Do I need SPF or DKIM validation to send campaigns?

In most cases you will get an SPF Pass without needing to change anything on your end. If you don't have an SPF record set up, your campaigns will still deliver. Also, each campaign is signed using our own DKIM signature, and includes Sender ID validation. This allows for full email validation without you needing to ever be involved!

Now, while our SPF and DKIM covers you for most cases, sometimes delivery can be improved with a little something on your end. If you are experiencing delivery issues (not caused by content), changing your own DNS records for the domain you are using as your sender address may help.

If your domain is hosted at GoDaddy, these additional records may have already been included in your domain's DNS. In that case, no further action would be needed. Otherwise, you can add the following:

For SPF:

If your domain currently has an SPF record set-up, you can add include:spf.em.secureserver.net to it.

Or, if you don't have one set up yet, create a TXT record for yourdomain.com with the value v=spf1 include:spf.em.secureserver.net ~all

It's best to include our SPF info and not individual IP ranges as those could change in the future and may break your email authentication.

For custom DKIM:

Create a CNAME record for sable.cloud._domainkey with the value dkim.cloud.em.secureserver.net

Create a CNAME record for sable.cloud2._domainkey with the value dkim.cloud2.em.secureserver.net

Those custom DKIM records can also come in handy if your sender domain has a strict DMARC policy, and in some cases may be enough to pass DMARC. However, to ensure full domain alignment when sending mail through GoDaddy Email Marketing, it's a good idea to also include custom Return-Path:

For custom Return-Path:

Create a CNAME record for bounces.cloud.em with the value cbounces.cloud.em.secureserver.net

Create a CNAME record for bounces.cloud2.em with the value cbounces.cloud2.em.secureserver.net

Next step

• If you have a domain with GoDaddy, you can get instructions for adding an SPF record, here.

More info

• Manage DNS records
• Allowlisting email IPs and domains
• Sending from these addresses will cause bounces
• How can I avoid having my emails blocked by spam filters?
• How can I avoid email marketing "marked as spam" abuse complaints?
• Troubleshoot sending a test email and not receiving it