DKIM, DMARC, SPF Setup for ActiveCampaign and Squarespace
This article has been updated - see the updates.
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Did you know that a whopping 85% of emails worldwide are considered spam? Crazy, right?
But here's the deal: Starting February 2024, the email game is changing big time. Google and Yahoo are rolling out new rules to make sure our inboxes aren't flooded with unwanted emails.
This is where DMARC, DKIM, and SPF come into play – they're like the bouncers at the club of your inbox, deciding who gets in and who's left out in the cold.
They sound a bit techy, but I promise, I'll keep it as simple as chatting over coffee. So, let's make sure your emails shine like stars and don't get lost in the spammy abyss!
Understanding Email Deliverability: The Basics
Ever wondered what 'email deliverability' means? It's like making sure your party invitation actually reaches your friend's mailbox, not their trash can. In the world of email, it's all about your messages successfully landing in the inbox.
Why does this matter? Three reasons:
Reputation: Good deliverability boosts your sender reputation, which means your email will land in the inbox and not the spam folder.
Engagement: Removing inactive subscribers from your list will push your open and click rates up.
Value: An engaged list could also mean more money in your pocket - moving you to a lower pricing tier. That’s a win-win.
Now, let's chat about 2024's email security scene. Moving forward, Google has outlined their requirements…and Yahoo is moving towards the same direction:
1. Setting Up Email Authentication:
Why It Matters: Setting up DKIM, DMARC, and SPF records proves your email is legit.
Who's Affected: Everyone that’s sending emails to Gmail and Yahoo accounts - regardless of how many email messages you send a day. (Psst…if you're using ActiveCampaign* for your email marketing, keep scrolling down to the “How to…” section to get the step by step. If you’re using Google Workspace, use this guide instead.)
2. Switch from @gmail.com to @yourwebsite.com:
What's the Deal: '@gmail.com' emails don't typically include a built-in way for subscribers to opt out of your emails. So, when recipients get tired of receiving your emails, their only option is to mark them as spam. If this happens enough, your email address gets a bad rep, leading to your future emails landing in spam folders.
How to Fix It: Get your domain through Squarespace, GoDaddy, etc.
Once you have your domain, set it up with an email service provider, like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoho Mail, etc. This is where you’ll have your day-to-day business convo.If you're planning to send marketing emails or newsletters to a list of contacts, it’s crucial to 'clean' your list first. You can scrub your email list through services like BriteVerify or ZeroBounce. What this does is help you remove any problematic emails — those that bounce, are inactive, or are notorious for marking every email they get as spam.
After scrubbing your list, it's time to choose an email marketing platform for sending out bulk emails, like newsletters or promotional content. My go-to is ActiveCampaign*, but you may have heard of MailChimp, MailerLite, etc. Using this platform will help you stay compliant with the new changes.
Now that you have your custom domain, let's take it easy on the mass emails first. This process is called 'warming up' your domain. It's like getting used to a new neighborhood.
Why You Should Start Slow
- Building Trust: Think of email services as kind of cautious. If you start by sending a few emails and slowly send more, it shows them you're a good neighbor, not a spammer.
- Avoid Spam Traps: Sending tons of emails all at once from a new domain can make email services think you're spam. We want to avoid that.
Easy Steps to Warm Up Your Domain
1. Begin with a Few: Start by sending emails to a small group of people who really dig your stuff.
2. Gradually Send More: Slowly send to more people over a few weeks. It's like getting to know the neighborhood.
3. Watch How It Goes: Keep an eye on how people react to your emails. Are they opening and clicking? Good signs!
4. Encourage Replies: Getting people to interact with your emails helps a lot. It's like having good chats with your neighbors.
This way, you're not just blasting out emails. You're building a good rep for your new email address, making sure your emails are the ones people want to see.
3. Keeping Spam Complaints Low:
The Magic Number: While we don’t have an official number from Google, word on the street is the number will be moving from 0.3% to 0.1%. That’s 1 complaint per 1000 emails.
How to Do It: Clean up your email list by removing anyone who’s not opening your emails and monitor the complaint rates through your email marketing platform and Google Postmaster Tools.
Using this free tool, Google Postmaster Tools will give you more in-depth insights into how Gmail is handling your emails.
4. Making Unsubscribing a Breeze:
The One-Click Rule: If someone doesn't want your emails anymore, let them go easily. Really…don’t do the “please enter your email address” trick. Just a single click and it's all settled. *AFTER* that quick unsubscribe, you can gently ask if they're interested in any of your other cool newsletters.
