Written on 05/28/2020

Improve Your Email Inbox Placement Using DMARC

Act! Markeing Automation (AMA) is a great tool designed by Act! to send out complicated drip email marketing campaigns. Not familiar with AMA? Read more about AMA here. However, what's the point of designing great email templates and campaigns if your emails are going into recipients' spam or junk folders?

As most of you all know, junk email is a big issue these days. Spammer activity, unfortunately, drives most of the rules legitimate email marketers have to follow to get their emails front of the eyes of recipients. Algorithms for detecting spam activity are changing daily so it's important for marketers to keep up to date on current spam email trends so that you can have great inbox placement. We will cover many topics in the blog series so stay tuned.

Email Deliverability - Setting Up Your Email Security Protocols

Phishing and spoofing emails are becoming more common and increasingly sophisticated. Usually these types of email attacks pretend to send as someone else. For example, they will send you an email that looks like it was sent by your bank, but in fact are designed to collect your sensitive personal information such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, bank account credentials and more. For good reason spam filters have many methods to try to detect this type of behavior.

When using an emarketing program like Act! Marketing Automation, your emails appear to be coming "from" your domain (i.e. @aspen-tech.com). However, the actual emails are being sent from a third party server, AMA's cloud servers. If not handled properly, spam filters could think the AMA server is trying to improperly send "as" you.

Setup Your Security Protocols

The email marketing industry has set up several options for you to protect your email domain from spoofing or phishing attempts. These same options are also how you tell the internet world that AMA has permission to send as you. This in turn helps improve your inbox delivery. We will discuss the three primary methods below:

SPF - Sender Policy Framework

SPF allows the receiving mail server to check during mail delivery that a mail claiming to come from a specific domain is submitted by an IP address authorized by that domain's administrators. Quoted from Wikipedia - read more!
Simplified, it tells spam filters that AMA's email servers are allowed to send "as" you.
Great news! Act! Marketing Automation (AMA) does this for you automatically.

DKIM - Domain Keys Identified Mail

DKIM allows the receiver to check that an email claimed to have come from a specific domain was indeed authorized by the owner of that domain. It achieves this by affixing a digital signature, linked to a domain name, to each outgoing email message. Quoted from Wikipedia - read more!
Simplified, DKIM works similar to SPF except that it adds an extra proactive step when initiating the email send.
Also great news! Act! Marketing Automation (AMA) does this for you automatically, unless you use DMARC (below).

DMARC - Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance

DMARC is designed to give email domain owners the ability to protect their domain from unauthorized use, commonly known as email spoofing. The purpose and primary outcome of implementing DMARC is to protect a domain from being used in business email compromise attacks, phishing emails, email scams and other cyber threat activities. Quoted from Wikipedia - read more!
Simplified, DMARC is the most advanced method to protect yourself from unauthorized use of your domain and best way communicate to spam filters that AMA is allowed to send on your behalf.
This is not set up by AMA automatically. However, you can request this be setup by contacting Act! Support.

So how do I set up a DMARC for my AMA Account?

Contact Act! Support at (866) 873-2006.
Request Act! Support to initiate DMARC setup on your behalf.
When completed, Act! Support will provide a TXT record.
Use that TXT record to update your DNS settings on your domain registrar's site.
Not sure how to update DNS records? No worries. Normally your IT company or web developer should be able to assist you with this portion. If you still need assistance, you can also contact your domain registrar for customer support.

Not Using Act! Marketing Automation (AMA)?

AMA is desgined to be used in tandom with Act! CRM. If you are interested in adding Act! Marketing Automation to your Act! CRM renewal, please contact us for a quote. Using a differnt CRM or marketing program? These general principles are most likely still applicable to you. However, you should contact your emarketing service provider to confirm.

Need more assistance with your marketing efforts?

At AspenTech CRM, we meet these challenges head-on. We address every issue you might have with your CRM – whether it involves selection, technology, training, or process – and create a manageable plan. We then work with you to implement that plan so you can use your CRM to its fullest potential, giving you a 360° view of your customers – and your business. Call 866-880-4228 to start a conversation with one of our CRM experts.

Improved Email Deliverability - Part 1 Setting Up DMARC