Let’s be honest; email headers are pretty easy to fake in this filtered world. Ever since we all started using email, we constantly fact-check with a leap of faith whether the email that lands in our inbox is valid or not? In this article, you’ll learn what is email authentication and how you can authenticate your emails with top protocols & methods.
To avoid spam, malware, or phish emails, email authentication is the best process to filter out valuable emails in today’s time. Due to technological advancement, companies are taking a step to take care of their email identification process.
Stats suggest, about 4.8 billion inboxes now back email authentication through DMARC.
This number represents 76 percent of the current total number of email accounts worldwide, as per Radicati.
Well, we all can see its fanfare. In this article, we will inform you about all the know-how of the email authentication process for your business.
What Is Email Authentication?
It’s a modern fix to check what’s lying in your inbox. It’s making sure whether the email is legitimate or not, and if not, then the software will send a red flag to protect you, your employees, and your companies privacy.
Emails that fail to pass this authentication process are filtered, removed, and blocked from your lists. There are thousands of email marketing platforms like mail chimp, send grid, and Hubspot—use email authentication processes for customer satisfaction and quality offering.
But why it’s so essential to validate your emails? Protocols & methods email authentication.
Forbes mentions that with 50% of consumers using the same credentials across various accounts, the crime through automated account takeover will continue to ramp up in the coming days.
Yes, that’s terrible news.
Thousands of cybercriminals watch your moves to procure your data and breach your usernames, passwords, and other payment details. As marketers and business people, we put our heart and soul into building an email list, tracking identities, and building campaigns.
And email authentication is like a helping hand that streamlines all the email processes for excellent results with protocols & methods email authentication.
It’s simple, the better we authenticate our emails, the better our engagement and conversion rates become. Anything that can impact your email deliverability does demand our attention.
How To Authenticate Your Emails?
We know how important it is to keep a check on your email regularly. So, as per Entrepreneur, 32 percent of IT professionals surveyed never take a step to gauge the security initiatives.
There’s no reason not to authenticate your emails since there are many options out there. So, you can also go for free email marketing software solutions to up your game.
Be Consistent With Sender Addresses
Keep an eye on the sender’s ID. Sender ID verifies the email sender’s IP address and combines Microsoft’s caller ID for email ad SPF. It addresses the problem of email forging (obviously).
In addition, examines the message content of the email by clearly focusing on the sender server’s IP address and matching it with DNS records. It requires SPF to work and function (discussed later).
Use SPF: How To Authenticate Emails?
SPF is also known as Sender Policy Framework. It is an open, DNS-based email authentication system used by big email providers like Google and Hotmail.
It’s a framework that allows sending domains and detects the sender’s addresses. Firstly. it records and checks the list of authorized sending hosts and if their source email IP addresses are approved to send emails to that domain or not.
To get the crux of it, it’s essential to understand these two definitions:
Email messages contain two “from” addresses: the first one is the “envelope from,” and the other is the “header from.” The former acts like a return address. Moreover, it helps mail servers to understand whether they have to return or bounce. And the latter is visible to all the email users and contains the address in that form. During an SPF check, email providers verify the SPF record by checking in this envelope’s domain name from the DNS address.
If the sending email IP address isn’t listed in the SPF record. So, the SPF authentication is in action, and the message is sent to the failed lists.
Leverage DMARC Authentication
Domain Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance is based on two policies—SPF and DKIM.
It handles email messages that are missing SPF and DKIM authentication. It also has additional features like reporting, identity alignment, and policy definition, making things easy for you.
DMARC gives you more control over your email authentication system and blocks spam email to protect your brand’s reputation.
Never Miss To Configure DKIM Signatures
Domain Keys Identified Mail is an open email authentication system. In addition, it uses public-key encryption to verify your email messages. It makes sure that the message isn’t at risk.
This includes generating a hash using a private key and a cryptographic signature in the message header. Moreover, this signature helps in monitoring the incoming messages using an algorithm that is associated with a DNS domain.
Get Ready For BIMI
Simply put, BIMI (brand indicators for message identification) is crucial for companies. It gives them leverage by notifying the inbox providers. So, what logos they’d like to appear in consumers’ and their prospects’ inboxes.
Letting the inbox provider display generic logos or the company’s initials isn’t worth it nowadays. So, this whole method requires the authentication of a brand email.
This way, the brand’s outgoing emails can’t copy. It is an essential safeguard that prevents BIMI from being by suspicious people and removes any confusion.
How To Authenticate Emails Wrapping Up
Monitoring your email’s health and verifying them is the key to take your business to the next level. So, never forget to check the following email that lands in your inbox.
