DMARC – what is it and why is it important?

Like DKIM and SPF, DMARC is essentially another record added to your domain’s Domain Name Settings (DNS) to increase the security of your domain and your email reputation.

In our article how to combat email deliverability issues, we talked about the importance of DKIM and SPF to increase the security of your domain and your email reputation. Here is a recap on what they do.

Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM)

The security mechanism Keap uses is DKIM, an email authentication technique that allows the receiver to check that an email was indeed sent and authorised by the owner of that domain. 

In all Keap implementations, we help you configure this correctly and your Keap APP is authenticated.

Sender Policy Framework (SPF)

An SPF record is a type of Domain Name Service (DNS) record that identifies which mail servers are permitted to send email on behalf of your domain. The purpose of an SPF record is to prevent spammers from sending messages with forged From addresses at your domain.

Although not mandatory, and in many ways outdated now that the more reliable DKIM approach is implemented, SPF can still improve email reputation and therefore deliverability.

We also help you review and where necessary, configure a SPF record.

So what is DMARC?

Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) is used to authenticate an email by aligning SPF and DKIM mechanisms. By having DMARC in place, you can fight business email compromise, phishing and spoofing.

DMARC allows all your emails from email addresses on your domain to be easily identified by recipient spam filters. DMARC tells email receivers to reject fake emails sent from your email addresses (spoofing), if they exist. But equally, it gives email receivers confidence to accept your legitimate emails.

Another way of looking at DMARC is that it replaces the “filter out bad mails” security model with a “filter in good emails” model. So it can improve your email deliverability and inbox placement.

A DMARC record is a text entry within your domain’s DNS record that tells the world your email domain’s policy after checking SPF and / or DKIM status.

Although more advanced configurations are possible, at a minimum we recommend adding the following record to your domain’s DNS.

Type: TXT

Name: _dmarc

Value: v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:<youremailaddress>

Automatically post job vacancies to your website

With just a little bit of code added to one of your website pages, any job vacancy added to Wrkplace HR can be displayed on your web page.

Simply select the “Post job to Wrkplace” option at the bottom of the Add Job form.

We will be notified of your new job vacancy and will ensure that job vacancy appears on your website within a day.

The first time this happens, there is some code we will provide you. You can copy and paste this code to a chosen web page on your website (e.g. yourdomain.com.au/jobs), or you can forward the code we provide to your IT representative. It will take just a few minutes and is only required once.

We can modify the display of the job vacancy so it suits your website branding. The content displayed can also be modified. This is only required once.

At all times, a link to the job application page will allow candidates to apply for your vacant position. Those candidates will appear in the Wrkplace HR Job Applicants screen.

6 reasons to build an email preference centre

It’s essential to respect the preferences of your mailing list subscribers and deliver relevant content. One way to achieve this is by creating an email preference centre.

Technical Level: 2 out of 5
Read time: 3 mins
Who should read this?: Any Keap user responsible for designing email broadcasts.

In this guide, we’ll explore why you should invest in building an email preference centre and how it can benefit both subscribers and your marketing results.

More likely than not, we have built an email preference centre for you already in your Keap CRM app. If not, or if you are not using it, please get in touch with us and we’ll help you get it going in minutes.

1 Enhance User Experience

Providing subscribers with the ability to customise their email preferences improves the overall user experience. Subscribers appreciate you respecting their time and their inbox. When they can choose the type and frequency of emails they receive, you can deliver more relevant and valuable messages. They’re more likely to stay engaged (open and click your emails) and less likely to mark messages as spam.

2 Reduce Unsubscribes

When subscribers receive too many irrelevant emails, they’re more likely to unsubscribe. An email preference centre can help prevent this by allowing users to opt-out of specific email types, or reduce email frequency. This reduces the risk of losing subscribers altogether and helps maintain a healthy email list.

3 Improve Email Inbox Placement

Email preference centres help you maintain a clean and engaged list of email recipients. Higher open and click rates and lower unsubscribes improves the chances of ALL emails reaching your recipients’ inboxes and not their spam folders.

4 Gather Valuable Data for Targeted Sales

Email preference centres also serve as a source of valuable data. By tracking subscriber preferences, you gain insight into their interests. This information can help you segment your email list more effectively, create personalised content and target specific customer segments with relevant offers.

5 Build Trust and Transparency

Transparency is essential in email marketing. Providing subscribers with an easy way to manage their preferences demonstrates your commitment to transparency and respect for their choices. Building trust with your audience can lead to increased loyalty and long-term customer relationships.

6 Adapt to Changing Preferences

Subscriber preferences can change over time. What was relevant to them a year ago may not be relevant today. An email preference centre allows subscribers to update their preferences as their interests evolve, ensuring your emails remain aligned with their current needs and preferences.


