If you have your own domain and your emails end up in spam, then you might be interested in this article. Because even if you work a lot with WhatsApp and DM: For large circulars to many customers (events, promotions, new artist, …), emails and newsletters are still unbeatable in terms of cost/performance ratio. But email is also essential for your online bookings, appointment reminders and online vouchers, etc.
It is therefore important that your mails are received.
Stricter spam criteria
In recent months, many email providers (Google, Microsoft & Co.) have tightened their spam criteria. They want to prevent fraudsters from sending fishing emails or other nonsense under a false identity (email sender).
Since Mail 2023, for example, Google has therefore only forwarded emails if they at least pass an SPF check or, even better, are signed using DKIM.
OK, not everyone knows what that is. So here is the explanation.
Make your domain fit
SPF, SPF and DMARC are the common technologies used to protect against spam, phishing and fraud attempts. DKIM confirms the authenticity of emails, SPF checks the authorized sender and DMARC monitors and evaluates DKIM and SPF.
We won’t bore you with the technical details of exactly how this works. It is only important that you have or make the following entries in the DNS area of your domain:
SPF
As a rule, domain and email providers offer an SPF entry automatically. Here we have linked the corresponding article from 1und1(SPF at IONOS). You are sure to quickly find similar instructions for your domain provider.
It is simply a DNS entry that needs to be added to your domain. This should be done in just a few minutes.
DKIM
DKIM signing is a little more complicated at first, but can usually be done in just a few steps. You need a so-called key pair with a public and a private key. We have also linked the corresponding article from IONOS here.
You can usually obtain such a key pair from your email provider’s support team and must then enter it in your domain’s DNS area according to their instructions (just like the SPF entry).
If you use a newsletter program such as MailChimp or Brevo, you can also create and activate a key pair there.
DMARC
This option is nice-to-have but not a must and for many of you it may be a little over-sized. With a DMARK entry in your DNS area, you can activate reporting on the emails you send and receive daily delivery reports from the respective mail providers.
These are usually quite cryptic, mostly packed files, but they can be converted into easily understandable graphics free of charge via various online services on the Internet. (google “dmarc analyzer”).
This is particularly interesting in the early days to see whether you have done everything correctly or whether there are still any security gaps.
You also enter a DMARC record in your domain in the DNS area. A typical DMARK record can look like this, for example:
“v=DMARC1;p=reject;pct=100;rua=mailto:” followed by your email address
Checks for possible undeliverable items
If you occasionally receive undeliverable messages, don’t simply delete them. It’s always worth taking a look:
- Email address unknown? Mailbox full?
If you have other contact details for your customers, you could ask for a current/alternative email address here and adjust your customer details. In the case of important emails (rescheduled appointments, down payments, etc.), this will also prevent any potential problems. - Spam or blocking list?
It can always happen that your email address or IP address of the mail server ends up on a blocking or spam list. In such a case, you will also receive an undeliverability message with important information about which list you have been placed on and how you can request a de-blocking:
“SMTP error from remote server for MAIL FROM command, host: outlook-com.olc.protection.outlook.com (52.101.42.11) reason: 550 5.7.1 Service unavailable, Client host [82 .165.159.9] blocked using Spamhaus. To request removal from this list see https://www.spamhaus.org”
Do not forget: Email imprint!
What many people don’t know: For self-employed people and companies, just like on a website, an imprint obligation also applies to emails in the email signature.
The following things should therefore be included in your emails in your (preferably automatic) email signature:
Accordingly, the following information must be included in the e-mail imprint:
- The company name
- The designation of the legal form
- The location of your branch (studio address)
- If applicable, register court and number under which the company is entered in the commercial register.
- In addition, the managing directors must be named in the case of a GmbH and, if a supervisory board has been established, the chairman must be stated with his first and last name.
If this is neglected, in the worst case you could be threatened with a chargeable warning.
We hope to be able to help you with this information and are always happy to receive feedback
Yours
