DEV Community: Nimisha Rawat

4 Reasons why Your Emails are getting Blocked by Gmail

Nimisha Rawat — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 06:56:29 +0000

Have you been running regular campaigns and seen a reduction in your email metrics? Chances are that your emails are being banned by Gmail or being routed to the spam box, blocking you from emailing Gmail users.
But why is Gmail restricting your mail server if you’ve been following email deliverability best practices and the bulk sender guidelines?

Ways to Stop Gmail From Blocking Your Emails

With over 1.8 billion Gmail users, being the world's largest email service provider may occasionally lead to emails being misclassified as unwanted mail. Gmail, on the other hand, filters emails or sends them to the spam box for a variety of reasons.
Here are a few measures you can take to ensure that your emails reach your Gmail subscriber :

Implement Email Authentication
Reduce Gmail Spam Reports
Clean Your Email List
Check Your DMARC Reports

Email Authentication

Email authentication is essential for a successful email marketing campaign. Setting up SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and BIMI will not only enhance your email deliverability but will also strengthen your email security and demonstrate to spam filters that you are a respectable email sender.

When configuring authentication, it is critical to provide the IP address of each sending server that will send an email on behalf of your domain by generating a valid SPF record with your service provider. Before sending any future communications, you should approve your sending IP address, third-party IP addresses, and any new IP address. Please keep in mind that emails sent from G Suite or Gmail use a shared IP address, which may influence email delivery.

Incorrect DNS settings immediately raise a red signal for any spam filter and might result in email banning. Before launching your next email campaign, check your DNS records to confirm that your emails are properly authorized.

Reduce Spam Email Reports

Spam complaints have an impact on your IP reputation and the positioning of your Gmail mailbox. If you receive a large number of spam complaints, spam filters may believe you are sending spam emails to Gmail users.
You can prevent spam filter problems by demonstrating to your recipient's email service provider that your mail servers do not deliver spam. Begin by lowering your email volume and frequency of sending. Keep track of your email volume to discover whether your daily sending quota has above the 2,000 limits set by Gmail (500 for trial accounts). If your email quota was exceeded, Google may put your IP address on an IP suspension list.

You may also reduce the number of spam reports by delivering more relevant and targeted marketing emails to your customers. Make use of double opt-in to verify that individuals truly want to receive mail from you rather than mistaking your messages for unwelcome mail.

Cleanliness is the way forward

Poor list hygiene is another reason why Gmail may be blocking your emails. If you buy an email list (which you SHOULD NOT) or haven't cleaned up your list in a while, some of the emails on your list may have typos, misspellings, or be unused.
Email service providers may recycle these abandoned emails and utilize them as spam traps. Internet service providers believe that emails sent to spam traps or incorrect email addresses are most likely unsolicited mail. If you unintentionally message one of those, your email may bounce, which will have a bad impact on your email account, email deliverability, and your IP reputation.

As a result, when individuals sign up for your newsletter, you should employ double opt-in to guarantee that your receiver's email address and recipient domain are not misspelled. If your recipient's email address contains an error or does not belong to them, they will not be added to your list and your email marketing reputation will not be harmed.

Another thing you can do to maintain proper list hygiene includes an unsubscribe link in all of your marketing emails. Unengaged subscribers should opt-out of receiving mail from your email marketing campaigns rather than branding you as spam and harming your domain reputation. Unsubscribe requests should be erased from your list as soon as possible to protect your IP address reputation.

DMARC on-the-mark

DMARC reports are delivered to your email address as an XML file every time you send an email campaign after you configure DMARC.
It is critical to proactively check your DMARC data to determine who is sending emails on your behalf. It will also assist you in tracing unsolicited emails from your domain.

DMARC reports tell you:

Whose IP address is sending failed emails?
How many communications from your domain are DMARC-compliant?
What server's IP address is responsible for sending email for your domain?
What action a mail server takes (none, quarantine, or reject) when it receives an unauthenticated mail message from your domain?

Use EmailAuth's DMARC report analyzer to make it easier to handle, save, and analyze these DMARC reports.

Our DMARC report analyzer assists you in swiftly identifying any issues impacting the reputation of your IP address. To identify unsolicited mail from your domain, use the DMARC analyzer tool to look for unauthenticated emails that fail DMARC.

Original source: [Have you been running regular campaigns and seen a reduction in your email metrics? Chances are that your emails are being banned by Gmail or being routed to the spam box, blocking you from emailing Gmail users.
But why is Gmail restricting your mail server if you’ve been following email deliverability best practices and the bulk sender guidelines?

