FRIENDLY NON-TECHNICAL, NON-SALESLY POST EXPLAINING A TECHNICAL BUT IMPORTANT THING ABOUT YOUR EMAIL DELIVERABILITY!

Is your mailing list unresponsive? Have open rates declined? Are you getting no form submissions from your website?

OVERVIEW
There’s a very good chance your domain is failing modern spam checks and your members, customers, or subscribers have stopped receiving your emails, newsletters, notifications, or even routine messages.

This post explains what’s going on and what you need to do about it and I promise to explain in words you can understand!

Major email providers (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo) have tightened anti-spam rules significantly since early 2024.

HOW TO CHECK
Below we look at why emails from domains without proper authentication records are now silently rejected or quarantined, with no bounce notification to the sender. But, we share the three steps you can take to check if you need to fix the issue.

You may not even know your mail isn’t getting through.

The three records you need to know

• Record 1 – SPF = Sender Policy Framework
  Sounds fancy, but it is just the list of specific servers that are allowed to send email on behalf of your domain. That includes, amazon, or google, mailchimp etc. Anyone sending an email that is “from” your domain. Missing or incorrect SPF means anyone can spoof your address.
• Record 2 – DKIM – Domain Keys Identified Mail
  A digital ‘signature’ that proves an email genuinely came from your domain and hasn’t been tampered with in transit.
• Record 3 – DMARC = Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance
  Tells receiving mail servers what to do when SPF/DKIM fail and whether to send you reports. Without it, failures are silent.

Together, these three DNS records form the foundation of email authentication. If any one of them is missing, misconfigured, or incomplete, your emails are at risk of being hard-failed and silently dropped.

YOU WON’T BE TOLD YOUR EMAILS ARE BEING REJECTED

THE BIGGER PROBLEM
Unfortunately, without the right configuration it gets worse, the more you do it, the higher the chance of you ending up on a domain blacklist. That’s the digital equivalent of the “naughty step”, and when I tell you it takes a LOT to recover from it, I am speaking from first hand experience.

Don’t forget third-party senders

This is where most people slip up. Your SPF and DKIM records must cover every service sending email on behalf of your domain — not just your own mail server.

Common ones that are frequently missed:

• Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Campaign Monitor or other email marketing platforms.
• CRM systems that send transactional or automated emails – ZOHO, HubSpot, etc.
• Google Workspace / Gmail accounts sending as your domain.
• Helpdesk tools – Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk, etc.
• Any third-party booking, billing, or notification service
• Your website’s contact form or CMS notification email – this catches everyone out.

If a service sends email using your domain name and it’s not included in your SPF record, and doesn’t have DKIM set up, those emails will fail authentication checks.

EXAMPLE OF HOW BAD IT CAN GET
One of my customers’ website enquiry form was being silently rejected by his mailbox for TWO YEARS! Two years of missed leads, and it was only a chance conversation with an existing customer that made him go test his website forms. When was the last time you checked all your website enquiry forms?

OK, SMARTY PANTS, WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT?
Use the free tool below to test your domain’s current authentication status. It’s not our tool, we have no affiliation whatsoever, it’s just a third party tool we use ourselves, but it will show you immediately if your SPF, DKIM, or DMARC records are missing, incomplete, or misconfigured:

Run your domain check at dmarcian.com

Screenshot your dmarcian results and share them here if anything is flagged

WHAT TO DO WITH THE RESULTS

What to do with your results: Take a screenshot of the dmarcian report for your domain name. If anything shows as failing, misconfigured, either share it here and we’ll help you work out what needs fixing.

Or send to your website developer or IT provider – the person with access to your DNS settings to update and add the relevant updates to the DNS.

QUICK CHECKLIST

• Check your primary sending domain (e.g. yourdomain.com)
• Check any subdomain used for sending (e.g. mail.yourdomain.com)
• Confirm your bulk mail provider (Mailchimp etc.) is included in your SPF record
• Verify DKIM is configured for each service sending emails omn your behalf, including your website
• Ensure your DMARC record has at least a p=none policy with a reporting address

Screenshot your dmarcian results and share them here if anything is flagged

FINAL WORDS
Even if your email feels like it’s working fine right now, silent delivery failures may already be happening. The only way to know for sure is to check. It’s free, takes two minutes, and could save you from losing contact with your audience entirely.

Post your results below and we’ll advise on any fixes needed.

CONTENT GENERATORS
HUMAN – knowledge, 31 yrs domain experience, editing, writing skills, initial prompt crafting and fact checking and all formatting.
AI – raw text – too long and overly complicated. 100% Fact checked.
Image – screenshot from website mentioned above