Email authentication not only keeps your email secure and protects your business and reputation, it also ensures better campaign deliverability. By configuring SPF and DKIM records for your emails, you can protect your brand, prevent phishing and spoofing, and signal that your messages are legitimate and safe for subscribers’ inboxes. Plus, with two optional protocols (DMARC and BIMI), you can double down on your efforts for more secure sending.
What is Email Authentication?
Email authentication is the process perform by mail servers to determine that an incoming email is legitimate and not fraudulent.
Email authentication refers to the distance method: offers 2 options: planar and geodesic technical standards by which authentication occurs. There are four standardized protocols used by email clients such as Google, Yahoo, Outlook , and Apple Mail to verify the identity of senders. Two of these email authentication types (SPF and DKIM) are mandatory, while DMARC and BIMI are optional:
- SPF : Sender Policy Framework
- DKIM : DomainKeys Identified Mail
- DMARC (Optional): Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance
- BIMI (Optional): Brand Indicators for Message Identification
As an email sender, you need to the central nervous system configure these records in your DNS.
Why Do You Need Email Authentication?
While email is a great means of communication, it has become a major platform for cybercriminals to commit crimes (such as phishing, spoofing, and spammer attacks). That’s why Internet Service Providers and Email Service Providers (ISPs and ESPs) implement a variety of protocols to protect both senders and recipients of email messages. Part of this includes email authentication.
Email sender authentication helps text services protect your business from malicious activities that can damage your brand image, customer relationships, and even lead to financial consequences.
In addition to this added level of security, properly configuring email authentication records also helps instill trust in ISPs, increasing your email deliverability. If you don’t have these records, ISPs are likely to send your emails to your spam folder instead of your inbox.
