BFCM 2025: Why deliverability feels different this year

If you’re planning your Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) email blasts for 2025 the same way you did last year, stop. Things in the world of email marketing aren’t working the way they used to.

Mailbox providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook have changed the rules on how they handle marketing emails. Just look at the recent updates to the Gmail Promotions tab. If you haven’t changed with them, you might find your best marketing emails sitting in the junk folder while your competitors get the sales.

Here is the lowdown on why making an impact in the inbox feels tougher this year, and exactly what you need to do about it.

Stuff that used to work might not work now

Back in the day, you could send a ton of emails during BFCM week, cross your fingers, and hope for the best. As long as you weren’t being obviously spammy and you ‘sort of’ segmented your list, you’d generally get through.

But times have changed. If you try to blast the same big lists without warming things up or checking your engagement, there is a good chance your emails will get blocked. Mailbox providers are protective of their users, and they have new ways to keep the noise out. 

Why are inbox filters behaving differently this year?

First things first, remember: it’s not just you. Mailbox filters have gotten smarter, and the rules are stricter. Here’s an overview of what’s really happening behind the scenes: 

• AI is reading your mail. Filters aren’t just looking for “bad” keywords anymore. They are using AI to read content and look at user behavior to decide if an email is worth showing
• Filters aren’t the same for everyone anymore. The same email can land in the main inbox for one person and totally vanish for another, all based on that person’s habits
• Starting in November 2025, Gmail has ramped up its enforcement on non-compliant traffic. If your messages don’t meet sender requirements, you’re looking at temporary or even permanent rejections
• Gmail just added more tools to help people mass-unsubscribe or block marketing emails. It puts the power in users’ hands now
• Mailbox providers are investing heavily to make inboxes cleaner. They want quieter inboxes, packed with relevant stuff, not clutter.  Unfortunately, this sometimes means regular marketing emails get caught in the crossfire if engagement is low

What hasn’t changed (and what still works)

The fundamentals of good email marketing still work. In fact, they work better than ever because fewer people are doing them right. To land with impact this BF/CM and throughout 2026, make sure you have the following in place: 

1. Clear customer consent

Make sure every person on your marketing list has explicitly consented to receiving your marketing. This makes sure your list is full of contacts ready to engage.

2. Keep your marketing lists clean

Regularly clean up your marketing lists by removing closed or unresponsive accounts. If someone hasn’t opened or clicked an email in a long time, they’re hurting your sender reputation. Send out regular re-engagement messages to prompt preference updates and remove unengaged contacts before BFCM. 

3. Build trust with rock-solid email authentication

Get your technical house in order so providers can trust you are who you claim to be. Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) help demonstrate brand legitimacy. Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) tells a receiving email server what to do after checking SPF and DKIM: whether to reject or accept the incoming email. 

If these aren’t set up correctly, your high-volume BFCM emails could be quarantined as spam, undelivered, or even lead to brand impersonation. Make sure you have all three in place before hitting send.

4. Send consistently

Maintain a steady, predictable sending pattern in the run-up to BFCM. Suddenly increasing your number of sends will look like suspicious activity, so just keep doing what you’re doing and don’t worry about reducing your sends before the sales period.

5. Think engagement first

Mailbox providers use opens and clicks as signals that people want and like receiving your marketing, so don’t treat them like vanity metrics; they’re all important. Instead, focus your segments on your most active, engaged contacts during this period.

6. Make sure unsubscribing is easy

Having a simple, one-click unsubscribe option included in your email template is essential. The process should be effortless to reduce user frustration and prevent future spam complaints.

What should you do differently this year?

Here are a few of my top tips:

• Don’t send huge volumes out of nowhere — start slow and increase volumes gradually so you don’t look suspicious
• Target smarter, segment your audience properly so you’re sending the right message to the right people, not just taking a batch and blast approach
• Relevance is huge. Do your contacts want and expect your emails? Are they opening and clicking? Better engagement means better inbox placement, and if your emails aren’t super relevant, they get filtered out
• Mix up your channels. Try SMS, push notifications, whatever works for your brand, don’t put all your eggs in one basket
• Change up strategy. If you haven’t changed anything in your sending strategy but your results suck this year… well, that’s why! The filters changed, so you need to change them too
• Track your deliverability, use data and tools to check where you’re landing now (inbox, promotions, spam), and set a baseline in advance. This is key for spotting issues before the BFCM rush

Quick takeaway

The big idea for 2025 is simple: you cannot just repeat previous years’ strategies. Sending smarter, more relevant emails and keeping a constant eye on your deliverability data is critical.

If you get ahead of these changes and adjust your plan now, Black Friday and Cyber Monday can still be your biggest days of the year. You just have to play by the new, stricter rules.