Agenta Email Sentry

Learn More About Email Sentry.

Email Sentry was developed in response to email authentication requirements and other changes being introduced by Google and Yahoo this month. The changes immediately target bulk email senders and specifically those who send more than 5,000 emails a day.

These changes are significant for businesses that rely on email communication, particularly for marketing purposes. Compliance with these new regulations is crucial to ensure email deliverability and avoid penalties, such as having emails directed to spam folders or blocked altogether.

What Are The Changes All About?

Essentially, protecting your domain from nefarious activity like email spoofing, which in turn protects consumers inboxes from spam and phishing attacks. Google and Yahoo (which will be followed by others) are implementing these changes to improve the experience of consumers by ensuring the email you receive is legitimate and welcome. You can read more about the changes below.

Who Does This Affect?

These changes are immediately applicable to parties that a) send email from a custom domain, or b) use services that send email as your custom domain, such as IDX systems, CRMs, and mass email applications like MailChimp. If you use a custom domain for email and/or your Agenta website includes IDX, these changes may apply, as email alerts from your website to your clients are sent as your custom domain.

What Do I Need To Do?

Most notably, DKIM and DMARC authentication should be implemented for your domain immediately.

As an Agenta client, your domain is currently pointing to our servers. If you already have a self-managed DKIM and DMARC solution, or if you are sent instructions by a third-party provider to add DNS records to your domain, please share those records with support@agentawebsites.com, and we’ll be happy to update your domain.

The Challenge With DMARC

For DMARC authentication to function as intended, a DMARC report must be sent to a recipient email address at the same domain. Without the reports, a domain owner won’t know about any potential issues DMARC is designed to prevent.

In a race to meet the new requirements, many vendors are providing DMARC records to customers that do not contain a recipient address. This means if there is a problem with your domain, you won’t know! Not to mention, what to do about the problem.

On the other hand, when configured properly, the recipient address may receive dozens of emails every day. You can imagine how burdensome this quickly becomes, not to mention understanding what the reports mean and how to identify a concerning problem.

Agenta’s Email Sentry Solution.

Agenta has developed a comprehensive, managed solution that is available to all Agenta clients. The solution includes:

• DMARC & DKIM
  Implementation, management & monitoring of all required authentication requirements.
• Safe SPF
  SPF record management and SPF flattening to keep all your third-party tools delivering email properly.
• Forensics
  In the event of a security incident, Email Sentry offers in-depth forensic analysis, giving insights into how the attack happened and the extent of its impact.
• Phishing Protection
  Protect your inbox from nefarious phishing attacks.
• MTA/STS
  Prevent attackers from exploiting weaknesses in standard SMTP email security.
• RBL (Remote Block List) Monitoring
  Real time blacklist monitoring for your domain.
• BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification)**
  Enable the display of brand logos within supporting email clients. **BIMI requires a separate domain certificate by request.

We are offering the solution at cost for $4.50 / mo. Similar solutions are averaging $20 / mo, and we’re pleased to offer this great value.

In summary, our solution:

• Fully complies with new email authentication requirements.
• Stops email spoofing / phishing from your domain.
• Improves sender reputation and email deliverability.
• Increases email credibility and open rates.

Email Authentication

Bulk senders are required to set up email authentications using standard protocols such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance). All Email senders must ensure that their "From" field is aligned to prevent impersonations and maintain IMF (Internet Message Format) formatting in all emails.

Spam Threshold

All senders must keep spam rates under 0.3%

Unsubscribes

All senders are required to provide two easy unsubscribe options in each email.

Relevance over Quantity

Both Google & Yahoo advocate for sending relevant emails that users genuinely want to receive, emphasizing the importance of content quality over quality.

Domain Registration for Monitoring

It is recommended for senders, especially those sending bulk emails, to register their domain with Google Postmaster Tools to monitor spam report data from Gmail users.

Email Validation and Security

It is recommended for senders, especially those sending bulk emails, to register their domain with Google Postmaster Tools to monitor spam report data from Gmail users.

If all of this sounds a bit complex, don’t worry! We're here to help. If you need assistance understanding these changes or making sure your email complies with these new rules, please reach out to our support team at support@agentawebsites.com. We're ready to guide you through these updates and ensure your emails are compliant with the new standards..