That’s right – you need to invest in email marketing. But to get real results, you must first secure your email domain and protect your communication.
How do you do it? Email authentication is the answer.
If this term is new to you, don’t worry. In this article, we’ll break down what it is, why it matters, and give you practical tips to set it up correctly.
Email authentication is a framework of technical protocols designed to verify the legitimacy of email senders, protect against unauthorized domain use, and mitigate risks associated with spoofing, phishing, and fraudulent activities.
Think of it as your email’s proof of identity – here’s what it does:
Without proper email authentication, anyone can pretend to be you – and your reputation pays the price. However, when at least one authentication is in place, emails are more likely to reach the inbox; missing or incorrect setup triggers spam filters or blocks delivery.
Leveraging email verification tools adds an extra layer of protection, making sure your messages go to real recipients and reducing the chances of bounces or spam complaints.
You might wonder why authenticating your emails is worth the effort. Here’s why:
Authentication verifies the sender, blocking spoofing and phishing before emails reach recipients, and makes it harder for sensitive data to be exposed.
Verified emails are more likely to reach inboxes instead of landing in spam. Think of it like showing an ID in person – email authentication proves your messages really come from you.
Using email deliverability tools can help you monitor, optimize, and ensure your emails consistently reach your recipients’ inboxes.
By preventing fraudsters from impersonating your domain, you maintain customer trust and credibility.
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a DNS-based authentication protocol that specifies which mail servers are authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain, enabling recipients to verify sender legitimacy.
It establishes a list of approved mail servers, and upon email receipt, the receiving server validates whether the originating sender is authorized. If verification fails, the message may be flagged as spam or rejected.
DKIM is an email authentication protocol that adds a digital signature to your messages. The recipient server checks this signature to confirm the email hasn’t been changed during delivery; if it has, the verification fails.
DMARC is an email authentication protocol that helps protect your domain from fake or unauthorized emails. It works with SPF and DKIM to decide what to do with emails that fail authentication and provides reports so you can monitor who is sending emails from your domain.
BIMI puts your company’s logo right in people’s email inboxes, next to messages you send them. It works in Gmail, Yahoo, and other major email services, giving your brand a visual stamp of authenticity that recipients can instantly recognize.
Before you can use BIMI, you need SPF, DKIM, and DMARC set up – these are security measures that prove your emails are real. Implementing these protocols, along with proper list management, can also help reduce bounce rate and improve overall email deliverability.
Once those are in place, BIMI adds your logo to create a consistent, trustworthy look that helps customers spot legitimate emails from you and avoid falling for fake ones pretending to be your company.
Now let’s look at some practical tools that will help you authenticate your emails and improve your delivery rates.
If you need to find a solution for solving deliverability and security issues, EasyDMARC can be your solution. EasyDMARC tools simplify DMARC, SPF, and DKIM management.
➤ Main Tools
Protects your company’s reputation, ensures compliance with regulations, and improves email deliverability. Stops criminals from sending fake emails pretending to be your company.
Simplifies SPF setup with one-time configuration and automatically updates your SPF record from one central place. Fixes the common 10 DNS lookup limit problem automatically.
Automatically checks if your domain or IP is on any blacklists and alerts you immediately so you can fix it quickly.
➤ Plans and pricing
1 domain, 1,000 emails, 14 days history, 1 user, Aggregate reports.
2 domains, 3 months history, 1 user, Aggregate & failure reports.
4 domains, 1 year history, Unlimited users, Aggregate, TLS & failure reports, EasySPF, Email support, Permission & alert management.
Unlimited emails/domains/users, 3-year history. All reports, EasySPF, Managed DKIM, Managed services, Dedicated engineer, Reputation monitoring, SSO, Audit logs, Permission & alert management.
The next tool we’ll discuss is Valimail. This platform automates DMARC, SPF, and DKIM authentication to protect organizations from phishing and domain spoofing.
With Vailmall features, you can block fraudulent messages while ensuring legitimate emails reach their recipients. No matter the size of your organization, this tool makes email security easier and improves deliverability without manual DNS setup.
➤ Main features
Valimail automatically configures DMARC, SPF, and DKIM setup, helping companies protect their emails faster and easier.
Valimail is the only provider that can bypass the normal 10-domain lookup limit and keeps your information hidden from competitors.
Valimail’s DMARC service library includes over 70 million pre-decoded IP addresses, offering more named email service providers than any other platform.
Valimail makes it faster to add your company logo next to your emails in customers’ inboxes.
The platform shows you every unauthorized service sending emails using your company name and gives you a complete view of who’s sending emails on your behalf.
➤ Plans and pricing
Identify 100% of your email services by name, gain visibility and control over unauthorized emails.
Protect your domain from phishing and spoofing attacks, and achieve DMARC enforcement in 60 days or less.
Automatically align SPF and DKIM without reaching full DMARC enforcement, ensuring compliance with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other mailbox authentication rules.
The next tool we’re going to discuss is PowerDMARC, which is a one-stop email authentication platform designed to stop hackers from sending emails from your domain.
