Unless you’re an IT professional, you might not understand the ins and outs of email delivery. As your business continues to grow, it’s important to ensure your messages are delivered as planned to the intended inboxes. For companies that rely on email correspondence to expand their brand, knowing the intricacies of email delivery is a necessity. MxToolbox is your expert on an often-overlooked aspect of electronic communication deliverability: functioning SPF and DKIM.

Importance of SPF and DKIM

For your email delivery rates to be as high as possible, your first need to keep your sending IP addresses off of blacklists.  Now, correctly implementing Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is crucial to email delivery. The SPF protocol is an email validation method designed to limit spoofing. SPF allows you to publish a list of IP addresses that are authorized to send on behalf of your domain.  Receiving mail exchanges verify that incoming mail sent from a domain comes from an IP address authorized by that domain’s administrators.  Major inbox providers, like Gmail, Yahoo! and Outlook.com, scan email to validate that the sending IP is included a sender’s SPF record.  If not, the email can be rejected.

DKIM allows a sender to cryptographically sign an email, essentially claiming ownership.  DKIM also helps to combat spoofing.  When a recipient inbox provider receives an email, they can check the signature against a public key published by the sender.  If everything checks out, then the inbox provider knows the sender authorized the email.  Failed emails may be rejected.

By keeping an updated list of active outbound domains/providers that your company uses to send messages, you will be practicing good email hygiene.  You are removing one of the key reasons email is rejected – senders not listed in your SPF records.  Knowing which senders are and are not utilized creates a more organized approach to email deliverability and enables you to configure SPF and DKIM more accurately.  In addition, you cannot ignore the importance of monitoring your IP blacklist reputation.

If you accidentally misconfigure your SPF and/or DKIM protocols, your messages may be quarantined or outright rejected by inbound providers.  Incomplete/erroneous records, new senders missing from SPF implementation, and providers not handling DKIM properly are just a few of the issues that could derail your email delivery efforts if the SPF/DKIM mechanisms aren’t correctly applied. Identifying and resolving these issues equates to a simplified workload for inboxes to recognize your emails are legit and they come from a trusted domain.

MxToolbox is the Email Delivery Expert

MxToolbox provides everything you need to curate your outbound email provider list, analyze your email reputation, and setup SPF, DKIM and DMARC moving forward.  With a variety of insightful and comprehensive products available, MxToolbox is the clear choice to address your email delivery needs. Contact our experienced team to discuss how to best maximize your message delivery rates and expand your company’s brand.