Authentication

Email authentication allows ISPs (Internet service providers) to properly identify the sender of an email, and it helps to ensure high delivery rates. Authentication focuses on reducing spam, which makes up 67% of all email traffic (according to Forrester Research). It means that when receiving 10 emails, only 3 of them are worth the user's time to read.  

Below is a video guide that will walk you through authenticating your emails with SPF and DKIM signatures in SendPulse.

In order to overcome the problem of spam, IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) accepts several versions of authentication technologies. Two of them are used in SendPulse for phishing prevention and also spam blocking.

Authentication Technologies

1. DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) 

This technology allows companies to vouch for the email messages they send. Technically this is done with the help of a cryptographic signature linked to a domain name instead of a traditional IP address. To determine the sender’s reputation, “whitelists” and “blacklists” are used.

2. SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

This technology allows companies to identify the sender of an email and check whether the flow of emails includes spam messages. In this way, emails can be divided into “permitted” and “not permitted” depending on the recipient’s or sender’s domain.

In our service, your emails are authenticated automatically with the digital signatures of SendPulse, but it is possible to set up your own DKIM and SPF authentication. In this case, SendPulse displays your domain’s information in the email’s header. To implement this, you should add your DNS records.

Set up email authentication by following this guide, which will help you to edit your DNS records. 

References

1. The article on SparkPost builds a holistic view of email authentication: provides its definition, explains why it's important, and covers the standards.
2. Here you will find out how to authenticate your emails in 5 steps.
3. In this article, you will learn more about the three major authentication standards.

Last Updated: 21.03.2023