With the DMARC record checker, PowerDMARC allows you to monitor and analyze DMARC while protecting your email from spoofing and phishing.
➤ Main features
Monitor DMARC policies from a single platform without accessing your domain naming system to optimize your configuration.
One-click SPF optimization with record flattening or the SPF Macros approach to always stay under the lookup limit and enjoy error-free SPF.
Simplify DKIM selector and key management for multiple domains with this one-stop service that enables you to optimize your DKIM authentication seamlessly.
AI-driven threat intelligence technology can pinpoint abusive IPs, along with predictive threat intelligence analysis to detect attack patterns and trends.
Real-time DMARC monitoring threat map to track email spoofing attacks globally, with instant email and portal alerts for critical domain events like DNS changes, policy violations, or suspicious activities.
➤ Plans and pricing
10,000 DMARC-compliant emails/month, 10-day data history, 1 user, 1 domain, Hosted DMARC, Hosted BIMI, RUA and RUF report processing, DMARC geolocation report.
100,000 DMARC-compliant emails/month, 1-year data history, 2 users, 5 domains. Hosted DMARC, Hosted SPF, Hosted BIMI, RUA and RUF report processing, DMARC geolocation report, TLS reports.
Unlimited DMARC-compliant emails, 1-year data history, unlimited users and domains, all features of the Basic plan, enterprise-level support and customization.
Multi-tenant control panel, white-label branding, API support, onboarding and training, usage-based payments, PSA integration, 15-day free trial for clients
Another tool included in our list is Proofpoint, one of the leading email security solutions. It secures how people, data, and AI agents connect across email, cloud, and collaboration tools.
Proofpoint’s authentication solutions guarantee complete protection by verifying email sources and preventing impersonation attacks.
➤ Main features
Proofpoint offers hosted authentication services for SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, which streamline management and improve security. This means they handle the technical setup for you.
The DMARC policy allows you to instruct email providers on whether to deliver, quarantine, or reject emails that fail authentication checks. You decide what happens to suspicious emails.
Proofpoint provides comprehensive domain discovery to detect lookalike domains attempting to impersonate your brand. This catches scammers trying to copy your company name.
Customers get access to world-class consultants who guide them through every step of their DMARC journey. You get help from experts throughout the process.
The Email Fraud Defense solution goes beyond basic DMARC implementation by offering insights into supplier fraud risks. You receive warnings about potential scams from vendors or partners.
➤ Plans and pricing
Proofpoint Essentials Packages (small and medium-sized businesses)
Inbound and outbound email filtering, 30 days of Emergency Inbox.
Includes all Beginner features plus data loss prevention filters, Attachment Defense Reputation Service, URL Defense, Instant Replay.
Includes all Business features plus full attachment sandboxing, email encryption, and social media protection.
Includes all Advanced features plus email archiving.
The last tool is DMARCLY, an email authentication and monitoring platform that protects domains from spoofing and phishing. It automates DMARC implementation, guiding domains from monitoring to quarantine and finally to reject mode.
DMARCLY features include enhanced email authentication with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, ensuring legitimate emails are delivered while malicious ones are blocked.
➤ Main features
DMARCLY automatically collects, parses XML reports, and converts them into intelligible charts in the background, eliminating the tedious manual work that can take hours per day.
Solves the “SPF PermError: Too Many DNS Lookups” problem that occurs when SPF records exceed the 10 DNS query limit, preventing email deliverability issues.
Complete toolkit for generating and checking DMARC, SPF, and DKIM records all within one dashboard, with automated alerts for any DNS changes.
Monitors the reputation of outbound email IP addresses against industry standard blacklists, including Spamhaus ZEN, SpamCop, Barracuda Reputation Block List, and Passive Spam Block List.
Implements MTA-STS and TLS reporting to identify and fix email security issues, protecting against Man-in-the-Middle attacks by ensuring encrypted email connections.
➤ Plans and pricing
2 domains, 100K emails/month, 2 months history, 1 user, 1 domain group. DMARC/SPF/DKIM checker, reports & alerts, DNS timeline, BIMI, MTA-STS/TLS-RPT, 2FA, email support
Up to 8 domains, 250K emails/month, 1 Safe SPF, 4 months history, 3 users, 3 domain groups. All Professional features + live chat support
Up to 15 domains, 1M emails/month, 2 Safe SPF, 6 months history, 5 users, 5 domain groups. All Growth features + domain blacklist monitoring, adaptive blacklist monitoring
Up to 200 domains, 5M emails/month, 4 Safe SPF, 1 year history, unlimited users & domain groups. All Business features + user access control, API access, SSO (SAML), live chat support
You really should care how messages are delivered, perceived, and trusted. So, you need to invest in email authentication for your company.
In this article, we’ve discussed what email authentication can do for your business and the key models – SPF, DKIM, and DMARC – that protect your email communications.
Email authentication isn’t optional anymore. It ensures your messages reach inboxes, protects your brand from impersonation, and builds trust with your audience. The cost of not implementing it is too high: lost opportunities, damaged reputation, and
compromised security.
Invest in it today. Your brand depends on it.
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