Quick Response: Got an unsubscribe request? You've got two days to make it happen. This helps keep everyone's inboxes happy.
While these changes will be affecting bulk senders of 5k+ emails a day, you’ll never know when it starts to affect smaller senders. So have your DMARC, DKIM, and SPF set up and follow the good practice above.
If you’re extra tech savvy and want the full list of upcoming changes, Google’s help site will lay that all out for ya.
Why DMARC, DKIM, SPF are Essential
DMARC: Your Email's Bodyguard
DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance. Think of DMARC as the bouncer at the club of your inbox. Here's what it does:
Checks IDs: DMARC verifies that the email comes from who it says it does. It's like checking the ID at the door.
Sets Rules: It tells email services what to do if an email fails the ID check – reject it (emails get sent back to the sender), quarantine it (emails get sent to the spam or junk folder), or let it slide through with a warning (no action monitor).
Reports Back: DMARC sends you reports on who's trying to use your domain to send emails. It's like getting a report on who tried to crash your party.
DKIM: The Invisible Seal of Approval
DKIM stands for DomainKeys Identified Mail. This is your email's secret handshake or seal of approval. Here’s how:
Digital Signature: Each email gets a unique digital signature, stamped in the header. It's like a secret code embedded in each invite to your party.
Verification: When your email arrives, the receiving server checks this signature against a public key in your DNS records. If it matches, your email is legit!
SPF: The Gatekeeper of Your Domain
SPF stands for "Sender Policy Framework." Here’s how it works:
Authorized Senders List: SPF works like a guest list at the entrance of your email party. It specifies which mail servers are permitted to send emails on behalf of your domain.
Preventing Impersonation: By confirming that the email comes from an authorized server, SPF helps prevent spammers from impersonating your domain.
Now, how do these three impact whether your email lands in the inbox or the spam folder?
Trust Factor: Think of DMARC, DKIM, and SPF as your email's trust score. If they’re in place and correct, email providers trust your emails more. Higher trust means a better chance of hitting the inbox.
Fighting Spam and Phishing: They help in the fight against spam and phishing. If your emails are verified by DMARC, DKIM, and SPF they’re less likely to be mistaken for spam or phishing attempts.
Reputation: A consistent record of DMARC, DKIM, and SPF passing emails builds your sender's reputation. A good reputation with email providers equals a direct line to the inbox.
How to add DKIM, DMARC, SPF
This is for my ActiveCampaign users with their domain hosted with Squarespace (or Google - now owned by Squarespace 🙃).
If you’re using Squarespace Email Campaigns, reach out to Squarespace support team.
If you’re using a different email marketing platform, then reach out to that platform and use this guide to help you get set up.
DKIM
You’re going to be bouncing back and forth from ActiveCampaign to Squarespace, then back to ActiveCampaign. So don’t close any tabs or windows yet.
In ActiveCampaign:
1. Log in to your ActiveCampaign account.
2. At the bottom left, click on “Settings”.
3. Then click on “Advanced” > “Sending Domain” > “Set up manually” (We’re using this option because Squarespace is currently not one of ActiveCampaign’s Supported DNS Providers)
4. Enter in your domain (enter your domain as “websitename.com” and not one of these variations: “www.websitename.com” or “https://www.websitename.com” > Click “Continue”
5. A pop-up will appear. Enter your email address > Click “Continue”
6. You’ll get a message to verify your domain through your email.
7. Once you verify your domain through your email address, you’ll be redirected back to ActiveCampaign. You’ll find that your domain is now verified.
Next, click on “Authenticate Manually” on the right-hand side > scroll down and click on “View DNS Records”
8. Now we’re going to copy the highlighted red fields over to Squarespace.
In Squarespace:
Before you make any changes to your record, be sure to take a screenshot of what's already there, just in case you need to go back to your old settings.
1. Open the Squarespace Domains Panel ↗.
2. Click on “Domains managed by Squarespace”.
3. At the top right, click on “Edit DNS”.
4. Scroll down to “Custom Records” and click on “Add Record”.
5. Then update the record as below:
You can copy the Host (Name) and Data (Value) from the “In ActiveCampaign” section above at Step 8.
In ActiveCampaign:
1. Return to ActiveCampaign and click out of the pop-up with the DNS records.
Then, click on “Authenticate Manually” on the right-hand side > Scroll down and click on “Recheck authentication”
2. Your set up should be all good and you should see “Authenticated” under Authentication Status.
DMARC
We only need to set this up once. So check to see if you have _dmarc listed already in your DNS records. If you do, you can skip this setup.
