Gmail requires SPF or DKIM
You might have heard of SPF and DKIM. They are basically your domain authentication protocols. They have been low-key recommended for email deliverability for a while now. We always encourage you to set your authentication protocols in our email deliverability guide.
Despite their importance, marketers can sometimes fly under the radar for not properly setting them up. However, this is becoming more difficult with time. In fact, lately, Google has started to become stricter with the topic, and they have started directly requiring it to be set up. It was added as a note to their articles, so it's easily missable, but we got you covered!
Google has decided to start checking if a new sender has either SPF or DKIM set up. If none of them is set up, they will either mark your email as spam or send you an automated email notifying you about your email being unauthenticated. These automated emails' content may vary, but it generally mentions that your email to a recipient address (it might be a Mailwarm email or one email you manually sent yourself) couldn't be sent, because the sender might be recognized as a non-valid sender or mention authentication, SPF and/or DKIM. If you find yourself receiving an automated email about it, you should definitely set up either SPF or DKIM per Google's requirement.
In general, we recommend setting up all three authentication records: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. They are very important for your email deliverability. If you were in a situation where you have to set them up, here is how to deal with it:
Important: If you're using multiple senders at the same time for the same domain (a Gmail and a Sendgrid account, for instance), you'll need to authorize each sender to send from your domain, and set up your authentication records for each of them.
By pausing your sending, you will avoid getting the automated emails. You can postpone sending to gmail accounts until after you set up your authentication. You should pause your Mailwarm campaigns as well. You can do so by clicking on the "Stop sending emails" button on your dashboard:
This part depends mainly on your email provider (Office365, Google Workspace, Amazon SES...). You need to authorize your email provider to send emails from your domain. So, each provider will give you its own signature to include in your domain records. The most consistent way to find these signatures is to google them to find your own provider's tutorial. You can google:
Set up SPF or DKIM or DMARC for [your email provider]
For instance, for a Google account, you can google: Set up SPF for google workspace and you will find this tutorial. Same goes for DKIM and DMARC, and other providers. You can then follow your provider's tutorial and get the records.
This step depends on your domain provider (Godaddy, Namecheap, Bluehost...). Once you have your records, your email provider's tutorial might point to what you need to do next to add them to your domain. If it's not the case, you can google:
Add a txt dns record to [your domain provider]
The results will point you to a tutorial that will help you access your domain dns records and add your SPF, DKIM and DMARC. If you need help with this, you can reach out to your domain provider.
After setting up your authentication, you're good to go. You have now successfully authenticated your sending domain, and implemented an important setting for your email deliverability. You can resume your campaigns including Mailwarm's. For the latter, you can click on the same button as before to reactivate the campaign:
Final note:
The set up might take some time to take effect depending on your domain provider.
Despite their importance, marketers can sometimes fly under the radar for not properly setting them up. However, this is becoming more difficult with time. In fact, lately, Google has started to become stricter with the topic, and they have started directly requiring it to be set up. It was added as a note to their articles, so it's easily missable, but we got you covered!
Google has decided to start checking if a new sender has either SPF or DKIM set up. If none of them is set up, they will either mark your email as spam or send you an automated email notifying you about your email being unauthenticated. These automated emails' content may vary, but it generally mentions that your email to a recipient address (it might be a Mailwarm email or one email you manually sent yourself) couldn't be sent, because the sender might be recognized as a non-valid sender or mention authentication, SPF and/or DKIM. If you find yourself receiving an automated email about it, you should definitely set up either SPF or DKIM per Google's requirement.
In general, we recommend setting up all three authentication records: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. They are very important for your email deliverability. If you were in a situation where you have to set them up, here is how to deal with it:
Important: If you're using multiple senders at the same time for the same domain (a Gmail and a Sendgrid account, for instance), you'll need to authorize each sender to send from your domain, and set up your authentication records for each of them.
Step 1 : Pause your sending to gmail accounts:
By pausing your sending, you will avoid getting the automated emails. You can postpone sending to gmail accounts until after you set up your authentication. You should pause your Mailwarm campaigns as well. You can do so by clicking on the "Stop sending emails" button on your dashboard:
Step 2 : Grab your domain authentication records:
This part depends mainly on your email provider (Office365, Google Workspace, Amazon SES...). You need to authorize your email provider to send emails from your domain. So, each provider will give you its own signature to include in your domain records. The most consistent way to find these signatures is to google them to find your own provider's tutorial. You can google:
Set up SPF or DKIM or DMARC for [your email provider]
For instance, for a Google account, you can google: Set up SPF for google workspace and you will find this tutorial. Same goes for DKIM and DMARC, and other providers. You can then follow your provider's tutorial and get the records.
Step 3 : Set up your domain authentication:
This step depends on your domain provider (Godaddy, Namecheap, Bluehost...). Once you have your records, your email provider's tutorial might point to what you need to do next to add them to your domain. If it's not the case, you can google:
Add a txt dns record to [your domain provider]
The results will point you to a tutorial that will help you access your domain dns records and add your SPF, DKIM and DMARC. If you need help with this, you can reach out to your domain provider.
Step 4 : Resume your campaigns:
After setting up your authentication, you're good to go. You have now successfully authenticated your sending domain, and implemented an important setting for your email deliverability. You can resume your campaigns including Mailwarm's. For the latter, you can click on the same button as before to reactivate the campaign:
Final note:
The set up might take some time to take effect depending on your domain provider.
Updated on: 04/05/2023
Thank you!