Valid Sender's Address

The Email Marketing community has shifted the focus as of late to that of security, authenticity and authority. Email Providers have gone to great lengths to ensure their users are receiving the emails they want and should. Some of the methods that have become standardized in Email Marketing are as follows:

SPF & DKIM Records 

A method of authentication which will identify the sender of an email campaign as having the authority to distribute an e-mail even if the origin is not from their own mail servers.

Once you have confirmed that the SPF and DKIM records are in place and accurate, there are few Do's and Don'ts to keep in mind. See the list below:

Do's

• Make sure the From address used actually exists
  • Some Email Providers will go to extreme lengths to ensure the authenticity of an email that is being delivered to a recipient's inbox. That includes checking the domain to see if the email referenced as the sender actually exists. If this check fails, the email will automatically be flagged as spam by the Email Provider and it will not be delivered to the intended recipients. To avoid running into this scenario, ensure that the email address utilized, as the From Address, is a legitimate address.
• Only use an email address that resides within the club’s domain and that has a valid SPF and DKIM record configured for email marketing.
  • The SPF and DKIM records will be checked by the recipients Email Provider based on the domain referenced in the From Address. That is why it is imperative to only utilize email addresses that reside within the domain you have setup the SPF and DKIM record for.

^Ex. If the SPF and DKIM records were configured for clubhouseonline-e3.com, only email addresses under that domain should be used as a From Address such as websupport@clubhouseonline-e3.com)

• Use a personal email address for the From Address
  • Using a personal email address will lend to the legitimacy of the email campaign being sent. Automated SPAM filters are less likely to flag campaigns as MARKETING or SPAM if the From Address appears to belong to an individual. 

Don'ts

• Do not use e-mail addresses such as info@, admin@, frontdesk@, office@, noreply@, gm@, controller@, webmaster@ as the From Address for email campaigns.
  • Email addresses beginning with these common words are largely regarded as Marketing emails and are flagged as such. While utilizing these types of email addresses won't flag all of your campaigns as SPAM, there will be a noticeable drop in the deliverability of your campaigns. Intended recipients will not be notified that campaigns were flagged as SPAM, but will simply not receive the campaign to their inbox. Even if these are legitimate email addresses it is still recommended to use an email address that utilizes a staff member's name rather than a generic job title or station.

^Note: The From Address and Reply-To Address do not have to be the same when sending an e-mail Campaign. If you wish to have responses to a campaign be delivered to a generic inbox, set that email address as the Reply-To Address instead of the From Address. For more information about setting the From Address and Reply-To Address, click here.

• Do not use a Hotmail.com, Gmail.com, AOL.com, Verizon.com, Outlook.com, or any other web-based mail email address as the From Address.
  • The major companies behind these web-based email platforms have all implemented anti-spoofing policies that will automatically flag and block emails attempting to use their domains as unauthorized sender. Utilizing an email address from any of these domains will cause all the recipient contacts to have their status automatically changed to a Hard bounce state as they will immediately reject the email. It is strongly advised to NEVER use an email address from any of the aforementioned companies as the From Address. Email addresses from these domains can be used as the Reply-To Address if necessary.

^Note: In order to revert a contact from a Hard bounce status to Subscribed, you will need to follow the steps found here. Please note, this process cannot be completed en masse nor will Jonas Software be able to complete this request on your behalf.