Here are my predictions for what I think the deliverability landscape will look like in 2025. People always ask for these types of predictions and no matter what we think, they either never fully come true or there are surprises coming that we didn't expect. But here are a few things that I do think are on the horizon. So, here we go.
New, updated, enhanced, or further restricting sender requirements will come. It started with the updated sender requirements for Gmail and Yahoo Mail that came into force in 2024. This is not the end. Google and Yahoo likely will add more or more stringent requirements at some point in the future. Other mailbox providers are likely to follow suit. Best practices -- meaning, the importance of being a good sender -- matter more than ever before. Senders are already finding that they're starting to have deliverability challenges now, even when their practices haven't changed. What was good enough, practice-wise, to get you to the inbox in 2015 is probably not good enough to get you to the inbox in 2025. The further you get away from the core of direct permission and clear engagement, your risk of deliverability woe increases over time.
DMARC matters -- get it done. Hey, my bias is that my day job is working for a DMARC SaaS company, but even before I took this job, I saw the writing on the wall. And so did millions of email senders who rushed to implement a DMARC policy in January or February 2024. If you want to get your mail delivered, you need to implement DMARC. If you want to protect your domain against being email spoofing, you need to implement DMARC. Simply put, you need to implement DMARC.
DMARC policy and reporting settings are going to matter just as much as whether or not you've implemented DMARC at all. In the rush to comply with the updated Yahoo and Google sender requirements, many domain owners implemented DMARC with a policy of "none," meaning they're not protected, and with no "RUA" reporting address, meaning they're not getting feedback from mailbox providers on where their email domain is being observed to be in use. Good enough to comply with the current set of requirements, but no visibility and no protection means no fun when something bad happens. Mailbox providers hope you'll actually fully implement DMARC and I suspect that future sender requirement updates will spell that out explicitly.
Sender logo support will continue to grow. Will Microsoft implement BIMI, or something similar? I don't know. They used to have similar functionality called "Brand Cards," that they no longer support. Even if they don't jump on the BIMI bandwagon soon, other mailbox providers are likely to do so. BIMI is already supported by Yahoo, Google, Apple, Fastmail, and many other providers. Axigen and Zoho Mail added support in 2024. Look for additional providers to add support in 2025.
Email warming loopholes will close, or become harder to exploit. "Cold lead" senders and facilitators of unsolicited mail tend to offer automation that they call "email warming" where you send to their list and they boost reputation and inbox placement by robotically faking engagement with your email messages. That reputation boost begins to fade as soon as the faked engagement ceases; it's not a long term path to success, and mailbox providers don't really like it. It can be hard for them to stop and shut down, but it looks to me like they're getting better at it. I expect that mailbox providers are likely to continue to further restrict what folks can do with cold leads en masse in 2025 and beyond.
Warming can also refer to a legit practice, usually called IP warming or domain warming. This is still a thing. If you're a new sender with a new sending IP address, new sending domain, or new to a particular sending platform, build up volume slowly over your first days-to-weeks, before starting to send millions. It is introducing yourself, letting the mailbox providers get to know you, before stomping on the throttle and sending big volume at full speed.
I'm sure I'm missing something -- such is the nature of the beast. Part of being a deliverability consultant is being ready and willing to respond to curve balls, unannounced or unexpected changes in how spam filters and mailbox providers work. Some announce updated requirements ahead of time, but some do not. And email is built upon a foundational policy of "my server, my rules," meaning that mailbox providers and internet providers often do what they want, whether we like it or not.
Let's look back on this in a year and see what I missed or got wrong, shall we?
Here are my predictions for what I think the deliverability landscape will look like in 2025. People always ask for these types of predictions and no matter what we think, they either never fully come true or there are surprises coming that we didn't expect. But here are a few things that I do think are on the horizon. So, here we go.
New, updated, enhanced, or further restricting sender requirements will come. It started with the updated sender requirements for Gmail and Yahoo Mail that came into force in 2024. This is not the end. Google and Yahoo likely will add more or more stringent requirements at some point in the future. Other mailbox providers are likely to follow suit. Best practices -- meaning, the importance of being a good sender -- matter more than ever before. Senders are already finding that they're starting to have deliverability challenges now, even when their practices haven't changed. What was good enough, practice-wise, to get you to the inbox in 2015 is probably not good enough to get you to the inbox in 2025. The further you get away from the core of direct permission and clear engagement, your risk of deliverability woe increases over time.
DMARC matters -- get it done. Hey, my bias is that my day job is working for a DMARC SaaS company, but even before I took this job, I saw the writing on the wall. And so did millions of email senders who rushed to implement a DMARC policy in January or February 2024. If you want to get your mail delivered, you need to implement DMARC. If you want to protect your domain against being email spoofing, you need to implement DMARC. Simply put, you need to implement DMARC.
DMARC policy and reporting settings are going to matter just as much as whether or not you've implemented DMARC at all. In the rush to comply with the updated Yahoo and Google sender requirements, many domain owners implemented DMARC with a policy of "none," meaning they're not protected, and with no "RUA" reporting address, meaning they're not getting feedback from mailbox providers on where their email domain is being observed to be in use. Good enough to comply with the current set of requirements, but no visibility and no protection means no fun when something bad happens. Mailbox providers hope you'll actually fully implement DMARC and I suspect that future sender requirement updates will spell that out explicitly.
Sender logo support will continue to grow. Will Microsoft implement BIMI, or something similar? I don't know. They used to have similar functionality called "Brand Cards," that they no longer support. Even if they don't jump on the BIMI bandwagon soon, other mailbox providers are likely to do so. BIMI is already supported by Yahoo, Google, Apple, Fastmail, and many other providers. Axigen and Zoho Mail added support in 2024. Look for additional providers to add support in 2025.
Email warming loopholes will close, or become harder to exploit. "Cold lead" senders and facilitators of unsolicited mail tend to offer automation that they call "email warming" where you send to their list and they boost reputation and inbox placement by robotically faking engagement with your email messages. That reputation boost begins to fade as soon as the faked engagement ceases; it's not a long term path to success, and mailbox providers don't really like it. It can be hard for them to stop and shut down, but it looks to me like they're getting better at it. I expect that mailbox providers are likely to continue to further restrict what folks can do with cold leads en masse in 2025 and beyond.
Warming can also refer to a legit practice, usually called IP warming or domain warming. This is still a thing. If you're a new sender with a new sending IP address, new sending domain, or new to a particular sending platform, build up volume slowly over your first days-to-weeks, before starting to send millions. It is introducing yourself, letting the mailbox providers get to know you, before stomping on the throttle and sending big volume at full speed.
I'm sure I'm missing something -- such is the nature of the beast. Part of being a deliverability consultant is being ready and willing to respond to curve balls, unannounced or unexpected changes in how spam filters and mailbox providers work. Some announce updated requirements ahead of time, but some do not. And email is built upon a foundational policy of "my server, my rules," meaning that mailbox providers and internet providers often do what they want, whether we like it or not.
Let's look back on this in a year and see what I missed or got wrong, shall we?
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