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Improving Email Deliverability - SPF and DKIM Setup Guide

Benji Bizzell
Updated

Overview

This guide provides essential steps for setting up SPF and DKIM records to ensure emails sent from Influitive's AdvocateHub are delivered to recipients' inboxes using the Hub admin's email address. It emphasizes the importance of these configurations for email legitimacy, branding consistency, and avoiding the default Influitive domain in sender addresses. The article includes detailed instructions for configuring SPF and DKIM, including updates to a 2048-bit key DKIM, and offers troubleshooting tips and a sample email to request IT department assistance.

 

Information

Why configure SPF and DKIM records?

By setting up SPF and DKIM records, emails that come from Influitive will be properly branded with the selected Hub admin's email address as the sender. If these records are not set up, Hub emails from Influitive will appear to be sent from "hubname@email.influitive.com". If you are comfortable with using the hubname@email.influitive.com as the Hub email sender, then SPF / DKIM setup is not required.

 

What are SPF and DKIM?

SPF stands for Sender Policy Framework. It is the first level of defense against "spoofing" as it lets receiving email servers know Influitive has permission to send emails on behalf of your company. DKIM stands for Domain Key Identified Record. It is a further guarantee to a user's email server that the email is legitimate. It can be thought of as a "digital signature" on your email. Both of these records are configured in the domain's DNS (Domain Name System) record.

Note: In order for your domain to be verified by, you must have the DKIM records configured as the minimum requirement. They require this to ensure that nobody is trying to send illegitimate emails on your behalf.

 

  1. Configuring: SPF and DKIM
  2. Template Email for your IT Department
  3. Is it Working?
    1. Check your SPF
    2. Check your DKIM
    3. Test in the AdvocateHub

 

Configuring SPF

This section is designed to make it easier for your IT team to add the DKIM & SPF records and ensure that emails are getting to your Hub members.

Please follow the instructions below to add SPF records:
  1. Access your domain's DNS record
  2. Add the following to your SPF record: include:email.influitive.com
    1. Alternatively , add the IP: ip4:192.174.90.242

Watch your SPF lookups!


The number of SPF lookups is limited to 10. The email.influitive.com include will add more lookups to your SPF record. It is likely that you will need to use the IP address instead (IP addresses do not take up any lookups).

 

Configuring DKIM


2048-bit Key DKIM

As of July 25, 2023, all sending domains are verified with a 2048-bit key as opposed to the previous 1024-bit key DKIM record.


The change applies to all new sending domain verifications, but everything should still work as normal if you still have the old DKIM values below:

Host/name: scph0416._domainkey. yourdomain.com

Value:

v=DKIM1; k=rsa; h=sha256; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQDih5pVeAPRFdDHY+14sCpx2Alpv6Fa4TpfuTuvahTlynaArXq7NjLef5VaxM/qZ0jRzSK+9YSWW4ZgX56Oz/2rM+aZGcIQQeY9fnboRqOvj5yEUZE8Lb0TLOJ8LvwkI5gKn/T5soRcVcX9DQKmn/NbaRjXx1zSzEANc6NyxOfMDQIDAQAB


Follow these instructions to configure your new DKIM:
  1. Access your domain's DNS settings
  2. Add a new TXT record
Host/name: hub2048 ._domainkey. yourdomain.com
(Please replace "yourdomain.com" in the above host / name with your actual domain).

Value:

v=DKIM1; k=rsa; h=sha256; p=MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAxhLMyR/tr6t23k4+eKR70sPYYboWe32osO75UZadgDw8MUp27slijCM4fxU2VqaUhIF+qWPSvlhRgCfyiR8ciW+7vaYciRbFUM5gPJsYCMwHgLoZ+nju263OjKm7SNRq3sZJ4H0YVH1yAYZpRuvUrA3MbJhR5AhcM+uFLq8uOPEykjte+ElJKqqzt6GnAopIgHkNUSTODtCDz7hjRFHfDBe87Q9/ks3PnjGAoRp09Vv9A49mR5Xnzc+TZ1dxh9XsuAryoPP5eda6Xb55GfshKOEenL04cqhC6AAQ/O8by/cS0nF0MSDtZDtnSm9CLjWUeiARr2Ysi8xkXJEiVAxacQIDAQAB

 

Note: At this point, please notify Influitive Support that you are enabling this feature, as there is one setting that we need to enable in the backend of our system.

 

Example Email to send to your IT Department

Hi,
We are in the process of launching a marketing program called AdvocateHub, which is powered by a SaaS company called Influitive. They've requested us to make an adjustment to our DNS record to ensure emails I send from the system are delivered successfully to our AdvocateHub program members.

Currently, when we send emails through Influitive, the sender of the email will display hubname@email.influitive.com. We request to add an SPF and DKIM record in order to improve deliverability and the open rate of our emails, which will have a direct impact on advocate engagement. It is important to keep members engaged as this translates into happy customers and value for our business. Removing the @email.influitive.com from the email's sender address will also help us maintain proper branding.

