New email rules
Nika Talbot ?
I help founders build influence, impact and income via writing, storytelling and AI. | Writer & Founder @ Firebird | Business and creativity newsletter+: The Shift. Building my portfolio career ??
How to prep for upcoming changes. PLUS: Newsletter Talent Directory!
I did a Lunch & Learn yesterday on the new Google/Yahoo email requirements with the?Unemployables .
BIG changes coming in Feb. Everyone with an email newsletter needs to pay attention to this! (lots of noise/panic, etc; it feels like GDPR all over again).
Presentation by MV Braverman , founder of Your Tech Maven - she did a good job simplifying complicated stuff for us non-techies.
Here’s a summary of what you need to know.
What’s happening?
Back in October,?Google ?and Yahoo released new guidelines for mass mailers in February to protect against spam, phishing, and fraud - and for better deliverability.
There’s a big focus on authentication - mail sent without proper authentication may go to junk/spam.
What is a bulk sender?
Problem
The Freelance?published a piece in December about the?British Library cyberattack ?- pretty much incapacitated since October, which is worrying and has delayed UK authors’ PLR payments. They’re hoping to issue them before the end of March.?Still can’t log in to change my password.
Imagine if the banks went down. I don’t carry cash any more - it’s all Contactless. I got locked out of the Revolut Business app as I couldn’t verify an old Gmail address. Took the best part of a day to sort it out - much hair-pulling and palpitations.
Not good to be so reliant on the internet for the basics. As my wise friend Kate says - best to stash some cash under the mattress, just in case!
Solution
These have been best practices for many years but are now becoming mandatory.
- SPF, DKIM, and DMARC - done right
- Verify 1-Click Unsubscribe support
- Keep spam complaint rates below 0.1% with each platform
First thing. “Go to the platform you’re using, get their instructions and implement them.”
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I emailed Substack about it this week - not had a reply yet so I asked Braverman.
“Substack is doing their own thing - none of these changes affect Substack users.”
What, even if you pay for a custom domain? Yes, emails are still sent from the platform.
That’s good, then. But we still need to pay attention to this and take charge of our sender reputation. If you’re using Substack to send emails, that’s out of your hands. It’s down to the platform; we’d all be affected if something spammy/hacky happened.
So,?email hygiene. Clean up your list every six months. If you check the Subscribers tab in your dashboard, you can see the no of **** after a name, showing their engagement.
No stars? Not reading? Send them a last-chance email to ask if they want to stay on the list.
Also important to download your list regularly - and have a backup copy of your work.
Common sense and well overdue - inboxes are out of control. Email experience needs to be better - and other providers will follow suit.
This might help us all get to inbox zero, yahoo! ??
And some great advice from Braverman to wrap up. “If it’s a one-time thing, you don’t need to understand it deeply. Do what you do best.” Hire help!
“What about emojis in email subject lines - yay or nay?”
“I don’t like them personally, but they don’t affect email deliverability.”
Some useful resources?here .
Nika
Newsletter Talent Directory! ??
Set this up to help people find other newsletter writers (and neighbours!) in their niche for collabs. Feel free to add your deets?here .
It was initially for Substack writers, but then I thought better to keep it open to all newsletter writers, regardless of platform, for more opportunities.
It’s editable, so a bit of a social experiment!
?? Please recycle. I'd love people to make use of this resource ??
Thanks for reading. If you have topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, please get in touch: [email protected] . Would love to hear from you.
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10 个月My understanding is that this also applies to those who use a CRM. I use Dubsado and they sent me an email about how these new rules evidently pertain to the email connected to them as well.
Email Marketing and Deliverability for Small Businesses | Certified Email Authentication and Deliverability Specialist | Email Marketing Community Top Voice | Email [email protected]
10 个月Thanks for coming and your summary, Nika!
Ecommerce Analytics Consultant | Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager & Looker Studio since 2016 | Question E-commerce Newsletter | A very special coworking Podcast
10 个月And double opt-in. It's been a best practice for ages but still not that many use it. Do you want to send emails to get marked as spam? No? Then, make sure your subscribers actually want to get your emails. That's what double opt-in does.
Looking to build, grow, and monetize your newsletter? We should chat.
10 个月FWIW: I confirmed with Substack this week they they've set up SPF/DKIM/DMARC for anyone using an @substack.com email address. (If you're using a custom domain, you still need to handle these steps!)