Mailchimp DMARC, SPF, and DKIM Setup Guide

Yunes Tarada

6 months ago

Reading Time: 6 min

Authenticating your domain name using Mailchimp DMARC, Mailchimp SPF, and DKIM can help you prevent unauthorized usage of your domain. This has become mandatory since February 1 2024, as unauthenticated emails can get blocked by Gmail and Yahoo inboxes.

Mailchimp Email Domain Verification

Mailchimp’s Email Domain Authentication document elucidates a few simple steps to set up domain name authentication for your registered domains on the Mailchimp portal.

To start authenticating your email domain on Mailchimp, you need to first verify your domain name. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Click on your profile icon and select Profile

2. Click on the Domains tab

3. On the Domains page, click on “Add & Verify Domain”

4. The “Verify a Domain” popup will appear at this moment. Enter your email address and click on Send Verification Email

5. A verification email should be sent to your address, containing a verification code. Enter the code and click Verify.

6. You will receive a successful verification status for your domain

How to Set Up Mailchimp DMARC Record?

DMARC for Mailchimp will increase the chances of your outgoing emails ‌getting delivered to your receiver’s inbox. It will also ensure that you are playing an active role in protecting your clients against phishing attacks.

1. Create Your Mailchimp DMARC Record

2. Choose Your Policy Mode

Your DMARC policy tells receivers how you want them to handle emails from your domain that fail authentication. Your receiver can either reject, quarantine, or take no action against them based on your preferences.

3. Publish Your TXT Record for DMARC Mailchimp

Finally, to Configure Mailchimp DMARC, publish the record on your DNS database. Your domain registrar can assist you in this step.

4. Check Your Mailchimp DMARC Configuration

You can verify your configuration with the help of our DMARC checker tool. This will make sure your record is error-free and implemented correctly.

5. Confirm your Mailchimp Authentication

Once you have setup your Mailchimp DMARC record, head over to Mailchimp and confirm your authentication. Your domain name should have an “Authenticated” status against it.

Steps to Set Up Mailchimp DKIM Record

Before implementing DMARC for Mailchimp, you need to configure either Mailchimp DKIM or SPF. This is a mandatory step to ensure your DMARC authentication is valid. Mailchimp requires you to verify your domain name before you proceed.

DKIM helps you prevent man-in-the-middle attackers who try to tamper with your message before it reaches the intended inbox. Let’s find out how you can enable it:

1. Click on your profile icon and select Profile

2. Click on the Domains tab

3. Click on “Start Authentication” against your domain name

4. Choose your domain provider (e.g. Google domains) from the dropdown menu

5. Click Next

6. Follow the on-screen instructions to generate your DKIM records. Depending on your domain provider, Mailchimp customizes records for your domain

7. Copy and paste these records into your DNS management console

8. Verify your Mailchimp DKIM setup using our DKIM checker tool

9. Head back to your Mailchimp portal and Click on Next

Steps to Set Up Mailchimp SPF Record

When you are authenticating your Mailchimp domain using the SPF protocol, you are authorizing Mailchimp as your trusted sending source. This will help your Mailchimp emails be recognized as authentic by your client’s server.

These are the steps to enable email domain authentication with Mailchimp SPF:

1. In your Mailchimp admin portal, go to Settings > Manage Domains

2. On the Manage Domains page, click on the “Authenticate” button

3. This will open an overlay containing your SPF record syntax.

4. Access your DNS management console and find your domain

5. View your domain’s DNS settings to find your DNS records

6. If you already have an existing SPF record for your domain, you shouldn’t add a new one. Instead, you need to edit your current record to include Mailchimp’s servers

Example:

Current record: v=spf1 include:spf.domain.com -all

Edited record: v=spf1 include:spf.domain.com include:servers.mcsv.net -all

7. In case your domain has no SPF record published, you need to create a new Mailchimp SPF record. Click on “Add new record” and publish the following as a TXT record:

Host: @

Value: v=spf1 include:servers.mcsv.net -all

Note: we recommend SPF hardfail (-all) or softfail (~all) instead of a neutral policy (?all). This strengthens your email security by clearly defining your Mailchimp SPF policy. A neutral policy is ambiguous, with no clear instructions on how to treat messages failing SPF. This may lead to potentially harmful phishing emails to slip into your customer’s inbox.

8. Save changes and wait for upto 24 hours for your DNS to propagate

9. Finally, use our SPF checker tool to verify your Mailchimp SPF configuration

When you authenticate your domain with SPF, you enjoy the following benefits:

Receiving servers now know that Mailchimp is an authorized sender for your domain.
Your Mailchimp emails pass SPF authentication.
Your Mailchimp email campaigns perform better with enhanced email deliverability rates.

Manual Methods for MailChimp Email Domain Authentication

It is important to understand that while we have provided an automated and easier approach to setting up the MailChimp DMARC, SPF and DKIM, it can be done manually. Technical experts who are well versed in configuring email authentication protocols can manually update their DNS without using online tools. However, it does leave room for human errors and doesn’t provide effective monitoring abilities.

It’s a Wrap

Enabling Mailchimp Email Domain Authentication is not the end of the line. There are a lot of additional steps that go into ensuring that your emails are delivered properly. This includes monitoring your DMARC reports. You can configure PowerDMARC’s DMARC report analyzer for this purpose. Our simplified reports are comprehensive and human-readable, providing unparalleled visibility into your email channels. Instead of a dedicated inbox, this is a smarter approach to analyzing reports while decluttering your inbox.

For one-on-one assistance in configuring domain name authentication for all your email vendors – contact us to speak to an expert today!

Our Content Review and Fact Checking Process

This piece of content has been written and reviewed by Cybersecurity experts. We have referred to MailChimp’s official documents for accurate information. Our experts have then followed the step by step process on the MailChimp portal to set up domain authentication.

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Yunes Tarada

Yunes is an Operations Team Lead at PowerDMARC with expert knowledge in email authentication and security. Yunes is a Microsoft-certified Azure Administrator Associate with certifications in CompTIA A+ and many more.