Starting February 2024, Google and Yahoo require all email senders to use proper email authentication. If you don't follow these rules, your emails to parents might be delayed, blocked, or marked as spam.

The good news? These aren't complicated changes. They're best practices that help ensure your enrollment updates, tour reminders, and family communications actually reach parents' inboxes.

What You Need to Do

Follow this checklist to make sure your Enrollio account meets Google and Yahoo's requirements:

  1. Set up a branded sending domain
  2. Add DMARC authentication to your domain
  3. Keep your email branding consistent
  4. Never use Gmail or Yahoo addresses as your sender
  5. Make unsubscribe easy for parents
  6. Keep your spam complaint rate below 0.30%

1. Set Up Your Branded Sending Domain

A branded sending domain improves your sender reputation and makes your emails look more professional to parents. Instead of emails showing "sent via [third-party-service]," they'll show your childcare center's domain.

Why this matters: Starting February 2024, this is required if you're sending bulk emails to Gmail and Yahoo addresses (which most parents use).

Important: After setting up your branded domain, you'll need to gradually "warm up" your sending over 2-4 weeks. This means starting with smaller email volumes and slowly increasing.

Pro Tip: Set up your branded domain before you need to send any time-sensitive communications. The warm-up period means you can't immediately blast large volumes.

[SCREENSHOT: Example of how emails appear to Gmail users with a branded sending domain vs. without one]

2. Add DMARC Authentication to Your Domain

What is DMARC?

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is a security standard that tells email providers how to handle emails claiming to be from your domain. It protects your childcare center's reputation and helps your emails reach parents.

Do you need it?

Yes, if you're sending more than 5,000 emails per day across all your Enrollio accounts and don't already have DMARC set up.

How to set it up:

  1. Check if you already have DMARC using a free checker like Dmarcian. Enter your root domain (like yourchildcarecenter.com) and click inspect.
  2. If you see "Hooray! Your DMARC record is valid," you're done. Skip the remaining steps.
  3. If not, go to your DNS hosting provider (where you manage your domain).
  4. Create a new TXT DNS record with these settings:
    • Record type: TXT
    • Host/Name: _dmarc
    • Content/Points to: v=DMARC1; p=none;
  5. Save the record and verify it using Dmarcian (it may take a few minutes to register).

[SCREENSHOT: Example of adding a DMARC TXT record in a DNS provider like Cloudflare]

Note: Google recommends gradually making your DMARC policy more restrictive over time. Start with "p=none" and work toward "p=quarantine" or "p=reject" as you monitor results.

How to verify it's working:

Send yourself a test email, then in Gmail click the three-dot menu and select "Show original." You should see DMARC listed as "PASS" in the email header.

[SCREENSHOT: Gmail email header showing DMARC PASS status]

3. Keep Your Email Branding Consistent

Your "from" email address must match your branded sending domain. This keeps your emails recognizable to parents and satisfies DMARC requirements.

Example: If your branded sending domain is "mail.yourchildcarecenter.com," your from address should use "yourchildcarecenter.com" (like info@yourchildcarecenter.com).

Action required: Review all your automated emails, tour reminders, and broadcast messages. Make sure every "from" address aligns with your domain.

4. Never Use Gmail or Yahoo as Your Sender Address

Don't send emails from Enrollio using a Gmail or Yahoo address as your "from" address (like director@gmail.com or admin@yahoo.com).

Why? Gmail and Yahoo have strict DMARC policies. Using their domains as your sender will hurt your email deliverability—your messages may be blocked entirely.

The fix: Always use your childcare center's domain as the "from" address.

5. Make Unsubscribe Easy for Parents

Parents must be able to easily opt out of your emails. If they have to hunt for the unsubscribe link, you risk spam complaints.

What Enrollio does automatically:

Enrollio automatically adds a one-click unsubscribe link to the header of every bulk email you send (except individual 1:1 messages). This happens behind the scenes and meets Google and Yahoo's requirements.

[SCREENSHOT: Example of one-click unsubscribe button in Gmail]

What you need to do:

Before February 2024, review all your email templates—tour confirmations, waitlist updates, enrollment reminders, etc. Make sure each one has a visible unsubscribe link, typically in the footer.

It doesn't have to be one-click, but it must be clear and easy to find.

6. Keep Your Spam Complaint Rate Below 0.30%

Only send emails to parents who want to hear from you. If 3 out of every 1,000 emails you send get marked as spam, your deliverability will suffer. Your emails might be delayed, sent to spam folders, or blocked completely.

Best practice: Keep spam complaints below 1 out of every 1,000 emails (0.10%).

How to monitor spam complaints:

  • Yahoo complaints: Check your Spam Reports in Enrollio
  • Gmail complaints: Use Google Postmaster Tools (Gmail doesn't share spam data directly with Enrollio for privacy reasons)
Pro Tip: The best way to avoid spam complaints? Only email families who have explicitly opted in to receive communications from your childcare center. Clean your email lists regularly and remove inactive contacts.

Questions?

These changes protect your childcare center's email reputation and ensure your important messages reach parents. If you need help setting up your branded domain or DMARC record, contact Enrollio support—we're here to help you stay compliant.