When sending email newsletter campaigns, it's essential to have quality content that people want to read. And a key aspect to getting through to as many people as possible is to make sure you have things adequately configured "behind the scenes."

Today I want to talk about DMARC, or Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance. It allows senders to indicate messages are protected and tells receiving mail servers what to do if authentication methods are not valid. It's an excellent defense against email spoofing.

How does it work? The DMARC information lives alongside your domain's DNS settings in the form of a text record. It instructs the receiving server on what to do if an email comes in purporting to be from you. It can simply make a note and do nothing, quarantine the message as spam, or bounce it outright.

Here is an example of a DMARC record:

v=DMARC1; p=reject; rua=mailto:reports@apple.com

The P tag or policy tag in the above example is set to reject and bounce the message if it's sent by any server but Apple's. This information is used in conjunction with SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) to ensure legitimate marketing email gets through spam filters. I will touch on the other aspects in future posts.

At Great Reach, we utilize this and other technologies to help ensure your campaigns get through in an increasingly challenging marketing environment. And if you're looking to set up your own email marketing system, be sure to add DMARC to your list of best practices to follow!