Email Authentication Explained for ActiveCampaign Deliverability

by | May 23, 2022 | Email Deliverability

Finally… help (that actually helps) with what you need to do for your email-sender information, and your sender domain for ActiveCampaign. I can feel your sigh of relief from here…

I know how hard it is to find clear, reliable, actionable information on getting your emails delivered and keeping them out of spam. So I’ve got you covered – phew!

This is for you if you have ever struggled with DKIM, SPF or DMARC for ActiveCampaign (or have no idea what they even are – and trust me, you’re not alone in that)

This is for you if you’ve ever wound up more confused than before from trying to get help with deliverability and authentication on your ActiveCampaign emails – you’re safe with me ( Kay Peacey ) because I’m a teacher as well as an expert in this stuff.

Speedy clarity on ActiveCampaign email authentication coming right up…

(Be sure to check out my other blogs on deliverability too – authentication is just one part of the picture – like this one on staying in ActiveCampaign’s good-books to get on their best servers)

Spoiler: great deliverability with ActiveCampaign is partly about not accidentally dressing your emails up as spam

You can be as legit and honest and real as possible, with huge community support and fans galore… 

But your emails will still wind up in the spam folder of doom, binned, complained about and shouted at, if you accidentally look like a spammer.

If you look like spam, you get treated like spam.

Let’s learn how to NOT dress up as a # skankyspammer. It’s surprisingly easy to do, but happily also really easy to avoid, once you know how…

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Learn how to make sure your ActiveCampaign emails don’t get mistaken for spam

Everyone involved in getting your emails delivered and read has an interest in not letting you through if you’re a spammer. You, your contacts, the Mailbox Providers and ActiveCampaign.

One of the fastest ways to get your ActiveCampaign emails flagged as spam is to accidentally dress them up as spam.

Who is watching to make sure your ActiveCampaign emails are not spam?

  • ActiveCampaign is watching every email you send to make sure you’re not a spammer who will spoil their sending reputation – especially in your first two months with ActiveCampaign. 

    If you look at all like spam to ActiveCampaign, your emails will be sent from their probationary servers – think of this as the naughty-corner of ActiveCampaign.
  • Mailbox Providers are scanning the horizon for spammers the whole time – they judge, heavily, on anything that looks, moves or smells like it might be spam – especially if that email is coming from that probationary server.

    If you look like spam to the mailbox provider, you’re not getting delivered to the inbox at all.
  • Your email recipients, your contacts, are rightly wary of spam – they have a hair-trigger, and very little time to call spam or not spam.

    If you look like spam to your contact, you’re deleted, dragged to the spam folder of doom, reported, shunned, and gone.

If you look like spam, you get treated like spam.

So let’s learn how to NOT accidentally dress up our emails as spam.

Instead, let’s be authentic, and authenticated in every email we send with ActiveCampaign, so that it’s a completely obvious no-brainer, every time you send, that you’re one of the good guys.

Focus on writing ActiveCampaign email content that won’t land in the junk folder

If your email feels like spam, it will get treated like spam.

So you must make absolutely sure that your ActiveCampaign email content is authentic.

Because the words that you put in your ActiveCampaign emails get scanned for signs of spaminess at every step – by ActiveCampaign, by the Mailbox Providers and by your Contacts.

It’s like a secret test that you didn’t know you were taking.

Assuming you don’t love being mistaken for a #skankyspammer…

Don’t do these things – unless you want to look like a spammer:

  • Use words that spammers typically use (like pills, profit, and other things that begin with P….)
  • Include links behind vague phrases like “click here” with no indication of where it will lead
  • Use generic subject lines and content – swipe files and content generators can be problematic, because spammers use them too

If you look like spam, you get treated like spam.

Do these things to look totally authentic and definitely not a spammer:

  • Be obviously, truthfully human, real and yourself.  
  • Use words in the way you do when talking to real people.
  • Be honest and respectful, and never misleading.

Being human in your ActiveCampaign emails is a really nice habit to get into – we walk the walk at Slick Business and talk the talk with our ActiveCampaign Academy members to help them weave in the human to every email they send.

If you’d like to see us in action, step right up for our free emails with ActiveCampaign tips every week, or join our free Accelerated ActiveCampaign training course.

Get our FREE Accelerated ActiveCampaign training now

See how sender information gets ActiveCampaign emails delivered to the inbox

It’s not just the content of your email that has to pass the spam tests from everyone involved in deliverability.

Your email Sender information must be authentic as well.

Just like the envelope (or lack of it) on the junk mail that falls through your letterbox (and gets chucked straight in the recycling)

If you look like spam, you get treated like spam.

