When working through an issue, it’s always best to have some type of statistical data to base a decision or to build a business case for a potential change. Of course we also need to keep in mind not to the taint the data and mold it into our predetermined or preferred premise.
The assertion has always been that implementing DMARC into your email domains and undergoing a DMARC Compliance program will improve email deliverability based on higher IP reputation.
I’ve seen this occur on many occasions as many customers have initiated such projects to ultimately get back control of their email domains., ie audited all senders – internal and 3rd party, updated SPF and DKIM requirements as discussed here- Starting-your-spf-journey-add-dmarc-for-greater-success
Below is a simple example where initiating a DMARC Compliance program had a tremendous positive impact and increased the IP Reputation of that specific domain – so correlation does equals causation in this case.
In this example, we are reviewing the Google postmaster stats for the domain.
Additionally we are reviewing the DMARC results with dmarcian’s DMARC dashboard.
Figure 1 shows the ‘Authentication’ page and the expected increase in DMARC Authentication following adding a DMARC record. At this stage, the DMARC record is still in pass through mode and collecting data on all email flows using that specific domain.
Google does place a higher trust weighting for domains configured with a DMARC record.
Figure 2 indicates when the DMARC record was implemented and the subsequent update to the SPF record as a direct result of the compliance program. An obvious positive change to the IP reputation can be observed with the green High becoming dominant in just afew days.
Yes you can make changes to the SPF record without any statistical data to base your decision, but I don’t believe anyone would jeopardise their marketing email flows for a gut feeling.
DMARC provides you with all the statistical data you need to create or update the SPF and DKIM records.
Visualising the results in the dmarcian DMARC dashboard is key to better and error free decision making.
DMARC Compliance is a simple project but so very beneficial !!
By Con Lokos
