By now you should be familiar with SPF Records and why they are essential to your sender’s reputation. However, the SPF Record is part one for basic authentication. Part 2 requires you to add a new CNAME giving you dual authentication which helps improve your delivery success. Most ISP’s will utilize SPF, and DKIM to validate incoming emails. If the email records are not verified, it will most likely end in the spam, junk folder or even quarantined.
What is DKIM; DomainKeys Identified Mail, which grants an organization the responsibility for a message that is being delivered. The organization is either the main sender or the originator of the email message, the organization is known as the Identifier. The identifiers reputation is responsible for email delivery success.
Ultimately DKIM verifies the domain through cryptographic authentication.
In plain English,
Benchmark automatically authenticates the DKIM for email campaigns being sent from our service. Authenticating the DKIM for our senders helps secure the delivery through SPF filters. Now, when you are using your email domain, we suggest to add a new CNAME and get the full benefit of double DKIM authentication.
This way the ISP’s will not influence your reputation with that of other users sending emails using the same IP addresses, and only your domain’s information will display in the headers.
In the example below, you see the headers of an email after the CNAME has been published for the sending domain, it is using bmsend.com to send, however, it will only display your domain.
To take full advantage of double DKIM, you will need to add a CNAME for each of the domains you will be sending from. Updating your CNAME is the only step you will have to complete, it is not mandatory to update your CNAME.
Benchmark encourages you to update your DKIM and begin your path to email delivery success.
What you will need.
CName record:
bmdeda._domainkey
Value:
bmdeda._domainkey.bmsend.com
Note: You can authenticate a CNAME for more than one sending domain.
How to add a new CNAME
Below we listed the most popular domain/ web-hosting sites with instructions on how to add a new CNAME record. To see the hosting services FAQ, feel free to click on it’s name.
If you do not have access to update your CNAME or SPF Records in your web hosting site, you can contact your IT administrator or contact your web hosting service.
Click on the Domains tab, and select my domains list (Top Menu).
Select the domain you wish to create a CNAME record for.
Now, on the left select DNS Records.
Here you will add the CNAME record, provided by Benchmark.
a. Select CNAME from the drop-down menu.
b. Enter your sending domain as bmdeda._domainkey in the Host field.
c. Add bmdeda._domainkey.bmsend.com to the Answer field.
d. Enter the desired TTL, or just leave it default
Finally, select the blue Add Record button.
Click Here to also learn about SPF Records FAQ. If you need more help understanding DKIM, please feel free to contact your Customer Engagement Specialist or our support team.