So, if you haven’t already, consider building an email preference centre by using a Keap web form or landing page with custom Yes/No fields.

We have created “Mailing List” custom fields in your Keap app, for this purpose. For example:

  • List: News
  • List: Ownership
  • List: Events

You may have other types of email content or choices for your mailing list subscribers.

At the bottom of ALL of your email broadcasts, we recommend ALWAYS including a link to this email preference centre so your mailing list subscribers can constantly choose what emails they wish to, or wish not to, receive.

How to combat email deliverability issues

This article dives into some detail about combatting regular email deliverability issues.

Technical Level: 5 out of 5
Read time: 5 mins
Who should read this?: Any Keap user responsible for optimising Keap mailing list quality, and in particular IT members / sub-contractors.

Two common issues

Here are two common issues that stem from your domain having an uncertain email reputation.

Emails are occasionally bounced automatically

Some email services are renowned for employing over-sensitive spam filters. Bigpond and Hotmail are two email services that come to mind.

These spam filters can reject some emails from being delivered entirely, if they are unsure about your email reputation. This is obviously far worse than placing emails into spam folders.

Firstly, the recipient will never see your email – not even in their spam / junk folder.

Second, the recipient’s email address status will now be set to ‘Bounced’ in Keap – permanently – until you reactivate it.

Subscribers are occasionally unsubscribed automatically

To comply with legal requirements, all email marketing services like Keap include unsubscribe links in the footer of each message.

Some email service spam filters click all links in a message to check that the links do not contain malware, if they are not sure about your email reputation.

On occasions, spam filters even click the unsubscribe link in messages. As a result, contacts are sometimes unsubscribed without their knowledge.


How to monitor unsubscribes and bounces

Read our how to proactively manage email status issues article and watch the video. This details an important process to follow regularly, to try and catch any accidental unsubscribes or bounces from contacts.

It is a difficult process as there is no foolproof way of knowing which unsubscribes and bounces are valid and which ones are errors. Typically, review each long-time client or contact who unsubscribes.


What to do to help maximise your email reputation

The sad news is there is no fool-proof way to maximise your email reputation and avoid accidental unsubscribes or temporary bounces. But there are ways to reduce those issues.

  • Optimise your email content
  • Configure an Email Preference Centre
  • Configure DKIM, SPF and DMARC
  • Ask your recipients to whitelist you

Optimise your email content

First, optimise your email content to maximise deliverability and open rates. Read our top 10 tips to maximise open rates.

Configure an Email Preference Centre

En email preference centre is essentially a web form or landing page that allows your contacts to opt in, or out of, certain types of email content you are sending. Links to the email preference centre should be included in every email broadcast you send.

Even if contacts opt out of all content options, that very action of clicking in to update their email preferences is an ‘engagement’ with your emails, which aids your email reputation.

We can help you configure an email preference centre and detail how to share it to all recipients.

Configure DKIM, SPF and DMARC

There are technical actions to undertake. DKIM, SPF and DMARC are essentially records added to your domain that increases the security of your domain and increases your email reputation in many recipient email servers. This means spam filters are less likely to need to click all links to test them.

Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM)

The security mechanism Keap uses is DKIM, an email authentication technique that allows the receiver to check that an email was indeed sent and authorised by the owner of that domain. 

This is set correctly and your Keap APP is authenticated when we configure it for you.

Sender Policy Framework (SPF)

An SPF record is a type of Domain Name Service (DNS) record that identifies which mail servers are permitted to send email on behalf of your domain. The purpose of an SPF record is to prevent spammers from sending messages with forged From addresses at your domain.

Although not mandatory, and in many ways outdated now that the more reliable DKIM approach is implemented, SPF can still improve email reputation and therefore deliverability.

We will help you review and where necessary, configure a SPF record.

Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC)

DMARC is used to authenticate an email by aligning SPF and DKIM mechanisms. By having DMARC in place, you can fight business email compromise, phishing and spoofing.

DMARC may not necessarily be a guarantee for improved email deliverability. However, DMARC allows all your emails from email addresses on your domain to be easily identified by recipient spam filters. DMARC technically tells email receivers to reject fake emails sent from your email addresses (spoofing), if they exist. But equally, it gives email receivers confidence to accept your legitimate emails.

Another way of looking at DMARC is that it replaces the “filter out bad mails” security model with a “filter in good emails” model. So in theory, it can improve your email deliverability.

A DMARC record is a text entry within your domain’s DNS record that tells the world your email domain’s policy after checking SPF and / or DKIM status.

We will help you review and where necessary, configure a DMARC record.

Ask subscribers to whitelist / allowlist you

Below you’ll find step-by-step instructions for your contacts to whitelist your sender email address, in the most common email clients and providers. 

Yes, this is difficult to get your mailing subscribers to do. But it greatly helps if they do.

We recommend each recipient performs their own search on how to add safe senders on their email client/email host service. However, the below can provide a guide for them.

Apple iPhone / iPad

  1. Open the email.
  2. Tap the sender’s name in the From line.
  3. On the next screen, tap Create New Contact.
  4. Tap Done.

Microsoft Outlook 2013

  1. Right-click on the email that you would like to add to your safe sender list
  2. Hover over Junk and then click the option Never Block Sender.

Microsoft Outlook Express

  1. In Outlook, go to the Tools menu.
  2. Click “Address Book”.
  3. Click New > New Contact from the drop-down menu.
  4. Type in email address and include any details you want.
  5. Click OK.

Android

  1. Tap to open the email.
  2. Tap the icon next to the email address.
  3. Tap OK.

Apple Mail

  1. Right-click on the sender’s email address.
  2. Select Add to Contacts or Add to VIPs.

Gmail

  1. Click and drag the email into the Primary tab. Or find an email in the spam folder and mark as Not Spam
  2. Click Yes to confirm

Outlook.com / Hotmail

  1. Open the email.
  2. Click the Add to contacts link

Yahoo! Mail

  1. Right-click the email.
  2. Select Add Sender to Contacts.
  3. Click Save.

Bigpond

  1. Login to Bigpond mail in your browser
  2. On the left, right under SETTINGS, click on “Mail” and then click on “Safe Senders”.
  3. On the Safe Senders sub-menu, please write @<yourdomain> in the blank square next to Add email address, and click on the (+) Add button.

Proactively manage email status issues

No matter how hard you try to optimise your emails, there will always be email status issues to resolve in Keap. This is one of the toughest and most annoying jobs in email marketing.

Technical Level: 4 out of 5. 
Video length: 7 mins
Who should read this?: Any Keap user responsible for optimising Keap mailing list quality.

Please watch this video to learn how to manage email status issues. It involves checking the ‘Email Engagement Tracker’ report in Keap as often as you can, and then proactively manage:

– bounces

– unsubscribes

– unengaged contacts; and

– other email status issues

10 tips to avoid spam filters in your email marketing

By following a few key principles when building your email broadcasts, you can build trust with your subscribers and the email inbox services they use. This trust helps you achieve better results from email marketing campaigns.

Technical Level: 3 out of 5. 
Who should read this?: Any Keap user drafting email broadcasts or newsletters.

Did you know there is a difference between Email Deliverability and Email Inbox Placement? These two terms often get merged into one. But there is a difference.

  • Email Deliverability is the rate that your emails are successfully delivered to your recipients’ email servers. Step 1 in the process.
  • Email Inbox Placement is the rate that your emails land in recipients’ inboxes, as opposed to spam / junk folders. Step 2 in the process.

Obviously spam filters determine which emails are allowed to land into inboxes. As the sender of email marketing, you have no idea whether your emails land in inboxes or spam / junk folders.

Spam filters can also sometimes stop your emails in their tracks at step 1 and not even deliver your emails. In Keap, you may sometimes see this as a reason for an email being bounced. Keap sometimes provides reasons such as “Restricted Email Address” or “Known Spammer” or “Suspected Spam”.

A quick internet search will provide hundreds of articles helping you design your email broadcasts and optimise the content to avoid these spam filters.

So you don’t have to go through that, here are our Top 10 Tips.


1. Maintain a quality email list

The first step in avoiding spam filters is to build a quality email list. This means only collecting email addresses from people who have explicitly given you permission to do so. 

Avoid purchasing email lists or using third-party data sources, as they often contain outdated or inactive email addresses. That can trigger spam filters for your entire email audience, not just the contacts with inactive email addresses.

Instead, use opt-in forms to collect email addresses from interested subscribers and new clients.

Stop emailing contacts who are unengaged (have not opened any of your emails for X months, depending on how frequently you email). Emailing contacts who are clearly not opening your emails is the quickest way for your email reputation to suffer. This can affect all of your sent emails.

For each contact who has not engaged with your emails for more than X months (depending on how frequently you email), re-engage them with a simple, polite but engaging email. Ensure that email is predominantly text, as if you have written it personally. The simple act of the contact opening that email will update their email status and slowly help the health of your whole database.

2. Use ‘Double Opt In’ processes

When a subscriber subscribes to your mailing list, automate a request for the contact to confirm their email address via the appropriate link in your email marketing solution. This gives two benefits. 

First, it builds trust between your email domain and your new contact’s email service. It effectively tells spam filters you are ‘trusted’.

Second, the new contact is likely to receive that email immediately and open the email as they are on their computer or device right at that moment. This immediate engagement with your email aids your email reputation (ie. higher engagement rates). 

3. Craft engaging and relevant subject lines

The subject line is the first thing that subscribers see when they receive your email. It can determine whether they open it or not.

To avoid spam filters, make sure that your subject lines are engaging, specific and not misleading. Avoid using promotional language or excessive punctuation, as these are common triggers for spam filters.

4. Use a personalised and consistent sender name

Using a consistent sender name and email address can help improve your email deliverability. Make sure that your sender name is recognisable and relevant to your brand or business.

You can personalise your sender name, such as using the name of a specific team member or department, to make your emails more personal and trustworthy. But only if the recipients are likely to recognise that sender name.

Using your company name as the Sender Name is fine, but ensure consistency in the sending email address. Ensure recipients will identify that email address easily (e.g. racing@<yourdomain>).

5. Avoid spammy wording

The content of your email can also impact whether it ends up in the spam folder or not. 

Avoid using spam trigger words or phrases, such as “free”, “act now”, “earn money”, “work from home”, “download”, “buy now”, “click here”, “investment”.

Avoid dollar amounts too. If you really need to include dollar amounts, try the format “AUD100k” instead of “$100,000”.

Some email programs (such as Keap) provide spam warnings as you are drafting your emails. Take note of these warnings.

6. Optimise your email calls to action (CTA) and links

Include a clear call-to-action (CTA) that encourages recipients to take action. However, don’t overload your email with too many CTAs. One or two is ideal, and use buttons sparingly.

If you need to share more than one link, include URL links instead (ie. hyperlink words or phrases). Keep it simple and relevant, and avoid using “click here”.

On the subject of links, keep your total links in an email to under five. This includes button links, image links, video links and word/phrase links. Too many links can attract the attention of spam filters which actually click all those links to ‘test’ them for authenticity.

This also suggests it is best to not include multiple links to your social media. It is common to include small button images that link to your twitter, facebook, instagram, linked in accounts. However each of those are a link – and can look spammy to spam filters.

Wherever possible, link to your own website (your own domain that matches the domain of your email address) and avoid linking to short URLs such as bit.ly etc. When spam filters click your links to test them, the checks identify that you are linking to the same domain as your sender email domain. It reinforces authenticity.

7. Optimise your email design

Use a clear and concise writing style, with no excessive formatting, font or colour changes.

More often than not, keep your email background white. A coloured background should be used sparingly. They can be appealing in the right circumstances for the right promotions, but ensure your engagement (open and click) rates are already strong.

If your email contains a high percentage of text, as opposed to images, left align the email. Centre-aligned emails can be more visually appealing in some circumstances,. However, they are more likely to be noticed by spam filters. So mix it up a little over time and monitor the results.

Similarly, minimise the number of images in your emails. Perhaps four or five at most. Keep the image sizes manageable (no bigger than 600px x 600px). This means avoid sending emails which are only one image. Blending images and text is optimal. 

Use A/B split testing. This is a process where you can create two versions of the same email, with subtle differences, then measure the open and click rates on each of the two versions. This is a great way to learn what email content works best, and perhaps what may affect your results.

8. Optimise for mobile

Without doubt this has become more important in recent years. A majority of your email recipients will be reviewing your emails on their mobile.

A non-responsive layout will reduce the likelihood of your audience ‘consuming’ your content. Maybe they will open and quickly close your email. They will most certainly be less likely to click on links and ‘engage’ with your email content – a sure fire way to affect future email deliverability.

Using Keap’s email broadcast solution guarantees a mobile responsive layout. There are some tricks to getting this right, however. So we are happy to help you review your email templates.

9. Personalise your email content

Personalise your email greeting. Where you have First Names in your database, use them in your email. Such as “Hi {First Name}”. If first names are missing however, avoid this as your email program is likely to replace First Name with a generic term such as “Friend”.

(In Keap we can configure a better alternative to “Friend”, if you have contacts without first names. So please let us know if we can help with that.)

Even more importantly, personalise the content. Ensure you have a strong Email Preference Centre where each of your subscribers can choose what types of email contact they wish to receive, or not receive. Emailing content that contacts do not want to receive is the biggest risk to your email marketing, as that will result in engagement (open and click rates), falling. 

10. Monitor your email deliverability and engagement rates

It’s important to monitor your email deliverability and engagement rates to identify any issues that may be affecting your email campaigns. 

Use your reporting tools to track your open and click-through rates, as well as your bounce and complaint rates. These metrics can help you identify areas for improvement and adjust your email marketing strategy to improve your results.


In Summary

Remember to always focus on providing value and relevance to your subscribers, and use the best practice guidelines on this page to help your emails be delivered to inboxes.

Spam filters are changing all the time, so we will constantly learn and provide advice for you to get the best out of your Keap CRM subscription.