Configure DKIM, SPF and DMARC for your shipments

Setting up DKIM is intended to prove the identity of email senders. This is an authentication protocol that allows mail recipients to discern whether an email has been sent legitimately or not, favoring deliverability if they are configured properly. It is configured in your hosting provider with the values indicated in your Acumbamail account

The SPF tells us which IPs can send emails using each domain in question. The best thing about this protocol is that you do not have to configure anything , in Acumbamail it is already configured by default.

DMARC tells mail servers how to act when DKIM or SPF verification fails. It is configured in your hosting provider .

The reasons for making these configurations are more than enough:

You will get a higher open rate in your mailings, because they will not go to the spam or junk folder
You'll protect your subscribers from potential virtual scammers who want to use your company name for phishing.

What is DKIM?

DKIM ( DomainKeys Identified Mail ) is an email authentication protocol whose main function is to link a sending server with each email that it sends. Once configured, the message is cryptographically signed with the domain name, so that the identity of the sender is verified. Also, by being signed with a cryptographic mechanism, it is guaranteed that the message has not been tampered with during transmission. This may sound complicated but the only thing you have to do for this whole process to take place is to configure a record in your DNS , Acumbamail takes care of the rest of the process automatically.

How to configure DKIM in Acumbamail

First of all, access your Acumbamail account and go to the Your account section. Once there, click on the Emails and Domains tab.

To configure DKIM, you must have previously added and verified your domain in My domains .

configure my domains

Go to Anti-spam settings (DKIM) to begin setup.

configurar dkim y spf

configurable dkim

DKIM, you have to add a CNAME record from your hosting provider. The final value must be the one indicated in the Antispam Settings section. There are some providers that add the domain name automatically, so check if you have to add the part that includes your domain or not.

Although the configuration of these protocols is not complicated, in case of doubt it is best to consult directly with the hosting provider before making changes. In addition, in Acumbamail you have the Send to a technician button that will automatically send by mail all the necessary information to configure the records to the email you indicate.

consult technical

Check your settings.Once you have it configured, return to your Acumbamail panel and on the configure DKIM page, click on Verify and you will be able to see if it is correctly configured.If not, you can click on the error message to see if you have configured the logs correctly. Remember that they can take even more than 48 hours to spread.Remember that with each new change you make, you must press the Verify button again to check if the configuration has actually been completed.

check configuration

As you can see, it is a simple process and having this verification method configured will significantly increase the reliability and reputation of your domain, which will result in an increase in the deliverability rate of your shipments.

What is DMARC?

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) is a protocol that unifies the previous two. Because DKIM and SPF have become so popular, many email providers implement them. The problem is that before DMARC, email providers could decide for themselves what to do with emails that did not comply with the other protocols. DMARC basically allows you to specify a directive on what to do with them, for example send them to the spam folder and even reject them. For the DMARC protocol to work correctly, you only need to have the DKIM and SPF records configured correctly (no action is required on the platform).

Since February 2024, the main mail servers such as Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo consider it essential to have DMARC configured. If we do not configure it, it is very likely that we will end up in the spam folder.

How to configure DMARC in Acumbamail

The DMARC configuration is not done within the platform itself, you have to do it at your hosting provider, where you have registered your domain. It's as easy as adding a TXT record.

This could be an example of a DMARC record that uses a TXT record:

v=DMARC1;p=reject;pct=100;rua=mailto:yourdomain.com

So you understand what the above record means:

“v” is the DMARC version and is required.
“p” indicates what the servers should do if it fails authentication. If it says “reject” it means that it rejects the message = bounces it.
“pct” indicates the percentage of unauthenticated messages that are subject to the DMARC policy. 100 = 100%
“rua” is the address to which DMARC activity reports will be sent.

If you want to understand all the parameters that you can set when configuring the DMARC protocol, take a look at this article.