Verification of the e-mail domain

Choose the right domain configuration for your e-mail domain

Before you send your e-mails, you must decide whether you use your main domain or a subdomain. This is primarily for technical reasons.

Before we start with the setup, let's briefly clarify the terms. Imagine your online presence like a house:

The domain (main domain) is your "address" on the internet (e.g. company.com). It is the basis for everything. Your main website and your personal emails (Outlook/Gmail) are usually at home at this address.

The subdomain is like an "additional sign" or a separate department in your house. You put a word and a dot before your main domain (e.g. events.company.com or mail.company.com). The advantage: subdomains make it possible to operate specific services (such as evenito) in technical isolation. Changes to a subdomain have no effect on the accessibility of the main site or the internal mail system.

The DNS record acts as the "address directory" of the internet. When we speak of DNS records (such as CNAME, TXT or A record) in the following steps, we mean the technical guideposts that ensure that requests to your domain are correctly directed to the evenito servers.

Setup of a main domain (Brevo)

You use your known address such as company.com.

Example: You send as events@company.com.

Restriction: Please note that some IT systems do not allow multiple sending providers to send via the same main domain at the same time. If you have already reserved your main domain for daily mail traffic (e.g. Outlook/Gmail), please first clarify with your IT whether it can be used for sending via evenito.

Ideal for you if: Your IT has confirmed that the main domain can be released for additional sending providers (such as Brevo).

Setup of a subdomain (Brevo & Mailomat)

You use a new domain such as events.company.com.

Example: You send as summerfest@events.company.com.

Advantage: Since a subdomain is technically treated like a "new" address, you can easily set up the DNS records for sending once without affecting the existing email system.

Please note: For the setup of our sending provider Mailomat, the use of a subdomain is generally required.

Technical implementation (for your IT)

For sending, specific authentications must be stored in the DNS settings of your domain so that your mails arrive reliably.

As soon as you have decided on an email domain and communicated it to our Customer Success Team, you will receive your individual DNS records from us.

For Brevo:

• TXT record: To verify your domain.

• DKIM (TXT): Your "digital seal" to confirm the authenticity of your mails.

• DMARC (TXT): An important security standard that is now required by Google and Yahoo for good delivery.

• Optional (SPF): Permission for Brevo to send in your name. If desired, the value is: v=spf1 include:spf.brevo.com mx ~all

For Mailomat:

• SPF (TXT): Permission for Mailomat to send in your name.

• DKIM (TXT): Your "digital seal" to confirm the authenticity of your mails.

• MX record: The technical identification of the reply path for your emails.

 

Step-by-step instructions

The setup takes place in four steps, which we have listed for you below.

Step 1: Define domain type

First, decide which domain type you want to use and whether it should be verified as a main domain or as a subdomain.

Clarify in advance with your IT whether the main domain can be released for external senders such as Brevo or Mailomat.

Step 2: Communicate domain to the Customer Success Team

As soon as you have decided on an email domain, inform our Customer Success Team of your desired sending domain. We will then generate your individual DNS values and send them to you.

Important: For the entries, the combinations consisting of numbers, spaces and special characters must be adopted exactly as they are.

Step 3: Configuration of the DNS settings (by your IT)

Forward the values received to your IT department.

For the entries, the combinations consisting of numbers, spaces and special characters must be stored in your DNS settings in exactly the specified order and with all numbers and characters.

Step 4: Final check & activation by our Customer Success Team

Briefly inform our Customer Success Team as soon as your IT has set the entries. We will carry out a final check and activate the domain for your space.

As soon as everything is ready, you will find the domain as an admin in your space settings under resources and can start sending emails right away!

What is a DMARC record

DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance and is a DNS TXT record that can be published for a domain to control what happens when a message cannot be authenticated.

Simply put: You can think of DMARC as an instruction to the post office (your customers' email provider such as Gmail or Outlook). In this instruction, you determine how the post office should handle letters where the "digital seal" (DKIM) or the "sender permission" (SPF) is missing or forged.

What is a DMARC record and what purpose does it serve?

If a message cannot be authenticated, it is because your contacts' receiving server cannot verify whether the sender of the message is not who they claim to be. A DMARC record fulfills two tasks:

• The policy (Richtlinie): It tells the recipient server: "If the check fails, let the mail through anyway (none), move it to the spam folder (quarantine) or block it completely (reject)."
  
  A DMARC record is therefore used by receiving email servers (e.g. Gmail or Yahoo) to determine what should happen to a failed message. The receiving mail server looks at the DMARC record and selects the policy to follow from the following options:

• • Do nothing with the message

  • Put the message in quarantine

  • Reject the message

• The report (Reporting): It specifies an email address to which reports are sent so that you can see who is sending mails in your name.

This check and the associated decision can only be made if a DMARC record has been published for your domain.

If no DMARC record has been published for your domain, the recipient server itself makes the decision as to whether the message should be delivered. In view of phishing, malware threats and a variety of other security concerns, the probability that the recipient's mail server instructs that messages that do not pass DMARC be quarantined or rejected has now become the standard for sending legitimate emails.

Simply said: Without DMARC, the post office decides for itself whether a suspicious mail is delivered. As cyber security (phishing/spam) becomes increasingly important, mails without DMARC instructions almost always end up in spam today.

How is a DMARC record structured?

A DMARC data record essentially consists of a specific host/name (i.e. the record name - e.g.: _dmarc.mxtoolbox.com is the host/name for MxToolbox) and tag-value pairs. tag-value pairs have a tag (e.g. "p=" for "policy") and a value, e.g. "none", which together tell the receiving email server what action to take.

The following entry contains 3 tag-value pairs:
"v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@dmarc.brevo.com"

• The three tags are: v, p and rua.

  • The "v" tag stands for version (v). This is required and stands for the protocol version, e.g. v=DMARC1.

  • The "p" tag stands for policy (p). This tag, which is also required, specifies the policy for the domain (or the requested processing policy). It instructs the recipient to report, quarantine or reject those emails that fail the authentication check.

  • The "rua" tag stands for RUA report email address(es) (rua): This optional tag is intended for reporting URI(s) for aggregated data. A rua example is rua=mailto:CUSTOMER@for.example.com.

• The three values are: DMARC1, "None", and mailto:dmarc@dmarc.brevo.com.

How do I authenticate a domain with a DMARC record?

You have 2 options for setting up DMARC email authentication for your domain:

• Option 1: Set up DMARC record "p=none" Add a DMARC record with no impact, e.g. "v=DMARC1; p=none" together with a RUA tag to your domain.

• Option 2: Set up DMARC record "p=quarantine" or "p=reject" Please first ensure that your domain has been properly authenticated before setting up the DMARC record "p=quarantine" or "p=reject". Then add a DMARC record with a policy (p) to your domain, e.g. "v=DMARC1; p=reject" or "v=DMARC1; p=quarantine".

Below is an example of verifying the DMARC record for sending via the standard provider Brevo: 

DMARC record

Type: TXT
Name: _dmarc
Value: v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:rua@dmarc.brevo.com