Setting up Domain Keys (DKIM)

DKIM stands for DomainKeys Identified Mail and is an authentication method that helps ensure the sender's email address is legitimate and not being spoofed by a third party. DKIM setup is necessary for sending through the emfluence platform.

DKIM works through a digital signature that’s attached to the header of each email sent from the emfluence Marketing Platform. The receiving system can verify the signature by looking up the sender's public key published in a DNS record. A valid signature guarantees the sender has permission to send email on behalf of your domain and that the email has not been modified since the signature was added.

The main benefit of using DKIM is its ability to prevent scammers, specifically phishers, from spoofing your organization and also can lead to potential improvements to your overall deliverability, which means fewer emails sent to spam folders. DKIM is also a prerequisite to signing up for Yahoo!'s Feedback Loop where they post spam complaints. Without DKIM setup you cannot send to Yahoo! addresses, or other domains that make use of the YFL, in your account as we would be unable to monitor and suppress spam complaints.

All domains within your account should show as passing for DKIM as well as DMARC. These settings can be found in the Options menu under Account Settings > Sending Domains.

To save time, while adding these records you should also set up the YFL record. You will need to reach out to support@emfluence.com to acquire the value you will need for that TXT record.
 

DNS Configuration

Your part of configuring DKIM is to create two CNAME records with your hosting or domain provider. These CNAME records point to emfluence-managed DNS records that hold the public keys. The private keys are managed by emfluence.

For example, if your sending domain was acme.com, you would create the following CNAME records:

• CNAME emfluence-k1._domainkey.acme.com (point to emfluence-k1.emailer.emfluence.com)
• CNAME emfluence-k2._domainkey.acme.com (point to emfluence-k2.emailer.emfluence.com)

NOTE: If your domain pre-appends itself to the end of a record and you add it to the record you may end up with something like emfluence-k1._domainkey.acme.com.acme.com which will not work for our purposes. If your domain doesn't append the domain, it needs to be part of your entry. If it does append, your domain does not need to be part of your entry (as it would show up twice).

Repeat the steps to add the k2 record as well

To confirm DKIM is properly configured, you can use the tool provided by dkimcore.org. You can check the status of your key here with your domain and emfluence-k1 as the selector (on the second record emfluence-k2 will be your selector). Once your public key is passing, emfluence will need to activate the corresponding private half in our DNS.

When your public key is passing you should see the checker turn from red to green.

Once a DKIM record is passing it should also show up in emfluence under Options > Account Settings > Sending Domains with a green checkmark shown next to that domain. The checker will also provide information about DMARC as well. However, emfluence also needs to sign the DKIM record. Anytime you add a new record, once the record is passing, don't forget to contact emfluence to confirm your account is properly signing DKIM.
 

Once DKIM is passing on your end, let us know and we will make the corresponding changes on our end and make sure everything is working properly. After DKIM setup is complete, you can finish the authentication set-up by signing up for the Yahoo! Feedback Loop.

Old Method

This method has been replaced with the steps above. No new domains should be set up with this method. An account can only authenticate via one method (either the old DKIM or the new DKIM) meaning all your domains need to be authenticated the same way. If the domain(s) in your account currently use the old method and you want to add a domain then all existing domains would also need to be moved over to the new records as well. While it meets the requirements of a DKIM record, and provides the needed DKIM record for DMARC records, we strongly suggest if you are still using these older records to work to get the new records in place for your domain. These old records will not show as passing with the internal checker which is only looking for the dual CNAME records.

You'll use the keys set up for you by the team at emfluence. Once you have a public key from your account rep (a *.TXT file, usually sent in a Notepad document), you will need to create a DNS TXT record on your website's domain management panel named emfluence._domainkey.yourdomain.com.  For the value (content) of that record, you'll use the text sent to you by emfluence.

Note: The value/content of your public key should have no whitespace and no line breaks.  Syntax may vary depending on DNS server (\ before ; may not be necessary, quotes may or may not be necessary)

Your Domain Key txt record should look similar to this (with your domain in the redacted spot):

DKIM selector record structure:

1. Host: emfluence._domainkey.YOURDOMAIN

             For example: emfluence._domainkey.acmejetpacks.com

2. TTL: 7200 (or whatever the default is for your website)

3. Text: k=rsa; p=The public key provided to you by emfluence in the following format:

k=rsa; p=MFwwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEBBQADSwAwSAJBALSTRYJ9QzzjLxewRmydYplUDbjq2wul

UgajbQNMAfjcM4lf4bzMMxyCIq4qRGFOkEclGBY9enM0aajh3nas6k8CAwEAAQ==

IMPORTANT:

Don't forget the k=rsa; p= at the beginning of your DKIM record!

Please use the standard selector for emfluence Marketing Platform, “emfluence.”

Some providers will append the domain at the end of the record (emfluence._domainkey.mysite.com.mysite.com). Make sure it only appears once.

When you've added this record, notify support@emfluence.com. From there, emfluence can complete the process and test to ensure everything is set up properly.

If you want to see if you've done it properly, you can check to see that your Domain key is passing at DKIMCore using "emfluence" as your selector.

When your private key is passing you should see the red error message change to green.

Once you are passing DKIM in your end emfluence will need to update its DNS records as well and test to make sure everything is passing. Once this is completed you can finish the authentication set-up by signing up for the Yahoo! Feedback Loop.