Ways to Stop Gmail From Blocking Your Emails

Implement Email Authentication
Reduce Gmail Spam Reports
Clean Your Email List
Check Your DMARC Reports

Email Authentication

Reduce Spam Email Reports

Cleanliness is the way forward

DMARC on-the-mark

DMARC reports tell you:

Use EmailAuth's DMARC report analyzer to make it easier to handle, save, and analyze these DMARC reports.

Original source: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s373/sh/3fd7b9f9-0894-a1c7-a8a6-7db47d1fb922/adf72c6269bf9395b585ccee5dd90158
](https://www.evernote.com/shard/s373/sh/3fd7b9f9-0894-a1c7-a8a6-7db47d1fb922/adf72c6269bf9395b585ccee5dd90158)

What is DKIM and why is it important? Steps to set up DKIM on OFFICE 365

Nimisha Rawat — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 10:10:17 +0000

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an anti-tamper protocol that ensures your mail remains secure in transit. DKIM uses digital signatures to check whether the email was sent by the domain it claims to be from.

DKIM uses two actions to validate your messages. The first action takes place on a server sending DKIM signed emails, while the second takes place on a recipient server that checks the DKIM signatures on incoming messages. The entire process is made possible by a private and public key. The private key is kept secret and safe, either on the user’s own server or with their ESP. The public key, however, is added to the DNS records of the user’s domain to help verify email messages.
Once the receiver verifies that an email is signed with a valid DKIM signature, it is clear that the integrity of the email is preserved. Usually, end users cannot see DKIM signatures; the validation is done at the server level.

Emails signed with DKIM appear legitimate, and the recipients are assured that the email is not a spam or phishing attack. DKIM works together with DMARC and SPF to ensure email security. Listed below are some of the advantages DKIM has for brands and organisations.

Spam filtering
DKIM can help identify emails that aren't known to be spam and don't need to be filtered. Take for example a receiving system that maintains a whitelist of secure sending domains that can be kept locally or obtained from third-party certifiers. In this case, DKIM can skip the filtering of signed emails from those whitelisted domains and filter the remaining emails more aggressively.

Compatibility
DKIM is compatible with existing email infrastructure because it is implemented using DNS records and an extra RFC 5322 header field. It is especially apparent to existing email systems that do not support DKIM.

Anti-phishing
DKIM can be used to safeguard against phishing attacks. Mailers in phished domains can sign their messages to prove that they are authentic. Recipients can interpret the absence of a valid signature on emails from those domains as a clue that the mail is most likely forged.

Non-repudiation
The non-repudiation feature of DKIM prevents senders from denying that an email was sent by them. This feature becomes crucial for news and media organizations as they sometimes have to confirm that leaked emails are authentic and untampered with.

So, how can you set up DKIM on OFFICE 365 for your custom domain?

In the Admin Center, choose ‘Exchange’.

Go to ‘protection > dkim’.

Pick the Domain for which you want to set up DKIM for and click on ‘Enable’.

In Office365, you will need to create two CNAME records to navigate your initial domain. If you haven't created CNAME records, you will have to create them by following the instructions below:

Open your DNS management console and add the domain you want to create the CNAME records for.
Create a CNAME record using the syntax shown below and click on ‘Save’ or ‘Publish’.
Wait for 24-48 hours for the changes to take effect.

Publishing the CNAME records for your custom domain

Let’s take the example of ‘emailauth.onmicrosoft.com’ as our initial domain, also known as the tenant domain. We actually own emailauth.com and after we provide it to Office 365, we need to publish the CNAME records so that ‘emailauth.io’ points to ‘emailauth.onmicrosoft.com’ using the format as shown.

Type: CNAME
Host: selector1._domainkey
Value: selector1-emailauth-io._domainkey.emailauth.onmicrosoft.com

Type: CNAME
Host: selector2._domainkey
Value: selector2-emailauth-io._domainkey.emailauth.onmicrosoft.com

Considering the rules, the domain GUID does not use a full stop ‘.’ but a hyphen ‘-’ instead. This is taken from the MX record of your custom domain, in this case, ‘emailauth.com’.

Enable DKIM signing for your custom domain
Open the Microsoft 365 Defender portal using your work or school account.
Go to Email & Collaboration > Policies & Rules > Threat policies page > Rules section > DKIM.
On the DKIM page, choose the domain by clicking on the name.
Change the Sign messages for this domain and change the DKIM signatures setting to ‘Enabled’.
Click on ‘Rotate DKIM keys’, and you’re done.

You can set up DKIM similarly for other hosting services as well.

