Making your emails stand out

Imagine a large, fast-flowing river. It’s autumn, so there are leaves floating down the river. I ask you to jump into the river and get me a leaf with my name written on it that fell from a specific tree. Now imagine that there are billions of leaves in the river.

This is like what mailbox providers do every day to place emails into their customers’ inboxes.

Given this, when mailbox providers receive a message they attempt to identify who sent it, which allows them to treat emails from them as a group. Note, though, that doesn’t guarantee that every email will have the exact same outcome.

This identification goes beyond just looking at the sending email address; behind the scenes there are email authentication standards in use that senders can take advantage of to ensure that their emails are grouped correctly and that they stand out from the crowd.

Giving your emails authentication superpowers

Want to give your emails that extra effort to improve your email deliverability? Then setting up your DKIM is a must email deliverability best practice.

So what is DKIM?

DKIM is an email authentication technology that helps stop spoofed emails. It also connects domains in the email to the email message in a strong way that mailbox providers pay attention to. In other words, it makes an email “leaf” stand out in that proverbial large river.

You benefit from DKIM when you use it to connect your sending domain to the emails you send. This is what our Custom DKIM feature does, which gives you:

• A strong connection to your brand

• A positive signal to mailbox providers

• Allows you to to reap the full benefit of all of the hard work you put into making your emails perfect

Custom DKIM also gives you access to cool AMP4Email features which you can use to make your email content dynamic and more engaging!

How to set up Custom DKIM with AWeber

1. Add your domain to your AWeber account and verify ownership of your sending email address

2. Login to your DNS provider’s website

3. Add three DKIM CNAME records

4. Add or update your SPF record

5. Verify your DNS records in your AWeber account

AWeber’s Knowledge Base has step by step resources to help you get Custom DKIM set up, and our Customer Solutions team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to answer any questions you may have and help you through the process.

How do I set up DKIM and SPF records for my domain?

September 01, 2021 15:28

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In order to ensure industry leading deliverability, AWeber authenticates all messages we send for our users automatically. While AWeber does basic authentication for you automatically, it is a best practice to also authenticate your own domain name to build the best email sending reputation possible.

We recommend creating custom DKIM and SPF records through your domain provider as those records tell the world that the emails you send from AWeber are valid and authorized. In this article, we will cover how to create these custom records, and how to ensure they are configured properly.

For more information on the standards that affect the deliverability of email messages, review our complete article on email authentication. 

Verify your domain in AWeber

Visit the "Domains and Addresses" page found under your account settings. Enter your From address in the "Email Addresses" section and click "Send verification."A message will pop over the page telling you to check your inbox. Click "Done" to continue.You will now see your domain and From address on the account settings page. If your email address still needs to be verified, it will be listed as "pending."You will receive an email from help@aweber.com asking you to verify your email address. Click the button to complete the process. Your domain is now verified!

Next, set up SPF and DKIM for your domain

First, login to your domain provider's website to create DNS entries. Instructions on how to edit DNS records for several popular providers are listed below for your convenience:

• AWS

• Domain.com

• Google Domains

• HostGator

• Name.com

• NameCheap

Add three DKIM records 

Create three new CNAME records with the following information.

Please note: replace http://example.com  with your domain. Depending on your domain provider, you may or may not need to include your domain in the host name. Consult your domain provider for this information.

Add an SPF record

If you already have an existing SPF record for your domain you'll need to add "include: send.aweber.com" after the "v=spf1" directive and the record must end in "~all". Otherwise, create a new TXT record with the following information.

Please note: replace http://example.com  with your domain name. If prompted to select a host, use the "@" symbol.

Verify  your DNS records

Once your records have been published, your domain will appear in AWeber as fully authenticated as seen on the Domains & Addresses page in Account Settings. Mail sent from AWeber for that email address will now be signed automatically with DKIM.

Note, if your domain isn't authenticating after setting up your DNS records properly, you may simply need to wait up to 48 hours for servers to see those changes.

A Note About DMARC and SPF Alignment

DMARC requires either SPF or DKIM alignment. After completing the instructions above, you will have DKIM authentication and you will pass the DMARC check even without SPF alignment. To clarify further, your SPF record is verified, however your SPF record will not align but your deliverability will not be negatively impacted.