Sender Domain Authentication

Nobody wants trash – in their inbox or anywhere else. To keep your inbox safe and clean, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) sets up checks to make sure that only good, genuine content gets through.

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and more use DKIM and SPF authentication to review incoming emails for spam or spoofed addresses – that is, addresses someone is only pretending to send from. Emails that don’t pass the tests are often redirected to spam or junk folders, meaning that the intended recipient may never see them.

Why do you need to know this? Because you want responses to your surveys. If nobody sees your invitation, nobody participates, and you have no data to report on.

Good to Know

• Sogolytics provides default authentication that helps your messages get delivered successfully.
• Custom domain authentication (available to Pro, Premium, and Enterprise users) allows you to improve both the deliverability and the professional appearance of your emails. Updating the Domain Name System (DNS) records of your domain allows Sogolytics’s domain key to be found in emails you send, as well as used for verifying signatures. The DNS update creates a redirect to the domain key on the Sogolytics domain. When an email service provider receives an email with your domain name, the provider looks up the Sogolytics domain key to verify the signature of the email.
• Setting up custom authentication requires some tech savvy and access to your DNS settings. If you need back-up, check with your IT administrator and DNS provider or hosting service.
• You will not be able to authenticate a public domain, such as Gmail or Yahoo.

You’ll need to complete a few steps in both your Sogolytics account and your domain provider’s zone editor or cPanel. We’ll provide the content you need to copy and paste into your domain provider’s site, so you may want to use two different tabs or browser windows to navigate back and forth.

In short, here’s what you’ll need to do:

• Within Sogolytics, Copy the TXT record for DKIM
• In your domain’s cPanel or zone editor:
  DKIM: Choose one of the following options.
  • Create a CNAME record for sogo._domainkey with the value sogo._domainkey.sogolytics.com
  • Or, create a TXT record for sogo._domainKey.yourdomain.com with the below value:
    v=DKIM1; p=MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAqsKCvEgWG1rbgmLAP/x46uAY7AopzjIb3OdiXA4N6aD7571qTrcFT9Md515tNX9VWDx9m5b/Kz+YlKf9AhDUgvG0IWnm2bkkzIXSx4j68LpKV8AF6WP5bzCL+YyoQtIziRceSxZXGrvMT6IBkiebVIsktAyP+D1SByurusyhctYZoMoyaIPLZRvI+OOoQBmGCJh6z+1cZsF0qJyzgxJwRIWxaoLGYSY2MAylk7KlytWZwjzZzQJ/+qxDUPIl7Jf6gfUgoJVWU7GxmvR/POT22lhzq5zNEb70QSQ79geR4hNxjgFSKChvqDi4NWoDGaV1wGqeAja6Dx6/wuzwnAHCIQIDAQAB

Please follow the steps below to find Domain Authentication details in your account: Click on your account name in the top right corner, then choose Account Settings from the drop down menu.

1. Click Outbound Email Settings from the menu on the left.
2. Within the email address table, click Authenticate next to a verified email address. Be sure this email address belongs to the domain you mean to authenticate (the part after @ is the domain).
3. You’ll see the content regarding the changes you need to make to your domain’s DNS records.
4. You may also choose to send these instructions directly to your IT administrator.
5. Next, either you or your IT administrator should use this information to edit your domain’s DNS records. Once all updates have been made, the authentication status will be updated.

Making DNS updates in some common domain providers
Here are some instructions for editing DNS records with popular domain providers. If your service isn’t listed here, log in to your provider’s site and search their help documents, or contact their customer support team.

Amazon Web Services: Configuring DNS, Resource Record Types
Dreamhost: SPF, DKIM
GoDaddy: SPF, TXT, Add a CNAME Record
Google Domains: DNS Basics
Hostgator: Manage DNS records
Hover: Manage DNS Record
Namecheap: SPF & DKIM
Squarespace: Advanced DNS Settings
Stablehost: How do I get to cpanel?

After the DNS records have been updated, just click on the refresh icon beside the Authenticate button in your Sogolytics account. While the verification is usually almost instantaneous, sometimes it may take time.

Learn more about best practices in email delivery