Before you setup any ESP (Email service provider) for your CRM, you must setup your DKIM and SPF records. You may be asking, “What in the heck does that mean ?”. I will very briefly explain it; then, cite some resources.
ESP (E-mail Service Providers) such as Swiftpage (now Act!), MailChimp or Constant Contact send e-mails using their servers on your behalf. Your clients’ ISPs and spam filters will detect the ESP’s sending the email. However, some clients’ filters are setup to reject this because a hacker could use the same technique to spam you as well.
So an industry consortium created the SPF and the DKIM record. The SPF and DKIM records gets added to your DNS settings so other ISPs know that your ESP is actually legit when sending emails on your behalf.
Here are some links for a couple providers.
- MailChimp
- Constant Contact
- Act! Marketing Automation
- Zoho CRM
- Zoho Campaigns
- Benchmark One (Hatchbuck)
Once this is setup, this is another step closer to avoiding the junk box.
If you don’t know what a DNS record is; then, work with your I.T. contractor to set this up. When we work with our clients, we partner with your I.T. contractor to update this.