Setting Up Sender Authentication for Your Email Program

Overview

Sender authentication is a critical step in ensuring your marketing and transactional emails are delivered reliably to your customers' inboxes. Without it, your emails may be flagged as spam, blocked by mail providers, or displayed with security warnings that erode customer trust.

When you set up sender authentication with bLoyal, your emails will be sent on behalf of your domain — meaning your customers will see your brand name and domain in the "From" address rather than a generic sending address.

The good news: The setup is straightforward. We handle all the technical configuration on our end. All you need to do is add a few simple records to your domain's DNS settings.

What is Sender Authentication?

When an email is sent, receiving mail servers check whether the sender is actually authorized to send on behalf of the domain in the "From" address. This is done through a set of industry-standard authentication protocols:

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework) — Verifies that the server sending your email is authorized to do so on behalf of your domain
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) — Adds a cryptographic signature to your emails that proves they haven't been tampered with in transit
• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) — Ties SPF and DKIM together and tells mail providers what to do if a message fails authentication

Together these protocols tell Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and other mail providers that your emails are legitimate, improving deliverability and protecting your domain from being spoofed or used in phishing attacks.

What You Need to Do

To complete sender authentication for your domain, you will need to add CNAME records to your domain's DNS settings. CNAME records are simple pointers that tell mail servers where to look to verify your sending credentials.

We will provide you with the exact records to add — you just need to log in to your domain registrar or DNS provider and enter them.

Step-by-Step Setup Guide

Step 1 — Submit Your Domain

Let us know which domain you send email from. This is typically your primary business domain, for example yourbusiness.com. If you send from a subdomain such as mail.yourbusiness.com or news.yourbusiness.com, please provide that instead.

Submit your domain to our team by opening a support ticket and selecting Email — Sender Authentication Setup as the request type.

Step 2 — Receive Your CNAME Records

Once we have processed your request, we will send you a set of 3 CNAME records to add to your DNS. They will look something like this:

Note: The exact values will be unique to your domain. Do not use the example values above — always use the records provided by our team.

Step 3 — Add the Records to Your DNS

Log in to the platform where your domain's DNS is managed. This is typically your domain registrar (such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, Google Domains, or similar) or your web hosting provider.

Once logged in:

1. Navigate to the DNS Management or DNS Settings section for your domain
2. Add each CNAME record exactly as provided — copy and paste the values to avoid typos
3. Save your changes

TTL (Time to Live): If your DNS provider asks for a TTL value, set it to 3600 (1 hour) or use the default value provided by your registrar.

Step 4 — Notify Our Team

Once you have added all three records, reply to your support ticket to let us know. Our team will verify the records and confirm when authentication has been successfully validated.

Step 5 — Confirmation

We will notify you once your domain has been fully authenticated. From this point forward, emails sent through bLoyal will go out authenticated under your domain, improving deliverability and ensuring your brand appears correctly in your customers' inboxes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does DNS propagation take? DNS changes typically propagate within a few minutes to a few hours, though in some cases it can take up to 48 hours. Our team will check once you notify us and will let you know if any records still need time to propagate.

What if I don't know where my DNS is managed? Your DNS is usually managed by your domain registrar — the company you purchased your domain from. If your website is hosted separately, your DNS may have been transferred to your hosting provider. If you're unsure, contact your IT team or web administrator. You can also use a free tool like MXToolbox to look up your current DNS records and identify your DNS provider.

Will this affect my existing email or website? No. Adding CNAME records for sender authentication only affects outbound email sending. It will not impact your website, your existing email accounts, or any other DNS records you have in place.

What happens if the records are entered incorrectly? If a record is entered incorrectly, authentication will fail and emails may not be delivered as expected. Our team will flag any issues during verification and work with you to correct them before your sending goes live.

Do I need to do this more than once? No. Once your domain is authenticated it remains active. You would only need to repeat this process if you change your domain, add a new sending domain, or your DNS records are accidentally removed.

Need Help?

If you need assistance identifying your DNS provider, adding the records, or have questions at any point during the process, our support team is here to help.

Submit a ticket at support@bloyal.com