What is DMARC and how does it affect sending from AWeber?
In the past few years, popular email providers such as Yahoo!, Gmail, AOL, Bigpond and others have made an important changes to their email authentication settings; they have updated their DMARC record.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is used by organizations and ISPs to help stop email abuse. While using DMARC is great at reducing email abuse, changes to DMARC have a widespread impact on a users worldwide.
Why should you use email addresses from your own domain as your from address?
If you use an email address from a mailbox provider like Yahoo or Gmail that has either a DMARC reject or quarantine policy, any email campaigns you send via AWeber will be sent from an alternate email address, as described below.
This is not an AWeber-specific issue, as DMARC changes impact anyone using the affected address. For example, if you were to use a different email service provider to send your emails, they will also need to change the From address or your emails will be at risk of not getting delivered.
How will AWeber fix your from address?
If you are using an email address as your From address at a mailbox provider that has either a DMARC reject or quarantine policy, AWeber will automatically rewrite the address on your outgoing emails to pass DMARC checks. This rewrite process is only done for small AWeber senders, large senders will be required to use their own domain and configure DKIM and DMARC.
For example, if you use:
testerjones@yahoo.com
It will be rewritten as:
testerjones=yahoo.com@send.aweber.com
Note: Your Reply-To address will still be shown as testerjones@yahoo.com.
This rewriting process is automatic and is generally transparent to your subscribers. If you don't want your address to be rewritten, simply change your from address to an email on your own domain. Make sure you also set up Custom DKIM and DMARC.
If you do not mind this rewriting, you may use your address as-is. Your subscribers will see testerjones=yahoo.com@send.aweber.com as the From Address in their inbox. Note that it is not as good from a branding perspective, however, as using an email address on your own domain.
Are my subscribers addresses affected?
These changes do not affect subscribers with email addresses at DMARC reject or quarantine mailbox providers, and this does not prevent them from being added to your mailing list or receiving your emails.
Why have these DMARC changes been made?
Free email providers have always worked hard to reduce the amount of spam that appears to be from their networks. They made the DMARC reject policy change to prevent malicious users from sending spam using their domain, and that change also impacted legitimate users like yourself.