So why can't I use my Bigpond/Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail email address to send bulk emails
Quite simply because the email platforms can't / will never allow you to update the backend DNS records required in order to authenticate your email domain. Attempting to use these kind of email addresses without having email verification will often only result in many email clients marking the messages as spam or worse blacklisting the email address, which can be very difficult to undo.
What has happened to cause this?
As email continues to be exploited in more and more ways by spam providers, email providers have to constantly increase levels of protection to their clients.
This has resulted in making it much more difficult for email marketing providers to ensure their emails get delivered and are not marked as spam.
In order to prevent this happening, email authentication has become increasingly necessary as spammers and phishers continue to use email to distribute unwanted or harmful messages. Most email servers now use a number of protocols to verify email messages before they reach the intended recipient. Emails that are not properly authenticated are likely to have email deliverability problems and end up either undelivered or in the spam folder.
What is Email Authentication?
Authenticating your email proves to the ISPs that you really are who you say you are and are worthy to send email. This is done by adding certain 'records' to your
DNS host that cover different protocols.
There are four widely used authentication protocols in email domain authentication:
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) performs a check similar to verifying a return address to authenticate a sender’s identity.
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) authenticates a sender’s identity as well, but goes further by ensuring the contents of the message are unaltered by using a locked box or a wax seal.
Domain Message Authentication Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) is the courier that makes sure messages meet SPF and DKIM requirements before they are delivered.
Link Branding - allows all of the click-tracked links and opens tracked images in your emails to be from your domain instead of from the mail delivery system.
Spam filters and recipient servers look at the links within emails to determine whether the email looks trustworthy enough to deliver - they use the reputation of the root domain to determine whether the links can be trusted.
What do I need to do then ?
Set up and use a hosted email service - this is a separate service that allows you to set up a custom email address and use it to send and receive emails.
The email domain name you use will match your website. For example, if your site is mywebsite.com, then your email address would be something like
yourname@mywebsite.com.
Having an email address that matches your website not only makes your business look more professional, keeps your email safe and secure and once you have a hosted email service, you can apply the email authentication techniques we have discussed to maximise your email marketing results. There are a number of reliable email hosting services available, contact your web hosting provider or a simple google search to find one that will work for you.