2025 Predictions: What We Expect to See Next Year for Email Deliverability

Customer engagement never stands still, but there's no question that 2024 has been a particularly fast-moving year, especially when it comes to email marketing. We've watched mailbox providers introduce several far-reaching changes over the course of the year, with Gmail and Yahoo beginning to enforce increased sender requirements in February and Apple announcing back in September that they would support the use of tabs and AI summaries in Mail.

And now that we're on the cusp of a whole new year, the key question on email marketers' minds is: What might change for email in 2025? To answer this question, we sat down with our Email Deliverability Services team and identified five central predictions:

1. There will be an increased focus on authentication and security

For years, Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) have been table stakes when it comes to email authentication. However, Gmail and Yahoo’s 2024 move to require Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) for email senders has made DMARC an essential part of most email marketers’ toolkits. With hackers constantly finding new and clever ways to create security threats, we expect authentication will continue to be a hot topic in the new year.

Very recently, a new exploit called BreakSPF was identified. BreakSPF uses a common misconfiguration of SPF where large blocks of IPs are listed in the SPF record. The mass IP list can include cloud providers, proxies, or content delivery networks (CDNs). Some even just use a pass-all SPF entry to verify possible IPs. BreakSPF exploits this, and bad actors are able to use public services to access within the same IP range as listed in the SPF record. This allows them to bypass SPF authentication and send spoof emails that appear legitimate.

Since email is still susceptible to exploits like BreakSPF, the requirement for stronger authentication will continue in 2025. More brands will have to progress their DMARC to reject and not just stay at p=none.

2. The power of AI will keep impacting email and related channels

The rise of modern AI is having major impacts across the customer engagement space—and one big part of that is email. We’re already seeing AI being used more extensively in email marketing in order to support advanced personalization and recommendation engines, with the goal of powering true one-to-one content customizations. And now that email marketers are starting to tailor content and preferences based on behaviors, why not take the same approach to deliverability, too? For example:

IP warming

IP warming is the cornerstone of any sender's deliverability; without a strong IP warming foundation, sending emails when you want and to who you want just isn’t possible.

In the past, IP warming has been a very in-depth process that’s built around sending small volumes of email that build steadily over time while also maintaining strong engagement metrics, something that has historically required marketers to manage constant monitoring and adjustments. With AI, much of this process will be automated, allowing micro-adjustments at the mailbox level to be applied based on shifts in real-time data. This will speed up the warmup process, reduce the amount of effort required, and, most importantly, support constancy and decrease the likelihood of human error.

Real-time monitoring and altering

Like IP warming, AI will power real-time deliverability monitoring and instant micro-adjustments. From identifying issues instantly and making adjustments based on high levels of hard bounces, spam complaints, or even elements such as possible bot attacks to applying immediate tweaks based on real-time throttling, suppression, or segmentation rules, AI will help email marketers maintain a strong reputation with minimal human involvement or lag time.

Cross-channel overflow

Cross-channel engagement has been a key part of many leading brands’ strategies for a while now, but we’re expecting to see 2025 usher in a shift in cross-channel message deployment. Currently, senders going through IP warming can use SMS messages to reach undeliverable email addresses. If combined with AI, senders could trigger comms as needed during IP warming. The system would automatically build email reputation and utilize all channels available (e.g. SMS, in-app messages, push notifications) to maintain the required levels of communication without affecting larger-scale campaigns and critical emails while also following a controlled IP warming or deliverability strategy—with all of it optimized for email deliverability and subscriber communication.

3. There will be more controls and improved privacy for email recipients

Over the past few years, several mailbox providers released updates focused on privacy and security. Apple released Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), which anonymized open tracking, and earlier this year, Gmail added a feature that flagged when images were hidden in an email for specific senders. Just a reminder: Opens aren’t exactly “opens.” It’s better to think of them as “pixel loads,” since open events are tracked by placing a 1x1-pixel image in an email, which is then reported as an email open once it’s loaded by a given recipient.

The email opens metric has been key to email deliverability for a long time, but will it still be the case in 2025? Both MPP and Gmail’s updates affected open metrics but the impacts so far have been minor. Mailbox providers could introduce even more extensive privacy features, further impairing the continued reliance on opens.

To stay ahead of the game, savvy senders should prepare for this now. There is a wide range of other deliverability metrics that should be monitored by email marketers, including bounces and complaints, as well as Google’s Postmaster Tools and Microsoft’s SNDS, both of which are available in the Braze Deliverability Center. Engagement can be measured differently for each sender and their recipients, so instead of segments like “opened in the last x,” consider a range of other options:

• Has opened app
• Has made purchase
• Has performed action

It is always wise to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Given that, we recommend starting to think now about how you would measure deliverability if open tracking went away, and what data points you have now or might need to make the best of a potentially open-less future.

4. There will be greater BIMI adoption, compared to years past

BIMI (pronounced bih-mee), also known as Brand Indicators for Message Identification, allows senders to add their brand logo next to their email sending name; this helps build brand trust and minimizes the risk that message recipients are tricked by phishing or spoofing emails. Previously, BIMI implementation had two main hurdles:

1. The requirement for a DMARC record set to quarantine or the reject stage
2. The need for a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) or a Common Mark Certificate (CMC)

As Gmail and Yahoo now require DMARC, most senders have already covered the first point. Recently, the VMC or CMC was made optional. With this, all senders need to do now is have DMARC in place and produce an SVG version of their official logo. This makes setting up BIMI and reinforcing recipient trust and recognition of your brand much more effortless.

5. An email marketer’s full-time job will feel like it’s doing more with less

2024 saw companies tightening the purse strings, slowing recruitment, and asking everyone to do more with less; this will no doubt continue into 2025. With the added pressure of maintaining a strong sender reputation, you need an expert on your side. Braze offers Email Deliverability Services, providing a named consultant who will be on hand for any mitigation or remediation needed, along with regular check-ins. The consultant acts as an extension of your team, someone who is solely dedicated to email deliverability while equipping you to make the best decisions for your email marketing program. Our experts have extensive industry expertise that will help you efficiently navigate inbox placement, spam trap and blocklist issues, and other deliverability hurdles, allowing you to focus your efforts on creating messages that resonate.

Key Takeaway

As we look ahead to 2025, we expect the landscape of email deliverability to continue to evolve. To adapt to these changes, brands can be proactive and start (better) utilizing the tools at their disposal. Need a little help? Check out our Email Deliverability Services team.

Forward Looking Statements

This blog post contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to, statements regarding the performance of and expected benefits from Braze and its products and services. These forward-looking statements are based on the current assumptions, expectations and beliefs of Braze, and are subject to substantial risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Further information on potential factors that could affect Braze results are included in the Braze Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2024, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on December 10, 2024, and the other public filings of Braze with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements included in this blog post represent the views of Braze only as of the date of this blog post, and Braze assumes no obligation, and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.