As of June 2016, online marketers who use an @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, or @aol.com as a “FROM” email address in their bulk email marketing campaigns will get “DMARCed”, which means, your emails won’t make it through to your subscribers.
DMARC, which stands for “Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance” is an email authentication protocol designed to prevent spammers from using your domain (example, @yourcompany.com) to send email without your permission.
Google, Yahoo, and AOL are implementing this strict new policy to put an end to so-called “spoofing.”
This means that, in order to use an @gmail, @yahoo, or @aol email address, you’ll have to send it directly from those servers and not from a 3rd party email service provider like AWeber or Mailchimp. If you don’t, the emails will be rejected, i.e., “hard bounced.”
The solution? If you’re sending bulk emails for online marketing purposes, use an @yourcompanyname.com address in the “FROM” field, or watch deliverability plummet.
How DMARC works.
Keep in mind that new domains will be regarded with suspicion as spammers often open new domains to try to thwart the system. If your website is brand new, wait a couple of months, at least, before you start sending emails using your company’s domain name; this will give search engines like Google a chance to get to know you. Your online reputation is everything… don’t inadvertently raise suspicions.
Also, if you’ve been using a generic email address for your marketing campaigns, don’t suddenly try to send thousands of emails once you switch to using your domain’s FROM address–that too will look suspicious to search engines and deliverability will be adversely affected.
Besides, using your domain name to send emails to subscribers looks much more professional.
Thanks DMARC.