Use SPF and DKIM to Improve Your Reputation

Have your business emails ever ended up in the recipient's spam folder? Or worse yet, just never made it to the intended person? If this has happened to you, you likely need to improve your emails' deliverability.

The tips I am sharing here will get your emails to the recipient and protect your account from cyber criminals.

And, if you think you don't have a problem right now, I recommend you read on. Being proactive may help you avoid a problem on down the line.

Two prevalent and widely used email authentication protocols, SPF (Sender's Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), are used to ensure protection from cybercriminals.

Using two-protocol authentication is a powerful approach that will positively affect email deliverability. Having SPF and DKIM configured provides your outbound emails with an extra layer of protection. These protocols help to build the reputation of the email domain, which is especially important when you launch a marketing email campaign. Don't worry - if you are overwhelmed by how to do this, check in with your technical agency for help. It's a relatively simple process to work through.

Another benefit of setting up SPF and DKIM records is ensuring your company's security. For example, you've likely heard of spoof emails, where someone sends out an email pretending to be from another business. One example of this is something called a "CEO phishing" or "CEO spoof" email. A cybercriminal would send an email pretending to be your business's CEO or executive. It could be addressed to the accounts department, asking them to send a payment to a specific account. There's a sense of urgency in these emails, as the scammer wants the payment to be made before anyone realizes the email isn't genuine. The fake email looks so good that it's possible to fall into the intended trap.

This not only happens to large companies; small businesses are not immune. There are even cases where someone has sent a message to a business customer, pretending to be the owner, and managed to get large sums of money diverted by convincing them to send a payment to a different account.

What happens when you don't employ these protocols? When algorithms fail to verify that an email is genuine and from a legit sender address, the email is pushed to the SPAM file or not delivered at all. And this is where your email reputation becomes tarnished!

Adding SPF and DKIM records doesn't take long at all. Less than an hour of work provides immeasurable value in protecting your domain, increasing your security, and improving your email deliverability rates.

If you are interested in launching a marketing email campaign or have questions about SPF and DKIM, we are here to help. Just fill out the form below and we will get back to you.