Google and Yahoo · February 2024
The day authentication stopped being optional
Gmail and Yahoo started demanding SPF, DKIM and DMARC together. Companies that had sent
mail for ten years on one SPF record suddenly stopped arriving. No bounce, no error, no
warning. Their open rates just fell and nobody could say why.
What it means for you: you will not be told. Check the three records yourself, today, or
keep paying for mail nobody sees.
Google bulk sender guidelines and Yahoo sender requirements, effective 1 February 2024 Any sequence · the second email
Where sequences actually break
Somebody writes the first email carefully. The second one goes to everybody, the same
text, whatever they did. People who already bought get asked to buy. People who never
opened get the same message twice. That is when they unsubscribe.
What it means for you: one condition after the first email fixes it. No new tool, no
budget. Ten minutes of work.
Our own reading of the pattern, offered as an argument rather than a statistic