Bold Subscriptions sends a variety of email notifications to your customers on your behalf. This article provides steps to improve the deliverability of these notifications.
Alert: As of February 1, 2024, Gmail and Yahoo require valid email authentication. This requires you to authenticate your domain and have a DMARC record in order to send emails to customers from a branded domain email address.
If you use Gmail, Yahoo, or another free email provider, please use the default from address in Bold Subscriptions email settings to ensure your customers continue to receive email notifications.
Email authentication
Email authentication is a process used to verify the legitimacy and origin of an email message. It aims to prevent email fraud, phishing, and other malicious activities by confirming that the sender of an email is who they claim to be.
About DMARC
Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) is an email authentication protocol that builds upon Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM). It adds an extra layer of protection by allowing email senders to authenticate their emails using SPF and DKIM, and then specify how they want unauthenticated emails to be handled.
DMARC helps prevent phishing attacks by ensuring that only legitimate emails from authenticated sources are delivered to recipients. By preventing unauthorized use of a domain in phishing attempts, DMARC protects the brand reputation of organizations.
Refer to the following external sources to understand the process of verifying and incorporating a DMARC record into your domain:
Add your DMARC record
To add your DMARC record, please follow the steps below.
- Sign in to your domain host's management console.
- Navigate to the section where you can modify DNS records.
- Insert a TXT record.
- In the Record name/DNS host name field, include _dmarc. Some domain hosts might append the domain portion automatically, like _dmarc.example.com.
- In the Text Record Value field add the following: v=DMARC1; p=none.
- Confirm the correct formatting of the TXT record after adding it.
The DMARC record outlined in the above steps cover only the essential requirements. For further customization, it is best to consult a DNS expert or your domain provider for assistance.
February 1, 2024, Gmail and Yahoo require publishing a valid DMARC policy with at least p=none. If p=none does not meet your company's policies, please reach out to our Customer Success team for further assistance.
About SPF records
An SPF record is a type of Domain Name Service (DNS) record that identifies which mail servers are permitted to send emails on behalf of your domain. The purpose of an SPF record is to detect and prevent spammers from sending messages with forged "From" addresses on your domain.
Adding our Bold Apps SPF record to your DNS should improve this, and allow customers to receive automated emails from our app more reliably.
Add our SPF record to your DNS
This process is different for the various email providers, but instructions should be easily found through your hosting support or email service help articles.
To add Bold's SPF record to your DNS, please follow the steps below.
- Login to your domain's administrative console.
- Navigate to the page where the DNS records can be updated.
- Create a TXT record containing the following text: v=spf1 include:spf1.boldapps.net ~all.
Note: Ensure you use ~all and not -all to avoid email delivery issues.
- Save these changes.
About DKIM
DKIM involves the use of digital signatures to verify that an email message was actually sent and authorized by the domain owner. This signature is added to the email header, and the recipient's mail server can verify it using the public key published in the DNS records of the sending domain. Incorporating a DKIM record can enhance the deliverability of your emails.
Some email service providers have tools to generate DKIM key pairs. If not, you can use an online DKIM key generator. To obtain precise instructions on adding DKIM records to your domain, please seek guidance from your domain provider or email service provider.