Original source: https://www.reddit.com/user/emailauth-io/comments/qk8qj7/what_is_dkim_and_why_is_it_important_steps_to_set/

Email Authentication Can Accentuate the Positives, But It Doesn’t Always Eliminate the Negatives

Nimisha Rawat — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 06:46:30 +0000

Sometimes at EmailAuth and in discussions with our customers and employees, I encounter the same misconceptions regarding email authentication, especially about DMARC. There's a lot DMARC (and SPF, and DKIM) can accomplish for your company and its brand; however, there are plenty of things it cannot achieve. It isn't a blog post designed to teach you how to set up the three protocols. Other blog articles explain the steps to set up an SPF-based authentication, DKIM validation and DMARC. We want to ensure that everyone who reads this is aware of the benefits authentication brings. However, it also has its limitations.

The Authentication Process Confirms Your Identity

If an email message passes authentication tests, the sending domain can be pretty sure of the authenticity as the domain(s) who has claimed responsibility by publishing an SPF or DMARC record and DKIM signing the email message. This way, authentication works similarly to providing a driver's licence or passport image ID to verify your identity.

...But It Will Not, By Itself, Create A Reputation You Can Trust

The process of passing the authentication check means that the domain receiving it can verify the authenticity of the person or persons responsible for the communication. The receiving part can handle the message in line with the reputation these individuals have already established. In other words, if authentication is the sole good aspect of your mail practices, it is possible to pass authentication, which will allow the recipient domain to place your message to the junk mail folder (or more likely) when your other practices justify such a placement. I always emphasize this issue in conversations with people by saying that "even criminals are licensed drivers".

The DMARC Establishes Trust and Reaffirms Its Presence by sending Email…

Similar to the idea of authentication, which provides a way to verify the identity of those accountable for the message, the message that passes DMARC checks can be believed to originate from the domain shown on the letters "From" header that is the domain that the recipient is likely to come across when reading the message. The trust factor in emails is crucial to engagement as messages that are authentic and from the source are likely to be opened and clicked. Furthermore that, with DMARC being slated to be a requirement in the upcoming BIMI Standard, this "force multiplication" of trust will become much more crucial for senders in the future.

...But it's not enough to eliminate Phishing and fraud

DMARC can be described as what prefer to refer to as a "positive affirmation" protocol. It is a positive assertion because it provides a statement regarding the practices of an individual domain's authentication; however, it does not mention the rules of any other part. For example, a publicly-published DMARC Policy for domain X implies that domain X has authenticated its mail and requires a particular treatment for non-authenticated mail that includes domain X in the From header, and that's all there is. The policy doesn't address the usage of domain X in the DKIM signature domain or return-path domain (which is used for SPF screening). More importantly, it does not cover parts that look like domain X but aren't identical.
Consider the following two messages, both with this subject:
Subject: Critical Account Update Information

One has this From header:
From: "Your Bank" noreply@yourbank.com

And the other has this:
From: "Your Bank" noreply@yourbank-accounts.com

The DMARC policies on the domain' yourbank.com only confirm the first message and won't affect the second. If Your Bank was forward-thinking enough to create a "lookalike" domain and then create a policy that declares "this domain doesn't send mail", However, there are likely to be more similar domains than the most careful domain owner can sign up for, so DMARC alone won't be able to stop the entire set. (BIMI may help to reduce some of the risks by displaying logos from brands for mail that can pass DMARC checks. However, we're still far from widespread acceptance by BIMI.)

Especially If the Domain Isn't Verifying for DMARC

However many DMARC policies the owner of a brand publishes for its domains, the policies are useless in the absence of an environment that receives mail that claims to be coming from one of these domains performs DMARC validation. Validation is widely used throughout the email world. However, numerous domains, both small and large, aren't performing DMARC validation, which means that mailbox holders on those domains face a greater risk of fraud and Phishing than those at fields that do check and enforce DMARC policies.

Conclusion

Email authentication can be used as a method to establish credibility and authenticity in Email. Still, it has, at the same time, shown its weaknesses in establishing reputation and preventing fraud and Phishing. EmailAuth completely supports the concept that email authentication is the best practice and an asset to the entire email system; however, we want to ensure that our clients know that it's just one aspect of the overall strategy for building credibility and fighting Phishing and fraud.

Original source: https://medium.com/@rawatnimisha/email-authentication-can-accentuate-the-positives-but-it-doesnt-always-eliminate-the-negatives-c69a402dd5cb

Using DMARC to Improve Email Deliverability and Domain Reputation

Nimisha Rawat — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 08:41:15 +0000

DMARC: A Brief Introduction
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) is an email authentication standard that determines the authentication status of an email by combining SPF and DKIM records. While providing visibility of the sources sending emails from your domain, DMARC ensures better deliverability and guarantees top-notch security against spoofing, phishing, impersonation, malware, and other cyberattacks.
Essentially, DMARC has the following missions:
● Publish policies set by domain owners on the handling of emails that pass the authentication check.
● Allow recipient servers of a mail to send authentication reports back to the sending server so the latter can take measures to improve their authentication monitoring infrastructure.
● Develop a formal standard that can be followed by all organizations, businesses, companies, and their subsequent clients and customers.
If fraudsters or any malicious activities are detected, DMARC tells the receiver’s server to quarantine or reject the email communication based on the policies set in place by the domain owners or administrators. An investigation can then be conducted to restore the users’ confidence in their inbox and the organization.
Understanding the working of DMARC in four simple steps:
● The domain admin configures the email authentication policies and the actions that must be taken by the receiving mail servers when handling emails that fail the authentication check. This DMARC policy then becomes part of the domain’s overall DNS records.
● The mail server at the receiving end of an incoming email uses DNS to look up the DMARC policy for the domain included in the message’s ‘From’ header. The inbound server then assesses the message for DKIM signature validation, SPF record, the message's source, and its domain alignment.
● The recipient server then applies the sending domain’s DMARC policy to determine whether to accept, reject, or flag the email. ● After determining what action must be taken based on the published DMARC policy, the receiving mail server then reports the result to the sending domain owner.
How Does DMARC Improve Email Deliverability?
DMARC provides useful insight into an organization’s email sending habits. It improves domain visibility since the domain owner receives feedback in the form of DMARC reports containing information on the IP addresses used to send emails, the frequency of emails, unsent emails, etc. These reports allow organizations to track emails back to their original senders while the authentication results help detect failures and solve arising issues. This leads to an efficient communication channel both internally and externally.
How Does DMARC Improve Domain Reputation?
Implementing DMARC improves the security rating of your domain. Emails sent from domains that have a DMARC policy published in its DNS are secure and trustworthy. A client or consumer is less likely to be phished when a domain has DMARC deployed. This increases brand reputation among customers and clients.
Apart from improving email deliverability and domain reputation, DMARC has the following benefits:
● Using a DMARC record Secures your brand image by forestalling unauthenticated parties from sending messages using your domain.
● DMARC helps build a steady strategy for managing messages that fail the authentication check. This makes email systems safer and more dependable.
● DMARC allows you to use the same modern tools and techniques that large companies use to deliver and secure their emails.
Original Source: https://www.idg.com.au/mediareleases/204789/using-dmarc-to-improve-email-deliverability-and/

Things to do after collecting your first DMARC data

Nimisha Rawat — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 07:53:46 +0000

After you have added a DMARC record to your DNS, you’ll start receiving data pertaining to your email deliverability, domain usage, and domain security. Wondering what to do with it? Well, we’ll tell you just that! But first, you need to understand what a DMARC report is.

What is a DMARC report?

DMARC reports are authentication results from your domain. It acts as a feedback mechanism that helps the domain owner track email security and deliverability issues. The report also intimates the domain owner of malicious sources and protocol errors.

DMARC reports are a goldmine of valuable information. This data can be used to strengthen a domain and take action against malicious sources while minimizing errors and deliverability issues. However, DMARC reports can be confusing to the average user due to their highly technical nature.

The reports are of two types: DMARC Aggregate (RUA) Reports and DMARC Forensic (RUF) Reports. They are sent in XML format to the domain owner’s email address periodically.

Let’s look at an example of a DMARC sample report and try to understand the different aspects it consists of.

ISP/ Email Service Provider

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″ ?>

google.com
noreply-dmarc-support@google.com
http://google.com/dmarc/supp

Report ID

8293631894893125362

Date Range

1234573120
1234453590

DMARC record

yourdomain.com
r
r

none

none
100

IP Address

302.0.214.308

Authentication Overview

none
fail
pass

From:Domain

yourdomain.com

DKIM authentication report

yourdomain.com
fail

SPF authentication report

yourdomain.com
pass

Here are a few things that you should do after you receive your DMARC report:

Monitor your sending sources

DMARC reports will present a list of all the domains and IP addresses you use to send emails. It gives you insight into your various devices and lets you know if an unauthorized IP is trying to send an email to a recipient on your behalf.

Check Email Authentication

DMARC reports will show you if your mail sender fails SPF, DKIM, or DMARC authentication standards.

Regulate the usage of your Domain
DMARC reports help you determine if there are any unauthorized senders using your domain to send emails to unsuspecting recipients.

Regularly analyzing your DMARC reports helps you strengthen your domain and improve its security rating. In addition, your brand reputation among your customers increases when your mailing systems are more secure and safer than others.

Original Source: https://www.ebaumsworld.com/blogs/things-to-do-after-collecting-your-first-dmarc-data/86978498/