Adding DKIM & DMARC records for SMTP Sending

How to add DKIM and DMARC records to enable SMTP sending on ImprovMX.

NOTE: DMARC/DKIM is only applicable to users who are utilizing ImprovMX SMTP. ImprovMX SMTP is a feature available to premium and business-tier users.

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DMARC records allow domain owners to specify instructions for domain authorization using DKIM and/or SPF records. These instructions tell receivers how to handle mail if DKIM/SPF fail for the sender. This can drastically reduce the chances of email spoofing by only allowing specific senders to send from your domain.

There are many ways to deploy DMARC, but it's advisable that you start with a more relaxed policy before moving to a stricter one. If you're new to DMARC, we advise starting with the below record:

Type Hostname Value
TXT _dmarc.yourdomain.com v=DMARC1; p=none;

The above record tells senders that you've enacted DMARC (v is the version) and assigns a policy (p) of none, which instructs receivers to take no action if DKIM or SPF fail, while still requesting reports. With this policy, a domain owner can supply an additional rua tag to receive aggregate reports at a particular URI or email. This allows the domain owner to review reports before moving to a stricter quarantine or reject policy. As an example, v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:postmaster@yourdomain.com; would allow a domain owner to receive aggregate reports at postmaster@yourdomain.com.

For a more detailed explanation on DMARC, its importance, and deployment variations, please visit https://dmarc.org/

**It's important to note that some DNS providers and/or domain registrars automatically append your domain name to DMARC records. If this is the case, simply assign a hostname value of _dmarc to your record.

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