For marketing emails - HubSpot is planning an update to the marketing email headers (aka ‘list-unsubscribe’ headers) to ensure all marketing emails sent from HubSpot will meet RFC-8058. The new header will automatically be applied to all marketing emails, and I will post here once the new headers are live. You can also look out for this release in the Product Updates section of your portal
For sales emails - The actions required to become compliant are not taken within HubSpot since we simply integrate with your external email account. You will need to work with your IT team to ensure your email authentication is set up properly, and use Google Postmater Tools to check your spam rates. The only thing that may require some action to be taken in HubSpot is if you are a bulk sender who needs to add unsubscribe links. In that case, you should opt into that setting for sales emails.
Is this something all Hubspot users (or the ones using the Marketing Hub) are going to have to implement?
On the Add Hubspot to SPF record page it says: “As an email service provider, HubSpot already has an SPF policy that covers marketing emails sent through our shared servers.” - does that mean I need to take action or not?..
@MarkEdwards Some recommended tools for checking the formatting of your SPF and DMARC record would include the following:
To check your DKIM records, you can use MXToolbox. Please note that DKIM records are only populated once upon creation and permanently hidden for security purposes.
@BSchimke The guidelines presented by Gmail and Yahoo are industry best practices that have existed for quite some time. Microsoft/Outlook and other major mailbox providers may likely follow suit and enforce them more strictly, but they haven’t made any formal announcements at this time.
We don’t have a connected domain, we’re just using Hubspot as our CRM, with Marketing Hub Starter to be able to send to a few thousand contacts at once. If we don’t have a separate domain, do we need to set up any of the 3 authentication methods?
We recently started using one-to-one email campaigns to send videos/emails to our older prospects. After sending roughly 50 emails to Yahoo email users, we started receiving “bounced” notifications. As of now, our Hubspot admin let us know there is no workaround for this. Our Google/Gmail leads seem to have no issue(s).
@SaraEKinsella Between 8:00 AM EST on Dec 11 and 12:48 PM EST on Dec 12, 2023, some customers experienced sales email (1:1) delivery issues to Yahoo recipients. As of 12:48 PM EST on Dec 12, newly sent sales emails should be delivered properly. We recommend resending the bounced emails. The incident has been fully resolved, and no data was lost. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we resolve the issue.
If you’re experiencing issues outside of this timeframe, please let me know the bounce error you’re seeing.
@ShiranA You do not need to adjust your SPF record if you aren’t using a dedicated IP for sending, as these are already configured for senders on our shared swimlanes. If you are using a dedicated IP or plan to in the future, our Deliverability Operations team will reach out for additional instructions to ensure everything is properly connected to your account.
For those of us that have properly implemented DMARC and would like to have strict implementation we can’t because of HubSpot’s inability to properly deal with SPF return paths requires DMARC to be defined as relaxed.
For those of us that have properly implemented DMARC and would like to have strict implementation we can’t because of HubSpot’s inability to properly deal with SPF return paths requires DMARC to be defined as relaxed.
Thanks for the heads up! The Google email sender guidelines mentioned brings up two questions though:
At one point it says DKIM or SPF then it later says they must both be configured (and aligned). Some clarification will assist for those of us who need to communicate to IT and ensure requirements are met.
The guidelines mentions avoiding sending emails in bursts (or risk delivery issues). Is HubSpot going to introduce throttling for single bulk send mails like newsletters?
I’ve added comments linking back to this announcement on several product suggestions/“ideas” posts, including two with larger numbers of upvotes. I would suggest everyone here do the same!
@DLloyd1 Gmail and Yahoo are constantly updating their guidelines as we get closer to the February deadline for when these requirements will be enforced more strictly, which is why you’ll likely see changes in their email sender guidelines over the next few months (Gmail and Yahoo).
DKIM is configured for your sending domain and would need DNS changes as outlined in our Knowledge Base, whereas RFC 5321 states that SPF is primarily checked against the MAIL-FROM domain (also referenced as the bounce or return-path domain). If you’re sending from the shared swimlanes, no modifications are needed with your IT team, as this is already set for you. On the other hand, if you’re sending with a dedicated IP, our Deliverability Operations team will reach out with any DNS adjustments to be made along with the corresponding records. They will also send you an alert if DNS errors are detected that may affect your sending and follow up with multiple warnings.
Lastly, our systems are designed to send in a round-robin fashion, based on the volume and frequency of your sending, and to properly load balance to ensure your emails are sent in a timely fashion. You must also keep in mind that how quickly a mailbox provider accepts messages for delivery can vary based on the sending practices followed and reputation on the respective platform. However, I understand your concerns and will review this with our internal teams for further consideration in improving our systems.
Just to clarify, the unsubcribe link we currently have at the footer of our emails will still comply when the changes come into place in February? Or does this have to be amended? If so what amendments do we need to make? Thanks
Thanks for the heads up! The Google email sender guidelines mentioned brings up two questions though: