A really important step is now required for you to keep sending emails from your business email. Gmail and Yahoo announced that as of February 1st 2024 they will require you to authenticate and add what is called a DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) record on your domain.

I know this sounds really technical and maybe like gibberish, I am here to simplify it for you. Why is this happening? E-mail platforms like Gmail and Yahoo are getting stricter on spam.  This new standard helps ensure a high deliverability rate and keeping legit emails out of the spam box. This applies to all email providers, not just Gmail and Yahoo.

In order to be able to do this, you need to know how to edit your domain DNS records.

The steps you need to take:

Send emails from a custom domain, examples jess@sociallysavvystudio.com and not from a “free email” domain, like gmail.com or yahoo.com and not from for example, sociallysavvystudio@gmail.com. If you are using a free email like yourbusiness@gmail.com, I recommend signing up with Google Workspace for a custom email. Click here to go to the Google Workspace sign up page.

The next step will be to know where your domain is registered and have the login ready. If you don’t know where your domain is  registered, click here to use this free tool that will tell you. Once you are able to login you can go on to the next step.

Next, you will need to verify your domain with each provider that sends email on your behalf. For example I use Google Workspace for Gmail, FloDesk for e-mail marketing, and Dubsado for Client Management. You will need to contact each provider to get what are called your SPF and DKIM records. In some instances, a provider will give you what are called CNAME records. These records all need to be added where your domain is registered. Again, you need to do this for each provider sending email on your behalf.

Once you know what these records are, you need to login to where your domain is registered and go under where it says manage DNS. This is where these records are added. After you add these records you will need to check back between 24-48 hours to verify that they are working.

Click here to use this free tool where you can check and make sure they are correct and working properly.  Once you get a success message, you can add the final record called DMARC.

Add the DMARC record to where your domain is registered. Contact the provider for where your domain is registered to get this record.

Once you add the DMARC you wait another 48 hours and use the same tool as above to verify that is was successfully added and working properly.

You will also want to sign up for Googles Postmaster Tool, click here. This is where you can see any email delivery errors, spam reports, feedback, etc to make sure everything is working.

If you are using an e-mail marketing platform, make sure your e-mail provider is offering a one-click unsubscribe button and that this is easily visible on all your emails.

Are you still with me or did I totally loose you? I know all the technical things can be really overwhelming. This is an important step that you should be taken sooner rather then later. If the above steps make your head spin, I will be providing this service for anyone who doesn’t want to deal with this.

Send me a DM @sociallysavvystudio or an email to jess@sociallysavvystudio.com if you would like more details and for me to take care of this for you. The price varies depending on how many platforms you have sending email on your behalf. I just need to ask a few questions and then can take this off your plate, because let’s be honest as small business owners, our plates are already full enough