We all want customers to open our emails, to click our links for higher engagement, and to reach out to us for help. But none of that matters if your emails are hitting the spam bin. Obviously we want our email deliverability to be as close to 100% as possible.
One of the first things we need to consider is what we want the “From Email Address” to read in our emails. Where are our emails coming from, what do we want our audience to see? If we’re working in Mailchimp, we’ll need to verify our email domain to let Mailchimp know we own the domain, and we’re allowed to send emails on behalf of our domain.
Increase email deliverability with DKIM and SPF verification.
Now we need to verify our DKIM and SPF records with our domain registrar. What might sound complex requires us to adjust a few settings with our domain registrar, confirming that hey, it’s OK for customers to receive emails from this legitimate email address.
Understanding DKIM.
DKIM, or DomainKeys Identified Mail, allows you to “sign”your emails with your domain name. As a business owner, your email address would most likely be susie@yourcompany.com, not susie79@gmail.com .Your company email address looks more professional, and your customers are more likely to trust an email from your company domain versus an email from your free Gmail account.
Verify your email address to avoid the spam bin, and to increase deliverability. An unverified email address is more likely to get caught in spam filters since it might be flagged as a phishing attack.
Spot companies with unverified sending addresses.
You can tell when a company is sending from an unverified email address by clicking the dropdown to the right of their email address in the “from” field. Check out this email in Gmail.
We see the intended sender address is webkeeper@sandiegozoo.org. However, we see the DKIM was not verified based on the “via mta-bbcspool.convio.net” text.
We want to see “signed-by: yourcompany.com” or “mailed-by: yourcompany.com.”
SPF isn’t just good for your skin – it’s great for your emails.
What’s SPF? Sender Policy Framework. While DKIM allows you to sign your emails from your company email address, SPF allows you to send emails on behalf of your domain, yourcompany.com.
SPF protection makes it easier to land in your audience’s inbox, and less likely to get blacklisted by email spam filters. If your email address does become blacklisted for some reason, most email servers provide a form so you may request your sending IP address to be whitelisted. This verifies that you’re a real person sending emails, not a bot or a phisher.
Update DKIM and SPF records with your domain registrar.
Reach out to us when you’re ready to update the DKIM and SPF records. We’ll help add these records with your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Bluehost, HostGator).
Mailchimp provides simple documentation to copy and paste into your domain records for DKIM and SPF verification. It may take up to 48 hours for the DKIM and SPF records to update, so be patient! You’ll be sending verified emails for greater email deliverability in no time.
Still scratching your head about DKIM and SPF verification? Drop us a line with your questions. We’re here to help.