This is the SPF record:
Type: TXT
Host: yourdomain.com
Value: include:email.influitive.com OR ip4:192.174.90.242
This is the DKIM record:
Type: TXT
Host: hub2048._domainkey. yourdomain.com

Value:

v=DKIM1; k=rsa; h=sha256; p=MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAxhLMyR/tr6t23k4+eKR70sPYYboWe32osO75UZadgDw8MUp27slijCM4fxU2VqaUhIF+qWPSvlhRgCfyiR8ciW+7vaYciRbFUM5gPJsYCMwHgLoZ+nju263OjKm7SNRq3sZJ4H0YVH1yAYZpRuvUrA3MbJhR5AhcM+uFLq8uOPEykjte+ElJKqqzt6GnAopIgHkNUSTODtCDz7hjRFHfDBe87Q9/ks3PnjGAoRp09Vv9A49mR5Xnzc+TZ1dxh9XsuAryoPP5eda6Xb55GfshKOEenL04cqhC6AAQ/O8by/cS0nF0MSDtZDtnSm9CLjWUeiARr2Ysi8xkXJEiVAxacQIDAQAB

 

If you have any questions you can contact Influitive at support@influitive.com.
Thanks!
 

Is it Working?

Ultimately we recommend sending some test emails to truly get an idea as to whether everything is working perfectly. That said, below you can find all the ways we here at Influitive Support check SPF/DKIM records.

Check your SPF records

1. Go to http://www.kitterman.com/spf/validate.html

2. Enter your email domain (i.e. influitive.com), and click "Get SPF Record"

3. Check the SPF results

  • You should see: evaluating... SPF record passed validation test with pySPF (Python SPF library)!
    • If you see a failure, you'll need to give the error to your IT team for further investigation
  • In the SPF record, look for either of the following required items for sending emails from Influitive: ip4:192.174.90.242 or email.influitive.com .
    • If you do not see either of these, then you will need to ask your IT team to add one of them.

Check your DKIM record

2. Enter hub2048 in the "Selector" field and yourdomain.com in the "Domain name" field.
If the result is red and says, "This is not a good DKIM key record. You should fix the errors shown in red", then no DKIM is set up.
If the result is green and says, "This is a valid DKIM key record", then check that the value is under Public key is exactly the following:

p=MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAxhLMyR/tr6t23k4+eKR70sPYYboWe32osO75UZadgDw8MUp27slijCM4fxU2VqaUhIF+qWPSvlhRgCfyiR8ciW+7vaYciRbFUM5gPJsYCMwHgLoZ+nju263OjKm7SNRq3sZJ4H0YVH1yAYZpRuvUrA3MbJhR5AhcM+uFLq8uOPEykjte+ElJKqqzt6GnAopIgHkNUSTODtCDz7hjRFHfDBe87Q9/ks3PnjGAoRp09Vv9A49mR5Xnzc+TZ1dxh9XsuAryoPP5eda6Xb55GfshKOEenL04cqhC6AAQ/O8by/cS0nF0MSDtZDtnSm9CLjWUeiARr2Ysi8xkXJEiVAxacQIDAQAB

 

Test your Hub emails

To test if the new set SPF/DKIM records works successfully, please follow these steps:

  1. Login to your AdvocateHub as an administrator. Click on the Admin View > Gear icon > Settings > Email > General > Make sure that the "Encountering deliverability problems? Send emails from inadine@email.influitive.com." checkbox is unmarked.

  2. Additionally, please make sure the selected Sender has the email domain (@companyname.com) with the configured SPF/DKIM records.
  3. Click the "Update email sender" button.
  4. Once that's saved, you will now add a test email account to test the emails. To do this, head over to the Members Tab > Invite List > Add to Invite List > Enter a valid email address as a test that you have access to. You will need to send a Hub email invitation to the test account. Once the account is added, click on the checkbox next to the test account > Send Invite.

  5. Please wait for a few minutes for the invitation email to be delivered. In the same Invite List, search for the test account and click on the name to open the test account's profile page > head over to the Email Tab.

  6. From here, you can see the status of the sent Hub email. If you see "Delivered" then the email is successfully delivered and you are ready to send other emails from the Hub. If you see a "Failure" message, please check the SPF/DKIM records again to ensure that it's correct.

Still running into issues? Please contact support@influitive.com to double-check your setup and troubleshooting assistance.

 

FAQ

Why is it important to configure SPF and DKIM records for emails sent from Influitive's AdvocateHub?

Configuring SPF and DKIM records is important to ensure that emails are recognized as legitimate, to maintain consistent branding by using the Hub admin's email address as the sender, and to improve email deliverability and open rates.

What are the consequences of not setting up SPF and DKIM records for Influitive emails?

Without setting up SPF and DKIM records, emails from Influitive's AdvocateHub will appear to be sent from an Influitive domain (hubname@email.influitive.com), which may affect deliverability and branding consistency.

How many SPF lookups are allowed, and why might it be necessary to use an IP address in the SPF record?

The number of SPF lookups is limited to 10. Using the domain email.influitive.com in the SPF record will add more lookups, so it may be necessary to use an IP address instead, as IP addresses do not count towards the lookup limit.

What change was made to the DKIM record as of July 25, 2023?

As of July 25, 2023, all new sending domain verifications use a 2048-bit key for the DKIM record, replacing the previous 1024-bit key to enhance security.

How can I confirm that the new SPF and DKIM records are working correctly?

You can confirm the new records are working by sending test emails and checking the delivery status. Additionally, you can use verification methods provided by Influitive Support to check your SPF and DKIM records. If there are issues, you should recheck the records for accuracy or contact Influitive support for assistance.

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