Before you send an email marketing campaign, there are some steps that provide security and protection for your message to be acknowledged by email providers as legitimate and move away from the spam box. We have shown the importance of SPF and DKIM. On today's article let’s highlight the DMARC.

What is DMARC and why should you implement it

Basically, DMARC is a new standard that merges with the existing validations in order to unify them, reducing the potential for fraud and abuse by email.

When implemented, the DMARC says to the ISPs to receive the messages. Providers, in return, can be strict, only letting through the content that has set all validations, or relaxed, releasing all emails if at least one of the validations is right.

As an additional benefit, Gmail and Outlook send a report to you with emails that are causing problems. The goal is to identify whether it’s a case of a phishing scam or if the validation set is not completed.

It’s worthy to highlight that it’s more than just implementing the DMARC, you need to set it up correctly so the validation is effective and protects your email marketing campaign. After all, if you invest only in the acronym, but do not set the SPF or DKIM or one of the domains used for uploads, you run the risk of ISPs blocking your emails. It’s important to apply them together, as one complements the other.

What to do before implementing DMARC

Before you set the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance, you should make a brief checklist according to the items below:

• List all domains used for the sendings;
• Align these domains to validations of SPF, DKIM and DMARC;
• Get one or more inboxes to receive the reports.

For the first item of the list, the DMARC checks whether the sender of your emails is the same as the one found in the records of SPF and DKIM. If any of them is forgotten, the emails are considered suspicious and blocked. And the last, the tip for more than one inbox available for reports is due to the volume of emails sent. So we don’t recommend you use personal email. The ideal is to have a specific inbox for that like dmarc@yourdomain.com, for example.

How to apply the DMARC in practice

Setting the DMARC is quite simple and if the SPF and DKIM have already been implemented, you will have access to all the needed data to complete the validation cycle and protect your email marketing campaigns. To begin, create a record in DNS with the domain name, an email address to receive feedback and a policy indicating to the recipients how to deal with unconfirmed emails (reject, quarantine or none).

Values​​

There are some important acronyms to set the DMARC record. When creating it, you should consider the following:

V is the name of the record, as DMARC1, for example.

Q: This is where you should say what should be done with your emails. May be actions such as reject, quarantine, none.

Rua/Ruf: is a way to request the sending of reports for any detected faults. The first word is used when you want a summary or a more general report. The second, however, serves for more complete reporting. To apply the last, be sure to use an inbox that supports the high volume of emails that must be generated.

Example

Now you know a few words, it's time to see an example of how would be a DMARC registration in practice:

”v=DMARC1; p=none; street=mailto: dmarc@yourdomain.com”

At the beginning, it’s good to use the parameter “p=none”. This way, you can start monitoring emails to find any error in the registry or in validations. When you are sure that everything is ok, you can switch to “p=quarantine”.

In the NAME field of your DNS manager, all you have to do is write "_dmarc.yourdomain.com". In some DNS managers, you simply need to enter "_dmarc", as the organizational domain gets automatically appended in TXT record.

Conclusion

The validations are essential steps to protect your emails. So review and promote the proper security settings if your goal is to seek ROI (return on investment) and retain relationships with your customers. If you have the knowledge and the access, go ahead. Otherwise, share with the DNS administrator of your company or ask your IT staff to fill the data and create a TXT entry.

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