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Click Here…But Maybe Not? The Hidden Hurdles of Email Policies

29 May 2024

Domain administrators implement email policies to safeguard users from phishing, malware, and spam threats. Admins believe these policies are crucial for ensuring security, but they may occasionally interfere with the intended functionality of wanted and expected emails. As a sender, it is essential to understand these policies and their potential impact on your email campaigns.

Case Study: United States Army Domains

One example of this phenomenon was mail sent to United States military domains. At work few years ago, we discovered that links in emails sent to addresses ending in “@us.army.mil” were broken. One of our deliverability consultants reached out to the postmaster there and received the following reply:

“Links within the us.army.mil domain are blocked. What you can do is copy the link and paste it into the address bar of a browser and remove the ‘blocked’. The blockage is in place for security purposes.”

Understand the Domain’s Email Policies

As you can see, this is a policy decision on the part of the Army. To protect potentially sensitive systems from malware downloaded from malicious URLs, they added “blocked” to all links sent to their system. This was a policy that they believed was effective for them and that they were not willing to reconsider. Such measures are common in high-security environments where the risk of cyber threats is significant.

Adapt to Recipient Email Policies

Read morePolicy at scale: Understanding the issue

Being aware of your recipients and the policy environments in which they use email will help you to send mail to them in a way that is useful and meaningful to them. This is nothing new and is how the industry responded to MPP. Here are some strategies to consider:

  1. Know Your Audience: Research the email policies of your recipients’ domains, especially if you regularly email organizations with strict security policies.
  2. Provide Clear Instructions: If you know that links may be altered or blocked, include instructions for recipients on accessing the content. For example, advise them to copy and paste URLs into their browser and delete the word “blocked” or provide clear URLs instead of hyperlinked text.
  3. Use Plain Text Emails: In high-security environments, plain text emails without embedded links or images might be more effective and less likely to be altered.
  4. Follow Up with Support: Offer support channels where recipients can reach out if they encounter issues with your emails. Train support personnel on known challenges and how to overcome them. This can improve user experience and ensure your messages are still received as intended.
  5. Monitor Delivery and Engagement: Use email analytics to track how recipients interact with your emails. If you notice a drop in engagement, it might be due to policy changes, and you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

Conclusion

Recipient domain email policies are critical components of email deliverability that senders cannot overlook. By understanding and adapting to these policies, you can improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns and ensure that your messages reach your audience as intended. Stay informed, be adaptable, and always prioritize the security and convenience of your recipients.

Mickey Chandler
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