Google and Yahoo Will Enforce New Rules for Bulk Senders

Sending bulk emails through third-party email marketing platforms (e.g., Mailchimp, Marketo, or Emma) in the new year may require you to take action before February 2024.

Google and Yahoo recently announced their plan to implement new email authentication and spam-prevention policies. Starting February 2024, the two major email providers will begin to block and aggressively filter incoming email traffic that doesn’t meet domain authentication and procedural requirements. Read Google’s announcement. 

Bulk emails from ‘stanford.edu’ domain

How will this impact bulk emails sent from the “stanford.edu” domain? To send emails through third-party email marketing platforms, you must refer to the vendor’s documentation and work with University IT (UIT) to complete the domain authentication process. 

The steps involved in the authentication process vary by the vendor. In most cases, the vendor will ask to publish a Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) record that will automatically authenticate emails sent from the “stanford.edu” domain. While you may see reference to this in your vendor’s documentation, changes to the Stanford Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record are neither a supported option nor necessary to meet authentication requirements.

You may already have the necessary message authentication in place. We recommend you verify this, and follow the procedures below if you need assistance adding necessary records.

To streamline the UIT support process: 

1. Locate your vendor’s documentation on email domain authentication. You can find guidance for Mailchimp and other commonly used email marketing platforms at Stanford on this UIT service page.
2. Submit a Help ticket to UIT. Depending on the platform, UIT will need specific information from your account to update the domain.

Bulk emails from a subdomain

If your sending address is in a subdomain (e.g., yourdept.stanford.edu), then you will likely need additional records set up to meet Google and Yahoo’s guidelines. In this case, you must also look up the vendor’s documentation for email domain authentication and submit a Help ticket. UIT will provide consultation and assistance setting up the records you need.

Learn more

• Visit the UIT website for help documentation on commonly used email marketing platforms at Stanford, including Mailchimp, Marketo, and Emma. 
• Can’t find the right documentation for your platform? Reach out to UIT for support.
• Refer to Google and Yahoo guidelines for detailed information about authentication requirements and recommendations.