Setting up a DMARC record is the easy bit. Anyone can publish a record in DNS that will trigger reports to them. The challenge is what to do with those reports and now to manage them. DMARC is a complex protocol. It builds on two other protocols, each with their own nuances and implementation issues. I’ve written in the past about what DMARC is, what you need to know to decide if...
We got to slow down — and even take a brief vacation — in July, but we still managed to do a bit of blogging here and there, which I’ll recap below in case you missed anything. At the beginning of the month, I wrote about email address harvesting from LinkedIn. As you might imagine, I’m not a fan. A permissioned relationship on social media does not equate to permission to email...
The most read post on the blog is Authenticating with SPF: -all or ~all. In fact, it’s in the top 5 posts every single day. We still get comments on it, too. Usually from folks who disagree with my recommendations. I still stand by my recommendations, though. It doesn’t really matter if you choose ~all or -all in your SPF records. Why? No major provider is rejecting mail solely...
I’ve seen several reports of unexpected rejections for unauthenticated email to Google over IPv6 today. Unauthenticated mail over IPv6 is a bad idea, but Google usually spam folders it rather than rejecting it. The Gmail status dashboard is reporting an issue “Some messages sent to consumer Gmail accounts are being rejected due to authentication enforcement” so something...
Summer, already? Happy June! Here’s a look at our busy month of May. I had a wonderful time in Atlanta at the Salesforce Connections 2016 conference, where I spoke on a panel about deliverability. While in Atlanta, I also visited our friends at Mailchimp, and later spoke at the Email Innovations conference in Las Vegas, where I did my best to avoid “explaining all the things”. Since my speaking...
After a great experience in Atlanta last week, with the Salesforce and Mailchimp folks, I’m heading off again today. This time it’s Las Vegas for the Email Innovations conference hosted by the Only Influencers group. My talk is coming together nicely. It’s been a bit of a challenge to try and give enough detail to make sense while not overwhelming with technobabble. There were...
There are so many moving parts to ensure good email deliverability. Email marketers need to know marketing, they need to know email and they need to know design. The technical bits of email can be a challenge to learn, and many folks who write tutorials and How-Tos write them for a different audience than marketers. One of the things I’m trying to do is demystify the technical end of email...
I was looking for some references today back in old blog posts. This means I discover some old links are dead, blog posts are gone or moved, and information is lost. In this case it’s a post by J.D. Falk on deliverability.com. The link is dead (it looks like the whole website is dead), but I found a copy of his post and am reproducing it here. I don’t have permission, because I...
Dear Laura, I’m a little confused by the term “no auth / no entry”. Gmail and other major receivers seem to be moving towards requiring authentication before they’ll even consider delivery. Does this just mean SPF and DKIM, or does this mean the much more stringent DMARC, as well? Thanks, No Shirt, No Shoes, No What Now? Shirtless & Shoeless, “No auth / no entry” is...
Dear Laura, I heard recently that both Gmail and Yahoo will require DMARC authentication in early 2016 or images will be automatically blocked. Is that correct? And if so, do you know when they will be requiring DMARC? A DMARC-Overwhelmed Admin Dear Overwhelmed, There are three things going on here, all of which are related to DMARC but are very different in how it affects mail delivery...
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