Don't Send from Yahoo or AOL

Understand the power of a DMARC record

TL; DR  Never, ever use a Yahoo or AOL email address when updating your tinyAlbert sender details.  

The long version ...

If you're still reading, cool. Let me explain why Yahoo and AOL sender email addresses (as the tinyAlbert From account) are verboten. 

Background

In a previous article, I described tinyAlbert's Update Sender Details tool. It's an exciting customization feature that lots of tinyAlbert users wanted. I won't explain the whole thing here (open the article to read all about it), but basically, you can customize footer information in automation and campaign messages. 

Now here's the trap that I want you to avoid. When you enter the sender's email address, don't use a Yahoo or AOL address.

Why you shouldn't use Yahoo or AOL in your sender email

The reason is a little thing called a DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance)record. Yahoo was one of the first email box providers to use a DMARC record. AOL did the same thing soon after. Now many do, too.

This record is a tiny digital text file that sits in the DNS of the email service provider (like Yahoo). That record helps the receiving servers decide what to do with sent email messages that look fishy. 

What looks fishy to email servers? Well, mismatching domains are awfully suspicious. If the domain of your sender email address is different from the server sending the message, well, that's what spam looks like at first glance. 

So, let me bring it back to you and tinyAlbert. Say you enter a Yahoo email as the sender address, and your campaigns and automations are sent from the tinyAlbert domain. How might a giant supercomputer scanning a gazillion emails per day evaluate that domain mismatch? Fishy, I'd say.

So now you have a fishy email. What happens next? That's where the DMARC record comes in, and the results ain't pretty. 

The DMARC record communicates a message that tells the receiving server what to do if authentification fails (e.g. send to spam, block the sender email address, or deliver to the recipient). Translating the machine-readable code into a plain English sentence, the DMARC message might include this request:  

• If the sender's email fails DKIM or SPF authentication, toss the message into the spam folder.

What's it all mean? 

tinyAlbert campaign and automation messages with your Yahoo or AOL sender email address have an unacceptably high risk of being flagged as spam or blocked outright.

The solution is to use a sender email address with a private domain. Don't use emails from any free mailbox provider.

After that, consider taking one more security step and authenticating your domain. That could help with the DKIM and SPF authentication tests. 

• Click here to read more about authentification.

Wrap up

I don't want to leave you with the impression that DMARC is an awful obstacle to email marketing. Quite the opposite. Anything that improves delivery rates and reduces spam is a positive. Just be aware that you may need to break old habits to succeed in this brave new world.

Cheers!