DMARC is an acronym standing for "Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance."
Understanding DMARC: In layman's terms, DMARC is an email standard that keeps spammers from using your website's domain to send emails without your permission.
Avoid Spam or Junk Inboxes with DMARC: If the tracking emails you're sending from your domain don't pass DMARC checks, there's a high chance they'll end up in your recipients' spam or junk inboxes 🙈
Passing DMARC for Custom Emails: If you want to customize your tracking emails and send them from your website's domain instead of Pirate Ship's, passing DMARC checks is crucial to get your tracking numbers to your recipients.
How to pass DMARC checks
Verify DKIM & Return Path records to Pass DMARC: To pass DMARC checks, you'll need to verify DKIM and your Return Path. This allows Pirate Ship to prove that we're sending emails on your behalf.
Basically, these two verifications show email providers that we're not using your domain to send spam emails 😅
Verifying DKIM and your Return Path is optional but recommended to ensure your tracking emails end up in your recipients' inboxes.
Use Your Domain to Send Emails: Verifying both DKIM and Return Path authentication allows you to pass DMARC checks, and you'll be able to send tracking emails on Pirate Ship that come from your own domain!
Verifying DKIM
How to Verify DKIM: To add a DKIM record, you'll need access to your domain name's DNS settings. These settings are usually available in the dashboard of wherever you bought your domain name.
The exact instructions are available in Pirate Ship when you click the Verify DKIM button.
Pirate Ship provides the exact DKIM record you need to add when you go into our tracking email template.
Check With Your DNS Provider: When verifying your DKIM in Pirate Ship, the need to enter the DKIM record with or without the domain & top-level domain name depends on the settings of your specific DNS provider.
For instance, the DKIM record in certain hosting services won't include your domain and will stop after "domainkey" (e.g. "20200511061207pm._domainkey").
Check with your hosting service to know if they need your domain here!
Verifying your Return Path
Verifying a Return Path Record: To verify your Return Path, click the blue Verify Return Path (optional) button when editing your Tracking Email template 👌
Once your Return Path is verified, this button will turn green (it usually takes about 48 hours for this change to be reflected in your Tracking Email template).
Read more about DKIM and Return Path records.
As an alternative, consider Pirate Ship's default tracking emails
If this article makes you feel like you've just gulped nine bottles of grog, don't worry! Pirate Ship automatically sends tracking emails to your recipients as long as you enter their email addresses when purchasing a label.
Easy-to-Use Tracking Emails: Using Pirate Ship's automatic tracking email feature requires little to no effort on your behalf!
Automatically Pass DMARC: By default, Pirate Ship sends tracking emails from ship@pirateship.com with your email address as the reply-to.
Since tracking emails come from Pirate Ship's domain, these emails are configured to automatically pass DMARC checks and end up in your recipient's inbox without a hitch 😉