Optimize your email deliverability
You can optimize your email deliverability by ensuring that your email headers are set up correctly. If your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are not configured properly, your messages may get stuck in your recipients' spam filters, or may never be delivered in the first place.
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are tools for authenticating email messages. They ensure that email messages are sent from an authorized server and have a digital signature that validates the sending server. Having this setup ensures your recipients that your domain is actually sending these messages, and will make anything you send significantly less likely to be filtered as spam.
You can check the Email Diagnostic page in the Mixmax dashboard to see if SPF, DKIM, and DMARC have already been configured for your domain. If they have not been, you should work with your IT team, DNS administrator, or hosting provider to add the appropriate DNS records and Google Workspace settings.
It's important to note that SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are maintained by you or your hosting provider, not Mixmax, and cannot be modified in the Mixmax product. You will likely need help from your IT team to ensure these are set up correctly.
You can find additional information on how to set these up for your Google Workspace domain in these documents:
Get your Email Deliverability Report
To check that your email is set up correctly, use the Mixmax Email Deliverability Report tool:
- Open Mixmax, click Settings in the sidebar. and click Email Diagnostic. Alternatively, click here.
- Click the "Check Settings" button
You should see green check marks indicating that you are set up properly. If you do not, continue below to learn how to improve your email deliverability.
Troubleshooting
Set up your SPF record
The SPF record specifies which mail servers are permitted to send emails on behalf of your email domain. This prevents spammers from sending emails that pretend to be from your domain. If your SPF records are not set up properly, your emails may not be accepted by your recipient's mail server (resulting in a bounceback email), or may get caught in your recipient's spam filters.
Here's how to Configure SPF records to work with Google Apps, from the Google Apps Admin Help site. You can set it up yourself or ask someone on your IT team to help. If your SPF record is not set up correctly, chances are everyone in your email domain is experiencing the same issue.
Set up DKIM authentication
DKIM is a digital signature that you can add to your outgoing mail. It encrypts your email header and enables email servers that receive your message to verify that the message is really coming from your email domain. Here's how to generate the domain key for DKIM authentication, from the Google Apps Admin Help site.
Add a DMARC record
DMARC is a protocol that uses SPF and DKIM to determine whether an email message is authentic. Adding a DMARC record will improve the deliverability of your email. Here's how to add a DMARC record, from the Google Apps Admin Help site.