IMPORTANT Gmail is Updating their DMARC Policy

In the past couple of months, there’s been a number of email service providers such as AOL and YAHOO updating their DMARC policies – and now Gmail is updating their DMARC Policy too.

What is DMARC and why is it important?

DMARC stands for “Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance”. In a nut shell, this is an email authentication protocol to stop fraudulent emails. (If you REALLY want to learn more about this, read this).

What is happening?

In June, Gmail will update their DMARC policy to ‘reject’, thus any mail sent through a third party (like Mailchimp, Mad Mimi, etc.) with a Gmail “from” address will most likely be rejected and not delivered by most receiving domains.  If you have an aol or yahoo email address, your third party emails are most likely being rejected too. THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING!

The solution?

It’s only a matter of time before other ISP’s (internet service providers) make similar changes. So switching to another freemail provider is not advised! I’d recommend using a custom domain for your “from” address instead of gmail.com (or aol.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com, outlook.com, mail.com etc.)

First, set up an email address with your own private domain. For example, my domain is yourmarketingbff.com and I’ve created a tana@yourmarketingbff.com email address with my hosting account.

Next, change your “from” address in email campaigns (like Mailchimp and Mad Mimi). I also recommend changing the contact email for your email campaign account, website and wordpress user profiles.

Don’t have your own domain yet? Here’s a couple affordable options: Bluehost and Godaddy.

Side Note: A dedicated business email address – one that ends in your domain name – looks a lot more professional, is easier for people to find your business in online searches, AND helps your mail deliver safely.

I know what some of you are thinking…

Business email addresses are a pain to access via your hosting company’s email platform! I actually have mine forwarded to my outlook so it’s not a pain, but for all of you that want to check your business emails with Gmail, I have a solution to this too… but you’ll have to wait for next week’s post.