What is a sending domain?
A sending domain is the common part of the email addresses an organization uses. It may be seen as a shared identity from where an organization sends all of its email messages.
Look for the extension after the “@” in any email address in order to find the sending domain: for the email address info@smart.pr for example, the sending domain is “smart.pr”.
What is the authentication of a sending domain?
When you authenticate a sending domain, you allow a third party (in this case Smart.pr) to send email via your own organization’s sending domain. The result of this is that mail servers that receive these emails are able to distinguish legitimate emails from spoofed (or: fake) emails.
It will become mandatory to authenticate your domain to send via Smart.pr. This process signals the receiving mail servers that your press release emails are indeed legitimate. This method to authenticate a sending domain is called “whitelabeling”.
Why will this be mandatory?
By authenticating a sending domain, you create an extra safety at the recipient’s email server about the trustworthiness of the email messages your organization sends via Smart.pr. Op top of that, domain authentication will become a necessary process due to the new anti-spam regulations that Google and Yahoo are introducing per February 1st 2024. Authentication prevents your mailings ending up in spam or being bounced by the recipient server due to these new rules.
How do I authenticate my sending domain?
In order to authenticate a sending domain, it should first be verified. Verifying a sending domain is easy to do in the Smart.pr app. This article explains what it is and how to do it.
After verifying the sending domain, you can start with authentication. Part of this process is done within the Smart.pr app through a wizard, part of it should be done by making a few changes in your organization’s domain settings. This happens outside of the Smart.pr app and requires some technical knowledge. We recommend working with your IT specialist to make these changes. The technical documentation to authenticate your sending domain can be found here.
Step-by-step authentication of your sending domain
Open the user settings menu by clicking your name in the top right corner of the Smart.pr app and click “Manage sending domains”;
For the domain you’d like to authenticate, click the blue link “Authenticate my domain”;
Please read the notes on the authentication process thoroughly and click “I understand, continue” in order to proceed;
As soon as this first step in the configuration is done, you’ll receive a notification. Click “Next” to continue;
You’ll now see an overview of the DNS records that need to be set up. Please hand this overview to your IT specialist, or add these records to your domain settings yourself;
When you’ve successfully added these records, click “Validate” in order to check whether all settings are indeed correct;
Green checkmarks will appear next to the new DNS records in case all settings are correct. In case the validation failed, you will see an error;
Click “Next” in case all checkmarks are indeed green in order to close the authentication wizard. Your sending domain has now been validated successfully.
NB: These records are examples, and not the records that need to be added to your domain settings. Complete the authentication wizard to generate the needed records for your domain.
Domain authentication and failed mailings
When using a sending domain that has not been authenticated, the press releases your organization sends through Smart.pr, may end up in the recipients' spam folder. It might even happen that your emails are blocked entirely. This is caused by the so-called DMARC policies of the sending domain you use, or because the recipients marks you as spam. Taking the above measures and thereby authenticating your sending domain, can prevent this from happening. When you’ve correctly configured your domains, your press releases will reach their recipients in good order. Obviously ignoring other spam indicators such as messy subject-lines or heavy use of images in your emails (a.o.). In this case, a green checkmark will appear for every DNS record of your sending domain.
In time, it will no longer be possible to send through Smart.pr with a unauthenticated domain.
Questions?
Hopefully, this article was useful and helped you authenticate your sending domain. Should you still have any questions, or did you find anything unclear, then please contact our support team via support@smart.pr or give them a call at +31 20 751 66 29. We’re ready to help you out!