What is Sender Authentication and how to set it up

What is sender authentication?

We offer sender authentication for your sending domains. When you authenticate your email, you are adding a digital signature that authorizes each email as coming from you. This digital signature tells internet service providers that you're a legitimate sender.

Why set up sender authentication?

Authenticating email from your domain helps protect your brand by reducing the chance that your email is mistaken for spam. It also helps build and maintain a good sender reputation for your domain. Also, setting up authentication allows emails sent from your account to have a digital signature that authorizes each email as coming from your sending domain.

How do I set up sender authentication?

To set up sender authentication for your domain, you will need to add unique DNS records to your domain through your hosting provider. This includes a unique DKIM record as well as adding a ip4 mechanism to your existing SPF record.

If you would like to set up sender authentication for your domain, please follow the instructions below:

Generate Sender Authentication Instructions

Go to Account -> Sender Authentication
1. Note: If you do not see this tool, please reach out to your account manager.
Click the Add Domain button
Enter the domain or subdomain you want to authenticate (e.g. abc.com) and click Save
Select the newly added domain in the grid and click the Authenticate Domain button. This will generate the unique DNS instructions for your domain.
Click the Email Instructions button to receive a copy of the instructions in email form for you to forward to your IT team.

Complete Sender Authentication For Your Domain

Once you have added the DNS records, select the domain and click the Authenticate Domain button.
When you see green check marks next to the Existing Values and Recommended values, click the Begin Authentication button in the top right. (If you see red x marks, it means that the values do not match. Please see notes below.)
You will receive an email notification confirming that your domain is now successfully authenticated in your account. The status for the domain in the grid will display Authenticated.

Domain Authorization and Instructions

When you click on the Authenticate Domain button, in the pop-up you will see four sections. The first two sections are tables displaying the Existing DNS Values and the Recommended DNS Values. The third section shows your Current Existing DMARC Value as well as an example Recommended DMARC Value. Read more about DMARC here. The fourth section at the bottom displays the instructions for your convenience. Once the DNS records match the Recommended DNS Values table (both having green check marks), you can click the Begin Authentication button in the top right. If the DNS records are set up correctly, your domain will be authenticated automatically. This can take up to 24 hours.

If for some reason the DNS records do not match yet and you click the Begin Authentication button, you will see the following message:

The sending domain DNS records are not valid. If you have recently made a change, it can take up to 48 hours for the DNS propagation to take effect. If they are set correctly, your domain will be authenticated automatically. This can take up to 24 hours.

Once the status for the domain is Authenticated, no further actions are needed. You will receive an email notification confirming that your domain is now authenticated in your account.

If you are having issues adding your SPF or DKIM record, here are some helpful troubleshooting articles:

Please Note:
1. You can only have one SPF record per domain. Do NOT delete your existing SPF record. Instead, add the missing directive to your existing record.

2. Every TXT DKIM record is unique to each domain. Please do not reuse the same DKIM record value for multiple domains.

3. If you have recently made changes to your domain's DNS records and need to reverify your domain to make sure it is still authenticated, you can select the domain from the grid and click Authenticate Domain again to start the authorization process over again.

Common DNS/Hosting Provider Documentation