In recent years, major email providers, including Google, Yahoo (both in 2023), and Microsoft (in 2025), have introduced stricter sending requirements for high-volume email senders, defined as anyone sending more than 5,000 emails per day from their domain.
As enforcement of these new rules becomes more aggressive, unauthenticated domains may see a significant drop in deliverability. That means if your recipients use Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, or similar services, your marketing emails might not reach them unless your domain is authenticated. This even applies to company-branded email domains (@yourdomain.com) because they are likely to use Google’s Workspace or Microsoft’s Office 365 platforms to process emails.
Why This Matters for Your Marketing
If you have over 5,000 contacts, your domain qualifies as a large sender. To keep your emails landing in inboxes, we strongly recommend authenticating your domain now, before stricter enforcement begins.
And while smaller senders are unlikely to be affected in the first wave of enforcement, it is only a matter of time before all accounts sending mass marketing emails will be affected, regardless of the level of personalisation.
What Happens If You Don’t Authenticate?
We have already seen the deliverability percentage drop for some unauthenticated domains; however, starting later this year, if your domain isn’t authenticated, email marketing platforms will automatically update your “from” address to include one of their subdomains. Your email will still function, and replies will go to your original address, but it may look something like this:
Current
From email: hello@yourdomain.com
Reply-to email: hello@yourdomain.com
With a platform subdomain
From email: hello@12345.platformdomain.com
Reply-to email: hello@yourdomain.com
This could also have the unintended consequence of being flagged as ‘Spam’ by some systems, as it would look like they are trying to impersonate your brand.
Preserve Your Brand Recognition
Authenticating your domain ensures that your brand remains front and centre in your email marketing and communications. It keeps your “from” address recognisable and trusted by your audience and reduces the risk of it being marked as ‘Spam’ by any filters your audience has set up.
We’ll notify you in advance before making any changes. But to avoid disruption, we recommend authenticating your domain as soon as possible.
Not sure if your domain is authenticated? Get in touch with EPR Marketing for a free review and peace of mind.
