Starting February 1, 2024, all senders who send email to Gmail accounts must meet the requirements in this section.
- Set up SPF or DKIM email authentication for your domain.
- Ensure that sending domains or IPs have valid forward and reverse DNS records, also referred to as PTR records.
- Keep spam rates reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%.
- Format messages according to the Internet Message Format standard ( RFC 5322 ).
- Don’t impersonate Gmail From: headers. Gmail will begin using a DMARC quarantine enforcement policy, and impersonating Gmail From: headers might impact your email delivery.
- If you regularly forward email, including using mailing lists or inbound gateways, add ARC headers to outgoing email. ARC headers indicate the message was forwarded and identify you as the forwarder. Mailing list senders should also add a List-id: header, which specifies the mailing list, to outgoing messages.
In addition to the previous requirements, senders that send over 5,000 emails per day are required to fulfill these additional requirements.
- Set up DMARC email authentication for your sending domain. Your DMARC enforcement policy can be set to none .
- For direct mail, the domain in the sender's From: header must be aligned with either the SPF domain or the DKIM domain. This is required to pass DMARC alignment.
- For subscribed messages, enable one-click unsubscribe and include a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the message body.
ReachMail Tool Chest
We already provide one-click unsubscribe within your emails, format your emails RFC 5322 by the requirements, monitor Postmaster tools for your IPs, and send you updates if your IPs continually experience large spam complaint rates. These updates require no changes or updates on our part. It removes the fear of these guidelines as you are already above these minimum requirements.
The changes that will need to take place within your ReachMail account with the tools we provide are:
- You can no longer send from a gmail.com domain; you will want to explore the option of a custom domain for your emails or another domain that works best for you and your mailings. Otherwise, your emails will default to @send.reach-mail.com.
- SPF - We have the ability to add the SPF record to your account. Here is the documentation that guides you through this process. This works for when you have a custom domain. It cannot be added to a domain you don’t own.
- DKIM - We have the ability to add the DKIM record to your account. Here is the detailed documentation that guides you through this process. This works for when you have a custom domain. It cannot be added to a domain you don’t own.
- DMARC- This NEW feature now enables you to add a DMARC record and review the reports sent to ensure that the correct emails are passing and the spoofing/phishing emails are being rejected, pending your policy. This better explains the reason for DMARC and how it works . This leads you to how to set up that record and go through the journey of getting your DMARC in place.