Monitor ActiveCampaign contacts with efffective engagement tagging
If you are sending email from ActiveCampaign and not already doing those things, go learn how to do them, now. Don’t delay.
These things have always been necessary, but it’s getting even more important now. Get our help to do it fast with our flagship email deliverability and engagement course in the ActiveCampaign Academy.
Learn more about our ActiveCampaign Academy membership
Fast, effective training & support for ActiveCampaign users everywhere
Learn about email authentication DMARC ActiveCampaign users need to have
For each platform that sends email using your domain, it’s long been advised to make sure that SPF and DKIM are set up.
The Google delivery rules change change coming in Feb 2024 means that two things are changing for technical email authentication
The two things that are changing for email authentication in Feb 2024
- you must have SPF and DKIM set up and working for each sending platform –
(It’s no longer just advisable, it’s essential) - you must have a minimum DMARC record set up and working for your domain
But look – you don’t really need to know what those scary letters mean.
DKIM, SPF and DMARC are all just bits of text that have to be put in a particular place in your website backend tech.
- SPF is one line of text that needs to have the right words for the platforms that send for you
- DKIM is a line or two of text for each platform that sends for you
- DMARC is one line of text
They sound terrifying – but each of them is just a copy and paste job.
The trick is to know where to find the stuff to paste in, and then where to put it, and how to check it’s working.
We’ve got you covered in the ActiveCampaign Academy with our full Better Engagement and Deliverability training course with step by step guidance and full support with 100% success rate of getting this done. Find out all the details on our deliverability training here.
Learn more about our ActiveCampaign Academy membership
Fast, effective training & support for ActiveCampaign users everywhere
Discover what’s changing about ActiveCampaign spam report rates
There’s another major shift from February 2024 in how Mailbox Providers like Google and Yahoo will be deciding whether to treat you the email you sent as spam (undelivered, or straight to spam folder), or as a much wanted email (delivered to inbox).
Spam report rates will be monitored very closely, and if you go over the limit, your email delivery will get into trouble.
We’ve always advised you to stay away from behaviours that get you reported as spam – accidentally dressing up as a #SkankySpammer is major cause of deliverability problems.
From Feb 2024 Google and Yahoo plan to monitor spam-report rates, and will be stopping your emails from reaching inboxes if you go over their limits.
Spam report rate changes for ActiveCampaign emails from Feb 2024
For each 1000 emails you send that are engaged with, you can get away with a maximum of 3 spam reports
Limit on spam report rates fro Google and Yahoo from Feb 2024
This means you must use best practice to send only to engaged contacts.
If you continue to send to contacts who are not engaging with your emails, you risk higher spam report rates
If you go over their limit of 3 spam reports per 1000 engaged sends the Mailbox Providers will be taking action to prevent your emails from being delivered.
And it’s going to be hard to come back from that.
So don’t do it.
Instead, stay in the loop with us for advice on all the steps you need to take. If you’re not already in our ActiveCampaign Academy for full training, support and troubleshooting, then please at least join our free Faceboook group and join our email list to make the most of the free advice and reminders we share.
Visit our FREE Facebook Group for ActiveCampaign users now
The safe place to freak out and geek out about ActiveCampaign
Do these 3 things now to prepare for the email deliverability changes from Feb 2024
Right now, you need to start preparing for the changes to Google and Yahoo delivery rules, including the addition of DMARC requirements.
Even if you are planning to hire someone to do this stuff for you, you will need this information and planning ready to roll.
3 things ActiveCampaign users should do now for Google and DMARC changes in Feb 2024
- Make a list of all platforms that send emails on your behalf using a sender email address from your domain
– You will need to check SPF and DKIM for each platform so the first step is making a list of them
– Platforms sending on your behalf without SPF and DKIM will not make it to the inbox reliably after Feb 2024 - Find out where your DNS records are, and make sure that a person in your team can access and edit them
– The DNS records are where the SPF DKIM and DMARC records live so you need to know where and how to edit them
– Check your website hosting first as that’s the most common place for DNS records to be held for a domain - Set up high quality Engagement Monitoring in your ActiveCampaign account and check that it is working
– This is what lets you see which contacts are engaged with your emails
– You need it so that you can avoid sending emails to people who no longer enjoy hearing from you
Do these three things and you’ll be in good shape come January 2024 to dig in and do the necessary authentication bits, and make sure you’re sending responsibly and not likely to go over the spam-report limit.
This blog and video shows you how to check your email authentication quickly for any platform
ActiveCampaign Academy members will find a full detailed prep list, and all the support needed to get these done in our private member community.
Get more help with email deliverability for ActiveCampaign
In the ActiveCampaign Academy we provide high quality, fast and fun training and support for everything you need for your email sending.
The authentication techy bits, the best practice for sending, all the engagement monitoring, strategy, cleanup and decision points.
Our record on this is 100% success rate for members to get their email authentication set up, engagement increased, and deliverability scores dramatically up 🙌
So come on in to the ActiveCampaign Academy, and you’ll have Kay Peacey and the Slick Business team, and all your lovely fellow members, to guide you every step of the way to fabulousness with ActiveCampaign.
Learn more about our ActiveCampaign Academy membership
Fast, effective training & support for ActiveCampaign users everywhere
