DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)

What is DKIM and how to set it up?

Jon Maybury avatar
Written by Jon Maybury
Updated over a week ago

When you send emails from Envoke - or any other email provider - your messages need to be authenticated to ensure that spam and malware filters on the recipient side can confirm that your messages and identity aren't forged. 

Envoke, like other email providers, uses a default/generic DKIM authentication with each outgoing email, but authenticating your own domain is best practice.

Check if DKIM is currently configured

You can check if DKIM is already implemented from the Email sending area of your Account settings page.


How to setup DKIM authentication?

You need to involve your IT person or team for this one-time setup.

Follow the on-screen instructions from the Account Settings page.

Step 1: Enter the domain name that you wish to authenticate to send emails from. This is the domain after the @ symbol in your email address. For example if you plan to send emails from info@acme-inc.com then the domain is acme-inc.com.

Step 2: After you enter the domain name a code will be generated. Send this code to your IT person/team to add to your domain's DNS record, which is managed by your domain's registrar.

Here's a sample email to request you can send to IT:

We're using Envoke.com to send emails. To authenticate our domain with DKIM please add the following TXT record entry to the DNS of our domain:

TXT record name: {paste DNS txt record name from the settings page}

TXT record value: {paste DNS txt record value from the settings page}

Step 3: Once the setup is completed, click the Verify button on the settings page to confirm setup is done correctly. Once verified, no further action is needed. If verification fails, you need to ask your IT person or team to review the setup.

Note that Envoke support does not get involved with DKIM setup with your domain registrar. You need to contact your IT team or domain registrar, such as Godaddy, for help. Tip: Search in Google for "How do i add DKIM record in REGISTRAR NAME"

⚠️ Along with DKIM, you should also add a DMARC policy with the same domain as you use in your DKIM record.


Additional information about DKIM

What is DKIM?

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an email authentication method that is used to verify the identity of the email sender and detect forged email addresses, which is a technique often used in phishing and email spam. 

DKIM verifies the domain you're sending emails from, not a specific email address.

For example if you're sending emails from office@acme.inc then the domain acme.inc is verified with DKIM. After verification is completed all emails from this domain are automatically verified for example support@acme.inc, info@acme.inc, jane@acme.inc, etc.

Setup fee

There is no extra fee for DKIM setup, it is included with every billing plan.

How does DKIM work?

DKIM works in the background. There is no change in the way you use Envoke and it's not visible to email recipients. It is set up on the domain level by the person/department that manages your domain name. Once set up, it allows spam and malware filters to authenticate your emails; to confirm that they are coming from you and not by someone else claiming to be you. This in turn, increases inbox delivery.

Is it required to set up DKIM for my sending domain?

Setting up DKIM isn't a hard requirement but it's strongly recommended. You can send emails without DKIM verification and in some cases these emails will land in inboxes without issues. But often the lack of DKIM verification will cause emails to be filtered as spam.

Custom DKIM setup works especially well for internal messages where the sender email address and the recipient email address is from the same domain, for example from jack@yoursite.com to jill@yoursite.com

My IT department says that they don't support DKIM setup for our domain

Despite DKIM not posing a security risk, an organization may refuse to configure DKIM for a top level domain. In this case you may consider using a subdomain instead.

For example you want send emails from something@mydomain.com but setting up DKIM on the mydomain.com top level domain is not possible due in internal IT constraints, you may try to send emails from a subdomain such as something@communications.mydomain.com and get DKIM setup on the subdomain communications.mydomain.com and internally forward emails sent to something@communications.mydomain.com to something@mydomain.com.

Additional measures to improve inbox delivery

Check this article for additional tips to improve emails going to inboxes.

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