Definition
Three domain records prove that an email really comes from the company. SPF lists the servers allowed to send on its behalf; DKIM signs each message; DMARC tells mailbox providers what to do with a message that fails these checks and has them send reports.
Since February 2024, Gmail has required every sender to authenticate with SPF or DKIM. Above 5,000 messages a day to its inboxes, it asks for SPF, DKIM and DMARC, one-click unsubscribe for marketing messages and a spam complaint rate kept below 0.10% and never reaching 0.30%.
Value for a business owner
A quote, a reminder or a newsletter that lands in spam does not exist for its recipient. Deliverability is set once on the domain, then monitored in the DMARC reports.
At Stratedge Consulting
The emails sent by the tools we deliver leave from an authenticated domain. Our free SPF, DKIM and DMARC test checks your domain against the Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook requirements. Our French-language articles on deliverability and B2B emailing also cover what the CNIL, the French data protection authority, allows in business-to-business prospecting.
Common mistakes
Setting DMARC to monitoring mode and never reading the reports. The record exists, but nobody knows who sends in the company's name.
Prospecting from the main domain with a bought list. Complaints damage the domain's reputation, and client emails suffer too.