Does DMARC improve email deliverability and should ESPs push senders to set it up?
Summary
What email marketers say12Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Validity shares that DMARC helps improve sender reputation. By preventing unauthorized use of your domain, it signals trustworthiness to mailbox providers, increasing the likelihood that your emails will reach the inbox.
Email marketer from Postmark explains that DMARC can improve deliverability. When configured correctly, DMARC protects your domain from being spoofed, increasing the likelihood that your emails will reach the inbox. They suggest working towards a 'p=reject' policy, but only after careful monitoring and testing.
Email marketer from Email Hippo explains that DMARC builds upon SPF and DKIM to provide a comprehensive email authentication solution. It allows senders to specify how recipient mail servers should handle emails that fail authentication, reducing the risk of spoofing and phishing attacks.
Email marketer from EasyDMARC shares that while DMARC doesn’t directly guarantee inbox placement, it's crucial for building a positive sender reputation. By preventing malicious actors from using your domain, it signals trustworthiness to ISPs, which in turn can improve deliverability.
Email marketer from SendGrid answers states that DMARC offers several benefits, including enhanced security, improved deliverability, and increased brand trust. It allows senders to control how their domain is used and ensures that legitimate emails are properly authenticated.
Email marketer from ZeroBounce emphasizes the importance of monitoring DMARC reports. These reports provide insights into email authentication results and help identify any issues that may be affecting deliverability. Monitoring DMARC reports is essential for maintaining a healthy email program.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that DMARC is important, but you need SPF and DKIM correctly set up first. Implementing DMARC is crucial for protecting your brand and improving long-term deliverability.
Email marketer from GlockApps suggests to start with a 'p=none' policy to monitor DMARC reports and gradually move to stricter policies like 'p=quarantine' or 'p=reject' once you're confident that all legitimate emails are properly authenticated.
Email marketer from StackOverflow explains that DMARC policies (p=none, p=quarantine, p=reject) dictate how recipient mail servers should handle emails failing authentication. A stricter policy (reject or quarantine) enhances security but may impact deliverability if not configured correctly.
Email marketer from Mailjet explains that DMARC itself doesn't directly improve deliverability, but it protects your domain's reputation, preventing spoofing and phishing, which indirectly boosts deliverability by fostering trust with mailbox providers.
Marketer from Email Geeks states DMARC does not improve deliverability and DMARC deployments are complex and shouldn't be promoted as a simple DNS record.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that DMARC doesn't directly improve deliverability but can if the domain is actively abused, by distinguishing legitimate traffic from spoofed traffic. He agrees DMARC deployment is not easy.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise answers that DMARC won't directly improve deliverability, but gives you control over what happens to unauthenticated mail which protects your reputation, which then affects deliverability.
Expert from Email Geeks explains DMARC with p=none doesn’t do anything and DMARC with any other policy statement will lower deliverability by design, because mail can be modified in transit which will break authentication. She also suggests ESPs should support and promote alignment for their customers, but DMARC is ultimately a company decision. She also states DMARC policy is based on a misunderstanding of how people actually use email.
Expert from Email Geeks explains DMARC facilitates BIMI, which might increase engagement and delivery rates for senders good enough for BIMI whitelisting but needing an engagement boost from the logo. Also, DMARC-aligned SPF and DKIM will get you almost all the joy with less of the pain - do the DMARC preparation process, deploy aligned SPF and aligned DKIM and then don’t publish DMARC.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that some mailbox providers are checking alignment even without a DMARC record, and have been for at least 5 years.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that DMARC helps direct receivers what to do with messages that fail authentication (SPF, DKIM) - however ensuring those are correctly aligned is important.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from RFC Editor explains DMARC is a protocol that allows email senders to protect their domains from unauthorized use, commonly known as email spoofing. It enables domain owners to specify how email receivers should handle messages that fail authentication checks.
Documentation from DMARC.org explains DMARC’s primary goal is to combat phishing and spoofing by allowing domain owners to specify how email receivers should handle messages that fail authentication checks (SPF and DKIM).
Documentation from Microsoft explains that DMARC is a crucial tool for preventing email spoofing. When combined with SPF and DKIM, DMARC gives domain owners control over how their domain is used in email and protects recipients from fraudulent messages.
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help explains that implementing DMARC helps improve deliverability by ensuring that only legitimate emails are accepted, reducing the risk of spoofing and phishing attacks.