How Google’s New Email Sender Requirements Will Affect Your Club

You may have already heard that Google has officially tightened its restrictions on email-sending requirements, making it harder to send emails, especially bulk emails, without them getting flagged as spam.  

The good news is that Member Jungle has already made several behind-the-scenes changes to our email system to ensure that your club's emails comply with Google's new, stricter standards. 

Once your emails start getting marked as spam, it is a whole lot harder to change Google's mind about them than it is to stop them from being marked as spam in the first place. Prevention really is the best cure here. 

So, with that in mind, let's examine what's new with Google's email rules, what Member Jungle has changed, and what you need to do to ensure your club's emails never end up in someone's spam folder. 

What Changes Have Google Made To Its Email Rules

Google has made several changes to protect the average person from scam and spam emails. Consequently, it has become slightly harder to prove that emails aren't spam. 

The biggest change to take effect is that all marketing emails must have a one-click unsubscribe option. This means that the recipients of your email must be able to click a single link and instantly unsubscribe from all of your emails, with the exception of transaction emails. 

The unsubscribe process can't have multiple steps, where members have to enter their email and passcode first. It just needs to be a simple one-click, and you’re out. 
 

The body of your emails must also contain an unsubscribe link, though this one does not need to be a one-click one. 

You need to have a one-click unsubscribe in either your header or footer and an unsubscribe link somewhere in your email. 

The other significant changes involve enforcing DMARC Authentication for your sending domain and aligning your “From” header with that domain. 

If that sentence made you go cross-eyed, don’t worry. It had the exact same effect on me. 

In English, it means the following: 

• All the emails you send out via your Member Jungle Email Campaign Module need to be authorised from our servers.
   
• The email you put as the “From” email in your email marketing campaign needs to be authorised with us. 

Basically, if Google can’t easily see that the bulk emails coming from your system are linked to our servers, they will assume that your emails are spam. Once that happens, your ability to communicate effectively with your members will nose dive.  

Let’s discuss what steps you need to take to ensure compliance with all of Google’s new requirements. 

What Your Club Needs To Comply With Google’s Changes To Email Sender Requirements 

Your first step in ensuring that your DMARC Authentication and “From” address are all linked to the correct accounts is to Raise A Support Ticket. In that support ticket, you will need to let us know that you want to ensure that your email settings are up to date and compliant with Google’s changes. 

Our tech support team will work with you from there to ensure that side of your email marketing campaign is compliant with all the changes going forward. 

The next thing you need to consider is sorting out your one-click unsubscribe links for all your emails if your system doesn’t do this automatically. I said it above, but it is worth saying again that this applies to all emails sent from your email marketing module except transaction emails. 

Transaction emails are emails confirming that a person has purchased a product or event ticket from your club and emails containing shipping information. These are absolutely not emails advertising products or events; all emails advertising events and products will need a one-click unsubscribe button. 

The good news is that as a part of the March Release at Member Jungle, we have added a one-click unsubscribe button to the footer of all applicable emails sent via the Member Jungle email marketing campaign module so you don’t have to do anything. 

You can see an example of this footer in practice in the screenshot below.

 

 

The truth is, it is a whole lot easier to implement a few simple practices now than slowly prove to Google that you aren't, in fact, a spam sender. If you follow all of the above recommendations and take advantage of Member Jungle's latest product release, this tightening of the rules will not be a problem for you. 

What's My First Step In Keeping My Club's Spam Email Rates Low?

As I said above, you should Open a Support Ticket to speak to a member of our team and ensure compliance with the new changes. 

Reading the following article about email deliverability best practices is also a really good idea. It is written by someone much more tech-savvy than me and does a fantastic job of explaining some of the more perplexing terms and rules we have covered today. So go put your peepers on it: Email Delivery Best Practice.

If you aren't a Member Jungle customer and have kind of just ended up here because you were looking into how to keep your club or association compliant with Google's changing rules. First, Hi ¿¿, and second, check the following article out: What is Member Jungle?