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Deliverability

Deliverability is whether your replies land in your customers' inboxes rather than their spam folders. Mostly it comes down to three records in your domain's settings, called SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Together they prove to other mail servers that mail from your address really comes from you, through a server you've allowed to send it.

If you send through your usual email provider (Google, Fastmail, your web host), these records are usually in place already, and there may be nothing for you to do. Postmark is the one route where you have to add them.

The records aren't Jelly settings, and Jelly doesn't check them. Whoever manages your domain sets them up, usually at the company you bought the domain from or wherever its settings (its DNS) are kept.

What the three records do

  • SPF lists the mail servers that may send mail for your domain. The service Jelly sends through has to be on that list.
  • DKIM adds a signature to each message, so the receiving server can check that it came from your domain and wasn't changed on the way. Your mail provider gives you the record to add.
  • DMARC tells receiving servers what to do with mail that claims to be from your domain but fails those checks. It can also ask them to send you reports.

Setting them up for your route

A Google account. Your replies leave through Google. If your team already sends mail from the account without trouble, SPF is probably right. On Google Workspace, you switch DKIM on in the Google Admin console, under Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → Authenticate email. Google's instructions are the "Set up SPF" and "Set up DKIM" articles in Google Workspace Admin Help. A @gmail.com address needs nothing.

Postmark. Confirm your domain with Postmark: add it under Sender Signatures, or add a signature for each address you send from. Postmark gives you the exact records to add and tells you once they're working. This step isn't optional, because Postmark won't send from an address it hasn't confirmed.

Your own SMTP server. The records are your mail provider's. If your team already sends mail from that provider in a mail app, they're probably right. To check that the server will send as your address, press Send me a test message on the server's page in Settings → SMTP. See Your own SMTP server.

Finding out whether a reply arrived

Only Postmark tells you afterwards whether a reply was delivered, delayed, bounced or marked as spam. With Gmail or an SMTP server, a bounce arrives later as an ordinary email in the mailbox you send from. See Did it arrive?.

If replies are going to spam

Check these, most likely first:

  1. You send through Postmark or Amazon SES, and your domain isn't confirmed there.
  2. SPF doesn't list the service you actually send through.
  3. DKIM is missing, or the record has a typo.
  4. You're sending from an address at a domain you don't control.
  5. Your DMARC policy is set to reject mail that fails, and one of the first three isn't right yet.

Advanced details

These are for whoever edits your domain's records.

  • SPF is a TXT record on your domain. Adding a provider usually means adding an include: for it, such as include:_spf.google.com for Google. A domain can have only one SPF record, so add each new provider to the existing record rather than creating a second one.
  • DKIM is a public key your provider publishes under your domain. The provider signs each message with the matching private key.
  • DMARC is a TXT record at _dmarc. followed by your domain. Its policy is p=none (only report), p=quarantine (send to spam) or p=reject (refuse). Start with p=none and read its reports until you're sure your mail passes.
  • When Postmark reports that a receiving server refused a reply because of your DMARC policy, Jelly shows the reply as Blocked.