You send a quote to a customer and hear nothing back. A week later they phone, irritated, asking why you ignored them. You did not. The message landed in their spam folder, and neither of you had any way of knowing.

This plays out among Brantford businesses constantly. An accounting office sends invoices that quietly disappear. A trades company emails estimates that never arrive. The work is done and the message written, yet the delivery fails. The remedy usually rests on three settings with awkward names, SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and the principle behind them is straightforward.

Why your email gets flagged

Scammers routinely forge sender addresses, dressing up their messages to look as though they came from your company so they can deceive the recipient. Major providers such as Gmail and Outlook are well aware of this, and they have grown strict in response.

Every incoming message now faces a single question: can the provider prove this email genuinely came from the domain it claims? When the proof is absent, suspicion follows. In the better outcome your message is filed as spam; in the worse one it is blocked outright. SPF, DKIM and DMARC are the means by which you supply that proof.

What the three letters actually mean

Picture a parcel that must clear inspection before it is delivered.

• SPF is a published list of who may send email on behalf of your domain. It tells the receiving world which mail servers act for you and deserve trust. A message arriving from a server outside that list raises a flag.
• DKIM attaches a tamper-evident seal to each message. When the mail arrives, the provider inspects the seal; an intact seal confirms the message was neither forged nor altered in transit.
• DMARC is the rulebook that binds SPF and DKIM together. It instructs providers on what to do when a message fails the check, whether to file it as spam or reject it, and it can send you reports revealing who is impersonating your address.

The three operate as a set. Leave one out and your deliverability suffers.

How to fix it

These settings live in your domain’s DNS records, the behind-the-scenes directory that tells the internet where your website and email belong. You do not need a deep grasp of DNS, but you do need someone to enter the records accurately, because a single typo can interrupt mail flow entirely.

Records also drift out of date. If you have switched email providers, added a marketing platform, or moved to Microsoft 365, your settings may no longer match reality, and that mismatch alone can route good email into spam. Correcting and maintaining these records is part of our ongoing managed IT services; we set the records, test them, and keep watch over them. For more on subjects like this, our blog covers other common email and security questions, and our free IT assessment tool offers a quick health check.

FAQ

What are SPF, DKIM and DMARC in plain terms?

They are three settings that prove your email is genuine. SPF lists who may send for you, DKIM adds a tamper-evident seal, and DMARC sets the rules for what happens when a message fails. Together they keep your mail out of spam and stop others from forging your address.

Why do my emails go to spam even though I’m not a spammer?

Usually because these settings are missing or misconfigured. Providers cannot confirm your message is authentic, so they err on the side of caution and treat it as junk. Correcting the records normally resolves it.

Can I set this up myself?

You can, though it is easy to get wrong. The records are exact, and a single mistake can block all of your email. If you are not comfortable editing DNS records, it is worth delegating the task.

Will this stop people from faking my company’s email?

DMARC is the decisive piece. Once it is set to reject failed messages, impersonators can no longer readily send mail that appears to come from your domain, which protects both your reputation and your customers.

If your email keeps landing in spam, we can review your setup and correct it quickly. Get in touch and we will take a look.