Anti-spam requirements

To comply with applicable law and industry best practices, our clients certify that they will use EngageOne™ Communicate only to send messages to recipients who have expressly consented (opted in) to receive them. The following considerations also help to ensure maximum deliverability, along with compliance with anti-spam requirements and best practices.

Setting Up DKIM, SPF, and DMARC

This section covers changes introduced by Google and Yahoo in February 2024; see https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/messaging-and-targeting/an-overview-of-bulk-sender-changes-at-yahoo-gmail/ for more details. To answer most common questions regarding these regulations, see Gmail’s FAQ and Yahoo’s FAQ.

To improve email delivery, we recommend that you always set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your domains. Messages that are not authenticated with these methods might be marked as spam or rejected.

For further information, see the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/c9fLp5uIxp8

DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail)

EngageOne™ Communicate provides the capability to generate DNS records for DKIM setup. DKIM adds a digital signature to your outgoing emails, allowing recipients to verify that the email comes from an authorized sender and has not been tampered with during transit. While DKIM is an essential step, it is not the only one to consider.

For information about setting up DKIM, see DKIM.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

SPF is another crucial authentication method. It specifies which mail servers are authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain. To enhance deliverability, we highly recommend configuring SPF records for your domain. These records inform email receivers that your email server is legitimate and authorized to send emails on your behalf.

For basic EOCM configuration, the SPF record should use the amazonses.com domain. A typical record looks like this:

v=spf1 include:amazonses.com ~all

It is best practice for customers to configure a custom MAIL FROM domain, and not use the default amazonses.com MAIL FROM domain. The custom MAIL FROM domain will always be a subdomain of the customer's verified domain identity. To set it up, contact support.

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance)

DMARC builds upon DKIM and SPF, providing additional policies and reporting capabilities. It helps prevent email spoofing and phishing attempts. Configuring DMARC is strongly recommended for a comprehensive email authentication strategy. Your DMARC enforcement policy can be set to none.

The domain in the sender's From: must be aligned with either the SPF domain or the DKIM domain. This is required to pass DMARC alignment.

Marketing messages and subscribed messages must support one-click unsubscribe, and include a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the message body.

For more information, see https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/messaging-and-targeting/email-authenctication-dmarc-policy/.

Bounce rate limits

Accounts are suspended automatically when your "bounce rate" (that is, the percentage of destination email addresses that did not receive messages because the recipient's mail servers returned them) exceeds acceptable industry thresholds. This is done to adhere to Internet Service Provider and anti-spam requirements.

If your account reaches a 2% bounce rate, your EngageOne™ Communicate account administrator will receive a notification via email and an in-app message warning that your bounce rate is increasing. If your account reaches a bounce rate of 4% or greater, your account is automatically suspended.

During an account suspension, your ability to send communications is disabled but all other aspects of EngageOne™ Communicate (creating communications, accessing analytics, and so on) will continue to work as usual.

Soft and hard bounces

The bounce rates percentage limits given above only refer to hard bounces; soft bounces are not included.

Hard bounces are defined as one of the following:

  • Permanent failures
  • Invalid domain
  • Recipient unknown

Soft bounces are defined as one of the following:

  • Temporary or transient failures
  • Inbox full
  • Mail server outage
  • Send from domain not authenticated – missing SPF and/or DKIM
  • Message too large
  • Content rejected
  • Attachment rejected
Some mail servers will automatically try to re-deliver a soft bounce after some time, depending on their configuration.

Both hard and soft bounces are recorded in analytics; see Reporting.

How Do I Minimize My Bounce Rate?

There are many ways to minimize high bounce rates. Some common best practices include:

  • Cleansing your list to ensure that subscriber data is accurate and up to date.
  • Ensuring that your email list is composed of subscribers who subscribed themselves to your list.
  • Sending a verification email to subscribers to confirm interest in your list.
  • Use a Consistent "From" Address. Ensure that your "From" address is consistent and matches your SPF and DKIM configurations.
  • Avoid Spam Trigger Words. Refrain from using spam-triggering words or phrases in your email content. These may include terms commonly associated with phishing or unsolicited emails.
  • Monitor Bounce Rates. EngageOne™ Communicate provides bounce rate protection. However, it is important to note that the bounce rate is a cumulative metric that considers not only emails sent through EngageOne™ Communicate but also those from other potential software sending from the same domain.
  • Include the Unsubscribe Link. For promotional-type messages, always provide recipients with an easy way to opt-out from your email list, ensuring compliance with anti-spam regulations.
  • Use Postmaster Tools to monitor information about messages sent from your domain to Gmail accounts. Yahoo recommends using Complaint Feedback Loop for their service.

What Do I Do If My Account Gets Suspended?

If your account is suspended, the following form is displayed:

Suspended account form

You can expedite the process of lifting the suspension by filling in this form and clicking Send form (this sends the form to Precisely support). Alternatively, contact support.

Complaint rate

Complaints (typically emails marked as spam) are treated in a similar way to bounces. Note the following:

  1. When the complaint rate exceeds 0.1%, the ability to send communications will be disabled.
  2. Your EngageOne™ Communicate account administrator will receive a notification via email.
  3. If we receive a complaint event for a specific email in a specific communication, the future sending of this email will be disabled (but the email will be sent if included in a new communication).

Testing Configuration with Mail-Tester

Before you start sending bulk emails, it is crucial to test your configuration to identify and address any issues that may trigger spam filters. One valuable tool for this purpose is Mail-Tester.

  1. Generate a Test Email Address: Visit Mail-Tester and obtain a unique test email address.
  2. Send a Test Email: Use EOCM to send a test email to the address provided.
  3. Analyze the Results: Mail-Tester will provide a detailed analysis of your email, highlighting potential issues affecting deliverability.
  4. Fix Detected Problems: Address any problems identified by Mail-Tester to improve your email quality rank.