In Squarespace:
Click on “Domains managed by Squarespace”.
At the top right, click on “Edit DNS”.
Scroll all the way down to “Custom Records” and click on “Add Record”.
Then update the record as below:
Data:
Email Reports: v=DMARC1; p=none; pct=100; rua=mailto:youremail@example.com
No Email Reports: v=DMARC1; p=none;
Host:
_dmarc
DMARC Policy Settings
Remember how early we talked about the benefits of setting up your DMARC record? Where you can set the policy settings to:
- None: Let emails slide through with a warning
- Quarantine: Send emails to the spam or junk folder
- Reject: Send emails back to the sender
For this setup, we're going to play it cool and start with the 'none' policy – that's what 'p=none' is all about in our data column. Think of it as training wheels while you're getting the hang of your DKIM setup. We don't want any oopsies messing with your email's journey to the inbox.
Once you start getting those DMARC reports, you can think about setting up a stricter policy – using 'quarantine' or 'reject'. For recommendations on how to set up a stricter policy, swing by dmarc.org for the deets.
Make DMARC Reports Easy to Read
And let's be real, DMARC reports in XML format aren't exactly a breeze to read. Pro tip? Pair up with a DMARC Monitoring tool like DMARC Digests.
SPF
Guess what? You won’t have to set this one up! ActiveCampaign already has you covered.
Verifying Your Setup
Alright…so let’s see how you did, shall we? Head over to ActiveCampaign’s tool to check if you have it all set up correctly.
Just be sure that you enter your domain as “websitename.com” and not one of these variations: “www.websitename.com” or “https://www.websitename.com”.
It should look like this…double green checks:
Key Takeaways
✓ Set up DKIM, DMARC, and SPF records to prove your email is legitimate.
✓ Switch your emails from @gmail.com to your @yourwebsite.com.
✓ Keep spam complaints below 0.1% by regularly cleaning up your email list and monitoring the complaint rates.
✓ Make it easy to unsubscribe from your email with just a single click.
✓ Make these changes even if you’re not hitting the 5k+ emails a day to stay ahead of the curve.
FAQ
My business sends fewer than 5,000 emails a day. Should I still be concerned about these changes?
Absolutely! While the immediate impact is on larger senders, these standards are quickly becoming the norm. Setting up DMARC, DKIM, and SPF now is a proactive step to avoid future deliverability issues.
Can DMARC, DKIM, and SPF affect my email open rates?
Indirectly, yes. By improving your email's chances of landing in the inbox (and not the spam folder), these protocols can lead to higher open rates.
Why are DMARC, DKIM, and SPF suddenly so important?
With increasing email scams, DMARC, DKIM, and SPF act as extra layers of security. They help email providers distinguish legitimate emails from spam or phishing attempts, ensuring your emails reach the intended inbox.
Will setting up DMARC, DKIM, and SPF affect my existing email campaigns?
If you set them up correctly, DMARC, DKIM, and SPF should only positively impact your campaigns by improving deliverability. They won't disrupt your ongoing campaigns but ensure they perform better.
How can I check if my emails are DMARC, DKIM, and SPF compliant?
You can use various online tools to check your settings.
For email service providers such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoho Mail, etc, you can use this tool to check.
Email marketing platforms such as ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, MailerLite, etc. may have their own tool to check. If you’re using ActiveCampaign, use this tool to check. Just be sure that you enter your domain as “websitename.com” and not one of these variations: “www.websitename.com” or “https://www.websitename.com”.
If you want to go the extra mile, this video with Rache from Squarestylist provides a comprehensive checklist in her description to manually check your setup.
What happens if I don’t switch from my @gmail.com address for sending business emails?
Continuing to use an @gmail.com address may lead to deliverability issues. This is because your @gmail.com emails don't have an "unsubscribe" button, so people who don't want them anymore end up marking them as spam. If that happens a lot, all your future emails will just go straight to the spam folder.
Download the Checklist
Inside the checklist you’ll get:
✓ What you need to do to stay compliant with the email changes.
✓ An organizer to save you time in figuring out what you need to get set up.
✓ A list of experts that you can connect with to help you set up your DNS records.
Conclusion
To wrap things up, the most important step you can take today is to be DMARC, DKIM, and SPF compliant.
If you get stuck or prefer for me to take over your setup, check my availability and get on my calendar.
-
February 5, 2024 - Updated DKIM walkthrough
February 2, 2024 - Updated with checklist resource and links to sources.
January 23, 2024 - Updated “Switch from @gmail.com to @yourwebsite.com” section.
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