Email Deliverability: SPF, DKIM & DMARC Guide

You can write the perfect email, but it's worthless if it doesn't reach the inbox. Our digital marketing team has mastered email deliverability across hundreds of campaigns. Here's how to master it.

Understanding Deliverability

What Affects Deliverability

The Journey of an Email

Technical Foundation

1. Email Authentication

SPF (Sender Policy Framework):
• Specifies authorized senders
• DNS TXT record
• List your sending IPs

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail):
• Cryptographic signature
• Proves email wasn't altered
• Public key in DNS

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication):
• Policy for handling failures
• Reporting on authentication
• Start with monitoring mode

2. Sending Infrastructure

Dedicated IP vs. Shared:
• Dedicated: Full control, must build reputation
• Shared: Existing reputation, affected by others

IP Warming:
• Gradually increase volume
• Build reputation slowly
• Monitor bounce rates
• Adjust based on feedback

3. Domain Reputation

Protect your domain:
• Use subdomain for marketing email
• Separate transactional and marketing
• Monitor domain reputation
• Respond to complaints

List Management

Quality Over Quantity

Hygiene Practices

Content Considerations

Spam Filter Triggers

Avoid:
• Excessive caps/punctuation
• Spam trigger words
• Image-only emails
• Misleading subjects
• Too many links

Best Practices

Monitoring and Metrics

Key Metrics

Tools

Healthy Benchmarks

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Blacklisted:
• Check blacklist databases
• Request removal
• Fix underlying cause
• Improve practices

Low inbox placement:
• Review authentication
• Clean list
• Improve engagement
• Warm up sending

For more on marketing, read our LinkedIn B2B Marketing Guide.