If you use email marketing software to send emails, you want to make sure that more of your emails land in your contacts’ inboxes and not their spam or other folders.
One way you can do this is if you set your SPF and DKIM records with the email marketing software.
What is SPF and DKIM?
SPF and DKIM are ways to authenticate your mail server and prove to internet sending and receiving properties that you are a verified sender from your domain.
SPF stands for Sender Policy Framework. It is a digital version of a return address on a mail letter.
DKIM stands for DomainKeys Identified Mail. DKIM is a digital version of sending mail via certified mail.
How To Get Your SPF and DKIM Records
You can set your SPF by getting instructions from your email marketing software. Usually your software will give you a TXT record Name and a TXT record value.
When you have these names and values on your screen, open a new tab so we can head into your DNS records and you can add these records.
What is a DNS record?
DNS stands for Domain Name System. Your domain is commonly seen in your email address or your website URL (the restaurant.com in https://restaurant.com or hello@restaurant.com).
Your DNS acts as your phonebook for your domain. Humans access information through domain names like restaurant.com while the internet accesses information through IP addresses like 192.168.1.1 (random numbers just like a phone number).
You can set different domain names to route between different IP addresses, just like adding a name to a phone number in your phone!
How To Set Your SPF and DKIM Records
You can set your SPF and DKIM records by adding the records in your DNS records. Your DNS records usually are handled by your domain name provider or your hosting provider.
Check to see where you bought your domain name. Once you find out who handles your domain name right now (ex. GoDaddy, NameCheap), then see if your DNS is pointing to an external host or not.
If it is not, go into your DNS settings in your domain name provider management dashboard and copy the SPF and DKIM records into your DNS settings as TXT records.
If it is pointing to a host, then you need to go to that host management panel and add your SPF/DKIM records as TXT records in those DNS settings.
Things to look out for
When you set yoru SPF and DKIM, make sure there is only one record for all SPF records and one record for all DKIM records. You may have multiple SPF records from multiple connections and multiple DKIM records from multiple connections.
I ran into an issue where I set my records but I already had previous SPF and DKIM records. When I received the error that I had multiple records and should only have one, I simply copied and pasted my new SPF or DKIM record on the tail end of the current SPF or DKIM record and it works.
