Email remains an important way to reach your customers and stay top of mind. With Google, Yahoo, and other email service providers announcing upcoming changes to email deliverability, it's crucial for cleaning businesses to understand what these changes mean and prepare accordingly. This post dives into what the changes are, how they may impact your cleaning business, and actionable steps to ensure your business stays ahead.

What Are the Changes?

Google is set to implement stricter protocols for email deliverability, focusing on enhancing security and authentication measures. The changes are meant to help verify the sender's identity, reduce phishing, spam, and fraudulent activities. 

The specific changes being made involve more rigorous enforcement of email authentication protocols such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance). Additionally, Google will prioritize emails sent from custom domains over generic ones (e.g. @gmail.com), impacting how emails from businesses are delivered to customers' inboxes.

Why It's Important for Cleaning Businesses

For cleaning businesses that rely on email communications to reach out to their customers to introduce new services, for promotions, appointment reminders, and feedback, these changes are significant. The stricter deliverability rules could affect how your emails are seen by email services, potentially leading to higher chances of your communications landing in the spam folder if not properly authenticated. This means reduced visibility for your services, potentially lower engagement rates, and ultimately, a decrease in bookings and customer retention.

The emphasis on emails from custom domains highlights the importance of branding and professionalism in your communications. Emails from a generic domain (e.g., @gmail.com) may no longer work if you aim for optimal deliverability and visibility in your customer's inbox.

Preparing for the Changes

To ensure your cleaning business remains unaffected by these changes and continues to thrive through effective email marketing, consider the following steps:

1. Adopt a Custom Domain: If you haven't already, invest in a custom domain for your business emails. This not only aids in aligning with Google's upcoming deliverability preferences but also enhances your brand's professionalism and trustworthiness in the eyes of your customers.

2. Authenticate Your Emails: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for your email sending domains. These protocols validate your emails, improving deliverability and protecting your domain from being used in phishing scams. Your email platform (like MailerLite, Constant Contact, or MailChimp) should have put out information on this already. Check with them and your domain provider to set up the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records correctly.

3. Monitor Your Sending Reputation: Regularly check your email sending reputation through tools like Google Postmaster. This will help you understand how your emails are being received and allow you to make necessary adjustments.

4. Engage in List Hygiene Practices: Regularly clean your email list to remove inactive or unengaged subscribers. This improves your engagement rates, which is a positive signal to email service providers about the quality of your communications.

5. Provide Valuable Content: Ensure that the content of your emails is valuable and relevant to your audience. This encourages positive engagement, further boosting your deliverability.

The upcoming changes to email deliverability from Google (and others) underscore the need for cleaning businesses to adopt best practices when they email their customers. By moving to a custom domain, ensuring email authentication, and focusing on the quality of both the email list and content, businesses can continue to leverage email marketing effectively. These steps will not only help in sticking to Google's new policies but also in building stronger relationships with customers through reliable and professional communication channels. 

Navigating the digital landscape can be complex, especially with constant changes and updates like Google's upcoming email deliverability protocols. But you don't have to tackle these challenges alone. At BookCleaningJobs, we specialize in crafting digital marketing strategies that drive results specifically for cleaning businesses. Book a call with us today to help grow your business!