Google is tightening up security to reduce spam, phishing, and malware. This may affect you if you send bulk emails to prospects and customers. But don’t worry, this blog will help you become compliant and continue to use bulk emails as an effective communications tool.

Firstly, just what is Google doing?

In a nutshell, it’s all about email validation—that is, being transparent about where the email is being sent from. If you are a legitimate business, this is not information you would want to hide anyway.

Next, Google wants to make it easy for people to unsubscribe from emails they don’t want to receive. Once again, this shouldn’t be an issue for reputable companies that send quality content.

Lastly, it’s about reducing spam, so make sure your database is clean and contains quality data; if you are unsure, run it through both internal and external processes. 

How does this impact the debt collection industry?

In the debt collection industry, bulk emails are used for a variety of communications, including:

• Early-stage collections
  To deliver notifications and/or call to action.
• Two-way communication
  For customers with in-depth requirements that cannot be resolved via digital channels and who don’t wish to phone.
• Document delivery
  Sending attachments for supporting evidence.
• Secure comms
  Debt management or power of attorney.

So it is important to stay ahead of the bulk email changes to ensure compliance and maintain customer communications.

How do I ensure my business is compliant?

If you use a bulk email provider, there is a likelihood that you are not using DMARC, DKIM and SPF measures.  You will be presenting your email domain (sender address) via a shared IP. This means the sending IP that sits behind your email address is shared with multiple other businesses.

These other businesses’ marketing emails may trigger issues for your domain. This is one of the reasons a high number of marketing emails may end up in spam and junk folders.
DMARC, DKIM and SPF are authentication methods that ensure transparency, security, and conformance in your email journey. Together, they help prevent spammers, phishers, and other fraudulent parties from sending emails on behalf of a domain that they do not own. DKIM and SPF can be compared to an education certificate on a doctor’s wall; they demonstrate legitimacy.

• DMARC
  Domain-based message authentication, reporting, and conformance. This is an email standard that uses SPF and DKIM.  It offers a process on what to do if the email fails and reports on where the email comes from.
• DKIM
  Domain-identified mail. This verifies the email sender’s domain to ensure the contact has not been tampered with.
• SPF
  Sender Policy Framework. This publishes a DNS record for all domains and IP addresses to use.  If you have not set your SPF on your domain, then the chance of your email being treated as spam is high.

For clarity, DNS means domain name server – this translates domain names to IP addresses, which in turn are used to connect computer systems.

How can Saascoms help?

Saascoms only uses UK outbound servers to ensure the highest level of data protection for our partners and their customers.

In addition, all our software is developed in the UK and wholly owned by Saascoms to ensure end-to-end security and integrity. We hold ISO 27001 and are also HM Government G Cloud accredited.

If you are in the debt collection industry and want to talk about your customer communications at Saascoms, we are here to help. Our bespoke specialist software, Mailmaster and Omnireach, is designed especially for the industry and has been proven to deliver results.