Beginning February of 2024, Gmail and Yahoo! will require senders to pass DMARC in order to avoid negative impact to email delivery.
What is DMARC?
DMARC is an email authentication protocol that works on top of SPF and DKIM. For a DMARC record to pass in emfluence, you must also have the required DKIM records for that sending domain (which should have been set up during your onboarding). You can learn more about DMARC and how it works here.
What do I need to do?
If you send emails to consumer domains (Gmail and/or Yahoo!) from the emfluence Marketing Platform, you need to ensure you have both DKIM and DMARC records in place for each domain used in the from address.
If you have both records for all of your sending domains, there is no further action you need to take.
How do I know if DMARC is configured for my domain(s)?
If you are a client admin, you can view all the domains within your account in the Options menu under Account Settings -> Sending Domains. A checker will show whether we see both DKIM and DMARC in place. As a secondary test, you can use a DMARC checker such as those provided by dmarcian or MxToolbox.
How do I know if DKIM is configured for my domain(s)?
If you are a client admin, you can view all the domains within your account in the Options menu under Account Settings -> Sending Domains. A checker will show whether we see both DKIM and DMARC in place.
NOTE: If you are an older client, there is a possibility you are still using a legacy TXT record for DKIM rather than the CNAME records. Legacy TXT records will show as failing on the DKIM checker in emfluence as it only checks for the CNAME records, however, as long as you have a valid DKIM record in place, you are meeting the requirement for DMARC.
You can also use a DKIM checker such as DKIM Core to confirm your records. If you find no passing DKIM records (either the CNAME records for both emfluence-k1 and emfluence-k2 or the older TXT record for emfluence) you will need to add the CNAME records to your domain’s DNS. You can find the steps for that here.
How do I add a DMARC record?
If you do not have a DMARC record, after confirming you have DKIM records in place for your domain which are passing, you will need to add a DMARC record on your DNS. Unlike DKIM records (which only impact your sending through emfluence) DMARC can affect all sends across your domain. Because of this, you may wish to start with the least intrusive record possible rather than one making use of more robust options. You can find information about setting up a DMARC record here.
It is strongly advised that you coordinate with your IT department as DMARC records impact ALL email from the domain, not just those from emfluence.
At the very least you just need a DMARC record with a policy type of “none” (this instructs receiving servers to take no action when receiving email from your domain from unverified sources). For more information on additional tags which can be used in DMARC, see this article.
If you have questions, please reach out to support@emfluence.com.
