SMTP DKIM
Email deliver-ability is one of the
most prevalent concerns of many business owners. And rightly so, low
delivery rates hurt the bottom line of a business especially if email is
the key communication tool of the company. There are many ways to
address this issue. One of the most effective methods used by major
enterprises these days is SMTP DKIM or Domain-keys Identified Mail.
What is DKIM?
DKIM is one way of authenticating
your email through a digital signature. When an email includes your
digital signature, that means you or your organization bears
responsibility for the email.
Why Use DKIM?
Typically, an SMTP sends an email
from a particular domain indiscriminately. In this insecure environment,
spammers can forge email addresses and send mail that looks like it is
from a trusted brand. Say you own yourbusiness.com, a spammer can send
mail using an address like admin@yourbusiness.com to dupe people into
giving out their personal information or the like.
When
you use DKIM, however, all your emails will bear your digital
signature, which at the same time, is also published on your DNS. Thus,
receivers (i.e. Yahoo! or Gmail) will check the authenticity of the mail
by verifying the email signature and comparing it to the published
signature on your DNS. All emails claiming to be from your domain that
don't have the digital signature will most likely be regarded as spam.
SMTP Email Servers DKIM Options
If you outsource your email delivery
to a third party SMTP email server, you will then be using the service
provider's SMTP API to integrate it to your domain. Once that is done,
you can send email quickly, using DKIM technology to ensure
deliver-ability. Most providers of this service offer two options to
their customers:
Default DKIM
Lower tier packages typically provide
default DKIM. For instance, many free and basic packages send all mails
with a DKIM signature using the service provider's domain. And since
your domain is not specified, instead of being verified using your
published DNS key, the provider will add a sender header that is used
for verification.
Customized DKIM
For higher tier packages, most
services provide a white-labeling setup that allows DKIM customization.
Since your email signature is checked against your published DNS key,
you have to ensure that you don't make changes to your DNS that may
affect the verification of your key.
DKIM is used not only to improve
email deliver-ability, but also to protect your subscribers and your
brand from negative issues arising from the misuse of your
organization's name for some unscrupulous individual's malicious
activities. So, in that sense, SMTP DKIM does not only address
deliver-ability issues, it also helps with security issues as well.
Technology has simplified how most
tasks are done today. Unfortunately, the same advantage is also
available to individuals with less-than-honorable intentions. That's why
the task of ramping up security -- and consequently, email
deliver-ability -- falls on the shoulders of well-meaning individuals
like you. Luckily, you have the technology for that too.
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