And it’s ActiveCampaign, the Mailbox Providers and your Contacts who are checking your sender info for spaminess.

Here are my top tips to look, and be, authentic:

  • Your sender email should be a real inbox using your business domain
  • That business domain should take you to a real website that gets traffic
  • Your reply-to email should be the same address, ideally, or at least the same domain
  • In an ideal world, your sender email will be realname@ – rather than a generic info@ or help@

I expect you have some questions…or maybe you’re worried about your sender info and wondering if you should change it.

Everyone has a different specific scenario, and we have an awesome deliverability training in the ActiveCampaign Academy to help you nail yours. This is our flagship course, with everything you need to know and do to make sure your emails actually get to the inbox. 

Learn more about our ActiveCampaign Academy membership
Fast, effective training & support for ActiveCampaign users everywhere

Understand DKIM SPF and DMARC for ActiveCampaign users

Do not panic. Don’t look away, hide, or ignore this.

I know, DKIM SPF and DMARC sound terrifying, and you’ve heard of them, and tried before to understand it and get it done, and ended up in a mess. But this time it’s different – this time you’re with me, Kay Peacey, and I’ve got you covered.

Domain authentication (which is what the scary letters all involve) is actually not as bad as it sounds, and it is really important for helping your ActiveCampaign eamils get to the inbox.

Domain Authentication is a tech-thing that works like an official stamp to show you’re a legit sender who really is who you say you are. 

It stops other people from pretending to be you by stopping them from sending using your email domain (those dastardly spammers!).

Three domain authentication things you really do need to do for ActiveCampaign sending

Set up your SPF, DKIM and DMARC – every ActiveCampaign account should have these set up for the sender domain.

Think of it like getting a blue tick on Twitter – you can get by without it, but it’s a much better look if you have it. You don’t need to know what they stand for to be honest, but you do need to follow some instructions and get them done.

It is a bit technical to set up your SPF, DKIM and DMARC but it’s also easy when you’re shown how.

And you only need to do it one time.

And remember….

If you look like spam, you get treated like spam.

If you want to set up your SPF, DKIM and DMARC our deliverability training course will walk you through, step by step, with us on hand to get over any bumps. We’ve helped hundreds of ActiveCampaign users happily and quickly set uptheir email authentication one time only, done forever, with this guidance in our ActiveCampaign Academy.

You can run the ActiveCampaign authentication check here for free – if you see any red cross marks, you need to get our help and get it fixed, fast.

If you want to check to see where you stand and what needs doing now this blog and video shows you how to check your email authentication quickly for any platform

Do your ActiveCampaign emails a favour, and get your email authentication done for better deliverability.

Learn more about our ActiveCampaign Academy membership
Fast, effective training & support for ActiveCampaign users everywhere

See what changed in Feb 2024 for email deliverability

In Feb 2024 Google and Yahoo announced changes to how they handle decisions on whether to deliver emails to their inboxes.

If you don’t meet their requirements your emails will not be delivered to their inboxes. And it’s going to be hard to get back in their good books, so this is important!

The major updates are:

  • senders above a certain volume MUST have DMARC authentication
  • everyone MUST have DKIM and SPF – those are not optional an more
  • they’re watching spam report rates mroe closely and if you go over their threshold they will restrict delivery

Visit our blog here explaining the changes to delivery rules in Feb 2024, and how they impact deliverability for ActiveCampaign users.

Your next step to great deliverability for ActiveCampaign emails

Did I mention this bit…?

If you look like spam, you get treated like spam.

Good – now that we’re all clear that it’s important to NOT look like spam, we can move on to the next important thing for getting your ActiveCampaign deliverability better, and makign sure your open rates and click rates are high so that your emails can make you more sales…

Your next move for better deliverability is to get your ActiveCampaign contacts on your side, and enlist their help – what they do with your emails in the inbox matters a lot. And they’re not mind-readers… so we have to ask them to do the things that will help them (and us) get great emails delivered to the inbox.

Get fast effective help to set up ActiveCampaign email authentication

ActiveCampaign Academy training with Kay Peacey

We have a stonkingly good course inside our ActiveCampaign Academy that will take you step by step through everything you need to know, and exactly what you need to do, to get your ActiveCampaign email and domain authentication done fast, and right first time

Here’s where to find out more about our deliverability training course – you can get the authenticationbit done in just a couple of hours. The sooner you get it done the better.

Academy membership comes with access to more courses to do ActiveCampaign the easy way, plus a lovely member community to walk alongside, and direct, regular access to Kay Peacey for live and real time with your resident ActiveCampaign expert.

Learn more about our ActiveCampaign Academy membership
Fast, effective training & support for ActiveCampaign users everywhere

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