Issue #168 All About Email

Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #168 of All About Email!

Last week, we continued our new mini-series by looking at Santa Claus, GDPR and “Privacy First” marketing.

This week, in part four, we begin to look at “Breaking Down the Basics of Deliverability“.

Let’s go! 👇

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Until Monday, December 2nd, they’re offering 20% off annual plans.

Breaking Down the Basics of Deliverability

Deliverability is not simple and much like the AI image below, which had real issues with:

• DMARC

• DKIM

• SPF

• BIMI

🎨 I won’t be able to create the perfect picture of deliverability for today’s issue (there is too much content).

However, I will give you the basics and some further reading to get your “work of deliverability art” started. 👇

Yahoogle! (aka the Emailpocalypse)

⚡️ OK, friend, let’s get the essential Google and Yahoo Sender Requirements out of the way (something the email community has been chatting about for around a year now.)

Google and Yahoo require that you set up these email authentication methods for your domain:

• All senders: SPF or DKIM

• Bulk senders: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC

🔐 Authenticated messages:

• Help protect recipients from malicious messages, such as spoofing and phishing messages.

• Help protect you and your organization from being impersonated.

• Are less likely to be rejected or marked as spam by Gmail.

A Warning from Boromir

• Domain verification is not enough.

• Domain authentication is a minimum.

• Authentication is done with DKIM and SPF.

• DMARC (required for using BIMI).

• BIMI is new (relatively) and shiny (Verified Blue Tick in Gmail).

🎉 Thankfully, ESPs have gone beyond simply “verifying” domains (the first bullet point).

🤦‍♂️ However, they are equally providing users with a useless DMARC record or, for some people, an inferior record compared to their existing DMARC record (IYKYK).

What Does All This Mean?

🤯 OK, friend, I might have lost you if you’re not an email marketer or dev or may not be familiar with deliverability.

Let’s take it back a step and define deliverability. 👇

🧠 Proper email authentication is a foundation for showing mailbox providers that you are who you say you are.

✅ The fundamental protocols you need to have in place are:

Sender Policy Framework (SPF)

SPF allows a domain owner to indicate multiple IP addresses or domains that can send mail on their behalf via a DNS TXT entry.

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)

DKIM allows your organization to claim responsibility for your email as part of the authentication process.

Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC)

DMARC protects a domain from being used in phishing and spoofing attempts by defining how receiving inbox providers should handle messages that fail an authentication check.

Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI)

BIMI allows you to display a sender logo alongside your messages in the inbox so subscribers can quickly visually identify your brand.

Further Reading

📰 As part of our mini-series, each topic covered might include additional reading resources for building the workshops and these emails.

This week’s resources on Deliverability are:

• Yahoo - Sender Requirements.

• Google - Sender Requirements.

• Google - Sender Requirements FAQs.

• Litmus - How to navigate the changes and deliverability impacts.

• BIMI - Basic implementation guide.

• BIMI - A detailed step-by-step guide.

• "Yoogle" - Deliverability Tools Updated.

• Email Deliverability - What It Is & How to Improve It.

That’s it for This Week 👋

⏭️ Next week, we will continue our mini-series as we conclude part four of “Breaking Down the Basics of Deliverability” by looking at sending from subdomains.

🎉 Remember the announcement I said I would make once I upgraded my Beehiiv plan (using their 20%-off % discount)? Well, I upgraded my plan, and here it is!…

I’m launching a paid version of this newsletter in the New Year! More details to follow, but:

• This free version of the newsletter is going nowhere!

• This free version is going to get better!

See you next week! 😀

Sponsorship Opportunities

🚨 If you’re interested in sponsoring the “All About Email” newsletter, you can find all the details in this Google Doc. I currently have “Classified” slots and a Main Sponsor slot available.

Email Marketing News & Tips

This week's excellent and insightful email news & tips:

• Subject Lines - A new Chrome extension is coming soon! Save your favourite subject lines directly from your inbox to a Notion database. (Naomi West)

• 50% Off - The Email Marketing course with code: “ANOTHERSALE”. I’ve bought this course myself! 🎉 (Naomi West)

• Podcast Alert! - “Growth in Reverse” is about to launch. (Chenell Basilio and Dylan Redekop)

• Whoops! - Apple Intelligence email summary fails. (Kelly Moran)

• Not So Stand Out - “May your emails stand out in the inbox today!” (Emily Ryan)

• HTML Email Design - Show them this cheat sheet to help set expectations and streamline the design process. (Maggie Glascott)

• AI Summaries for Email - Design Impacts on Marketers. (Kaiti Gary & Sarah Gallardo)

• So Funny!!! - How do you explain DMARC to a family member? 🤣 (Valimail & more)

• Time’s Up - What will email expiration dates look like in email clients (Jonathan Loriaux)

• Reputation (Not that one) - Free Email Verification Tools to Protect Your Sender Reputation. (Email Tooltester)

If you have a question about this email or email marketing, reply, and I will answer you as soon as possible.

I hope you have a great week! 👋