Delivering email is a tricky business. The world of technology is constantly evolving, meaning spammers are getting savvier and security is getting tighter. Making sure that your sending domain is authenticated with DNS records is critical for sending with JangoMail.
What is Delivery Setup exactly?
Delivery Setup, as JangoMail calls it, includes several key components that should be in place for your sending domain. Those are: SPF record, DKIM record, Custom Tracking Domain, DMARC record, and Yahoo Feedback Loop. These function together to authenticate your messages, instruct servers how to handle spam, and allow for insight into Yahoo recipient actions.
Why do I need Delivery Setup?
Your sending domain/From Address is "yourdomain.com", but the receiving email server sees the message come from third party servers (JangoMail servers). Companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, and AOL are increasingly checking for authentication records, so when you send your email campaign through JangoMail with your company's domain, the receiving server will go to "yourdomain.com" and ask if JangoMail is truly authorized to send emails on your behalf. Adding these records tells that receiving server "Yes, it's OK for them to send for us." Without these records in place, the server receiving your messages gets a "No, they are not authorized to send." At that point, the receiving server is likely to drop the message into spam or delete it entirely.
Simply put, a SPF record says that someone else is authorized to send on your behalf. It means that JangoMail servers used with your account are allowed to send emails from "yourdomain.com".
The DKIM record functions as a lock and key. It's an encryption process that protects your email from anyone trying to tamper with it between when you send it and when the recipient receives it. Here's an example of what DKIM prevents:
Person A sends to Person B with a message that says to be home at 9 pm. If Person C can intercept the message and change the content to say be home at 10 pm, that may not be so good for Person B.
The DKIM process makes the message unreadable by Person C, so there is no way he or she can alter its contents. Moreover, if a spammer tries to impersonate your From Address, then having a DKIM proves that your messages are legitimate and authorized.
The tracking domain is used in various JangoMail tracking mechanisms, such as the open-tracking, click-tracking and unsubscribe link. It is present throughout the HTML portion of your email campaign. Without a custom tracking domain, a system default domain is used, like x.jango5.com. If you set up a custom tracking domain, based on your organization's domain, then the domain might look like "track.yourdomain.com".
The benefit of the custom tracking domain is two-fold. First, it contributes to your sending reputation because the domain used for tracking links will be controlled by you. Second, it keeps your branding consistent! Your From Address, your click-tracked links, and your content work together to keep your brand front and center.
DMARC is an email authentication, policy and reporting protocol. It uses SPF and DKIM to add an additional layer to authentication by helping prevent fraudulent emails, and helping to prevent spoofing and phishing of your domain. It is set up as a TXT record, similar to SPF. **You must create an SPF and DKIM record before creating a DMARC record.**
Your DMARC policy can do several things.
- Notify you of email sent from your domain that fails the authentication check.
- Instruct email servers to junk or reject email failing the authentication check.
- Improve your sending reputation and successful delivery using this added security and spoofing prevention.
Feedback Loops enable complaints to be automatically recorded in your account as unsubscribes. Setting up the Yahoo complaint feedback loop helps with your delivery to Yahoo and AOL recipients. If a Yahoo or AOL recipient marks your message as spam, you do not want to continue sending to that person, so having that address automatically unsubscribed from your account helps prevent continued sending to recipients that no longer desire your emails. While this is a good process to have in place, it is not critical for lower volume sending or sending primarily to domains other than Yahoo.
You cannot send using public domains (e.g., gmail, yahoo, aol) as your FROM address domain. You must send using your own domain, or a domain we create for you.
There's so much more to learn about delivery! |
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