About Email Domain Authentication

To improve your deliverability, Mailchimp automatically adds default authentication to your marketing emails. Domainkeys Identified Mail (DKIM) authentication is a sender identification tool that protects email senders and their recipients from spam, forgery, and phishing.

In this article, you'll learn the benefits of email domain authentication.

Why authentication matters

Authentication is critical to the delivery of your email from Mailchimp, and works like a license plate. It provides a trackable identifier that shows your recipient’s internet service provider you're a legitimate sender, and it helps your email arrive in their inbox.

Benefits of Mailchimp's default authentication

Mailchimp's default authentication has a few important benefits.

• You automatically get DKIM authentication on all your email campaigns.
• Since our authentication is enabled by default, you don't have to edit any advanced settings like DNS records.

It's not possible to turn off Mailchimp's authentication. However, you can set up your own authentication instead, which provides additional deliverability benefits.

Custom domain authentication

If you use your own email domain, we recommend you set up your own DKIM authentication. This way, Mailchimp will be permitted to display your domain's information in your email header, which can help improve your delivery rates and make your campaigns look more professional.

To do this, you'll need to make a few changes in your DNS records, so you may want to ask your website manager or domain registrar for help.

Benefits of custom domain authentication

Authenticating your own domain has two important benefits.

• It removes the default Mailchimp authentication information ( "via mcsv.net" or "on behalf of mcsv.net") that shows up next to your From name in certain email clients.

  While this works for most email clients, some, like Outlook, may still display authentication information after custom DKIM is set up. This is specific to each email client and isn't something we can prevent.

• It can help your emails arrive in recipients' inboxes, rather than spam or junk folders.

• It helps align your domain to Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC), and enables you to use Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) to prominently display your logo in your recipients’ inboxes.

Do I need custom domain authentication?

Before you authenticate your domain to use in Mailchimp, review these questions to make sure it's a good fit.

• Is your Mailchimp From email address associated with your email domain, rather than a public webmail address like gmail.com or hotmail.com?
• Are you or your IT team able to access your domain's cPanel or Zone editor?
• Do your delivered email show "on behalf of mcsv.net" or "via mcsv.net" in the sender details section?

If you answered yes to all or most of these questions, custom authentication is a good fit for you. If you answered no to most of these questions, you can keep using Mailchimp's default authentication that's already set up on your account.

Next steps for custom domain authentication

To authenticate your domain, you'll verify it first, and then edit the CNAME records in your domain's DNS records.

Verify an Email Domain
Set Up Email Domain Authentication