Hey,

Google is making a big change soon—like… in a matter of days—which will have a huge impact on email marketing.

It’s highly technical (and super boring) but it could prison-shank your author newsletter unless you take a couple of steps now, and also embrace best practices generally over the longer term.

Be warned: these are requirements not recommendations.

Today we’ll run through what’s happening—in plain English—i.e. who is affected, how you can sort it out, and why this is ultimately a good thing.

Yes, we’re going to take our gross-tasting medicine and give it a glowing review too.

What is happening, maaaaan?

Google and Yahoo are bringing in new rules to protect their users from bad actors.

I’m not referring to Steven Seagal; anyone sending bulk email will be required to take a few steps to prove they are legit.

Estimates suggest that over 150 billion spam emails are sent every single day, matched by a similar number of legitimate messages. This creates a problem for the likes of Gmail because most of the legitimate stuff is coming from unverified senders.

Google is particularly worried about the recent rise in spoofing—where scammers email people pretending to be a legitimate person or company—so they have worked with others in the industry like Yahoo to come up with a solution to sort bad from good, and real from fake.

In simple terms, you have to get fully authenticated. And not only that, Google will now also require that you provide a one-click unsubscribe in your newsletters, and keep your spam report rate below 0.3% going forward.

When is it happening?

Feb 1st.

As in next Thursday. Yeah. That soon.

And if you don’t get fully authenticated, your open rates will probably plummet as a lot more emails will start hitting Spam or Promotions.

Who is affected?

Some people aren’t taking action here because they don’t have a big list, but this isn’t the smartest approach, in my opinion.

Gmail said it will affect anyone sending 5,000 emails a day, which is giving some people an excuse to skip this. But Yahoo are applying the new standards to everyone; it would be no surprise if others follow.

Third—and most important of all—there are considerable benefits from taking these steps, regardless of list size or send volume, so I recommend grasping the nettle now, especially when there is all this handy advice flying around.

Those benefits include improved deliverability, a boost to your open rates, and a helping hand in growing your list - so not to be sneezed at, before you reach for that sneezing powder.

You could argue this is even more crucial for those growing their lists versus those already above Google’s thresholds.

Because doing this will help you grow. Not doing this will slow your growth. And the beginning is when growth is hardest.

Indeed, taking these steps has been considered email marketing best practice long before Google’s announcement last October, and has been my recommended approach for some time—if you have been following all my resources. I have had all this stuff in place for a few years now and I can confirm the benefits.

So, if you have taken my advice already, or someone like Newsletter Ninja’s advice—then you are probably in good shape for this already. But read on to be sure, and to see how you can verify all that, as it really is very important indeed.

How can you fix it?

If you reach the thresholds mentioned above, and don’t take action, you could run into serious issues with any email campaigns sent after 1 February 2024.

To put a finer point on it, your open rates could take a dive.

This can be so hard to recover from that I really don’t recommend sending newsletters after 1 February 2024, if you are over the threshold mentioned above. (I suggest everyone takes these steps, but those under the threshold have less of a ticking clock, I guess.)

Yeah, it’s that serious. Take-action-ASAP-serious.

You will need to do three things:

1. Authenticate your domain with your Email Marketing Service (EMS)
2. Ensure your EMS has a one-click unsubscribe.
3. Keep your spam report rate below 0.3%—as measured by Google Postmaster Tools.

Your EMS will probably be someone like MailerLite or ConvertKit - if you have followed my recommendations - or perhaps an alternative procider like MailChimp or ActiveCampaign or SendFox or Constant Contact or... whoever; there are many.

They should have emailed you about these changes this week—but you may have missed that message.

If your EMS doesn’t provide a one-click unsubscribe, or doesn’t have the ability for you to fully authenticate your domain, consider moving.

Fully authenticating your domain can get super complex, and reading about the topic can give anyone instant narcolepsy.

But there is a quick fix to get you through 1 February, and then you can slowly attack the more “correct” way at your own pace, if desired.

What is domain authentication?

Domain authentication is basically Gmail checking that you really are who you say you are. Of course, Google operates on more than just vibes so there are a couple of technical steps.

You need to ensure you are sending emails from your own domain and that you have verified same.

So if you skipped my previous advice—pretty much everyone’s advice—to run your mailing list from your own domain, one you control, now you have to bite the bullet. Get one cheap at somewhere like Namecheap if you need to—I’ve used them for my domain needs for years and they are reliable and competitively priced.

If you already have your own domain, then you need to authenticate this with your own Email Marketing Service (EMS).

MailerLite and ConvertKit

These are the two EMSs I recommend—both of which I use personally.

If you need to switch, I generally suggest MailerLite as my default recommendation, especially for fiction authors and those growing their lists.

If you are a non-fiction author, or sell digital products directly, or run courses, or need lots of fancy integrations, more complex automations, or just a more premium service for whatever reason… I suggest ConvertKit.

Both of those are affiliate links, but I’ve been using both services happily for years (MailerLite for my fiction, ConvertKit for my non-fiction—and this here newsletter).

Below you will find the official resources for MailerLite and ConvertKit users for authenticating your domain and keeping in compliance with Google.

But before diving into those, you might also want to check out the more author-focused resources below from my two favorite experts on email and websites, Tammi Labrecque and Caro Begin.

MailerLite’s approach to all this is pretty typical. Namely, go to Account Settings -> Domains, and then follow these steps to authenticate your domain.

ConvertKit, however, win this week’s prized jar of virtual kudos by rolling out a change last week to handle all this stuff quite brilliantly. Because, to my knowledge, it’s the only EMS where you can actually fix all this stuff without going elsewhere—you can actually do it all from inside the interface. It’s a neat approach. More on that here.

Those articles are fine, but they don’t really explain how to do things like your DMARC records properly, which are an important part of this. And if you try and Google it, well, good luck to ya.

Author-focused resources

A much better idea is to read this comprehensive article from Caro Begin (my go-to website person and general tech wizard). As flagged above, I recommend going with the “quick fix” approach and tackling the rest when you have more time to get your head around the technicalities.

Equally helpful is this guide to DMARC from Tammi Labrecque (my go-to email person and actual ninja). This article was actually an exclusive for her newsletter but she kindly allowed me to share it with you guys.

Both of these people know much more than me on this topic, so I recommend following their advice closely. And the Newsletter Ninja Facebook group is the best place to discuss all this stuff, as with anything email. Sometimes I answer questions there. Sometimes I ask them!

Why is this good?

With the possible exception of Caro and Tammi, no one enjoys dealing with this stuff so why is it good news?

• Following these steps will have an immediate, positive impact on deliverability, and you should see a rise in open rates as a result, with more emails hitting Inbox and avoiding Spam or Promotions.
• It will be much easier for Gmail et al to spot actual spammers and scammers.
• You will have more protection against someone spoofing your email account and scamming people under your name.

Nobody likes jumping through hoops. But if it’s something I only need to do once, and it makes life more difficult for spammers forever while delivering measurable benefits to me… I’m in.

If you have any questions about this stuff, I don't recommend asking me because I'm trying to buy a house this weekend and my brain is mush. The Newsletter Ninja Facebook group has many active threads on this topic and everyone is helping each other muddle through.

Also a great place to discuss the migration to the New MailerLite platform which is compulsory for all users on the Free tier - also from February 1.

So if you have been putting that off too... RIP your weekend.

Dave

P.S. Writing music this week is Formidable by Stromae.