SPF for Marketing Teams

You've crafted the perfect email campaign. The copy is sharp, the design is polished, the timing is right. You hit send.

And 30% of your list never sees it because the emails went to spam.

Email deliverability isn't just an IT problem—it directly affects your marketing results. Understanding SPF helps you diagnose issues and work effectively with your technical team to fix them.

Why Marketers Need to Understand SPF

You don't need to configure SPF yourself. But you do need to understand it because:

It directly affects campaign performance. Emails that fail authentication are more likely to be filtered as spam. Lower deliverability means lower open rates, click rates, and conversions.

You're often the first to notice problems. When deliverability drops, marketing sees it in the metrics before IT gets a support ticket.

You add new tools regularly. Every new email marketing platform, automation tool, or CRM that sends email needs to be authorized in SPF.

Check Your Marketing Domain

See if your domain's SPF record is configured correctly for email marketing.

How SPF Affects Email Marketing

Inbox placement

Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo check SPF when deciding where to deliver your email. A properly configured SPF record tells them your marketing emails are legitimate.

Sender reputation

Email providers track domain reputation over time. Authenticated emails contribute to a positive reputation. Failed authentication hurts it.

Spoofing protection

SPF prevents bad actors from sending fraudulent emails that appear to come from your brand. This protects both your customers and your brand reputation.

Common Marketing Email Problems Caused by SPF

"Our open rates suddenly dropped"

If deliverability drops across the board, check SPF. A broken or missing SPF record can cause emails to be filtered.

"Emails from [new tool] are going to spam"

When you add a new marketing tool (email platform, CRM, automation tool), it needs to be added to your SPF record. Until it's added, emails from that tool may fail authentication.

"Only some emails are having issues"

If one email source has problems while others work fine, that specific service may be missing from SPF. Check which services are included.

Marketing Tools and SPF

Every tool that sends email on your behalf needs to be in your SPF record:

Email marketing platforms

Mailchimp: include:servers.mcsv.net
Klaviyo: include:send.klaviyo.com
HubSpot: include:_spf.hubspot.com
ActiveCampaign: include:emsd1.com
Constant Contact: varies by account

CRM and automation

Salesforce: include:_spf.salesforce.com
HubSpot CRM: include:_spf.hubspot.com

Transactional email

SendGrid: include:sendgrid.net
Mailgun: include:mailgun.org

New tool, new SPF requirement

Whenever you add a new email marketing tool, ask: "What do we need to add to SPF?" Get the answer before launch, not after complaints about deliverability.

Working With IT on SPF Issues

When you suspect an SPF problem, here's how to communicate effectively with IT:

What to share

The domain in question — Which domain are you sending from?
The tool having issues — Which email platform is affected?
The symptoms — Emails going to spam? Low deliverability? Bounces?
SPF check results — Run our checker and share the results

The right questions to ask

"Is [tool name] included in our SPF record?"
"Are we close to the 10 DNS lookup limit?"
"When was SPF last updated?"
"Can we verify the authentication headers on sent emails?"

When adding new tools

Before signing up for a new email marketing platform, ask IT:

"What's our current SPF lookup count?"
"Do we have room to add another service?"
"What's the lead time to update SPF?"

The Pre-Campaign Checklist

Before launching major email campaigns, verify:

[ ] SPF record is valid (use our checker)
[ ] Your email platform is in the SPF record
[ ] No recent changes to DNS that might have broken things
[ ] Test emails show proper authentication in headers

Reading Email Authentication Headers

You don't need to understand every detail, but knowing how to check authentication helps diagnose issues.

In Gmail, open a test email and click "Show original." Look for:

Authentication-Results: ...
  spf=pass
  dkim=pass
  dmarc=pass

If SPF shows "fail" or "softfail," there's a configuration issue.

Beyond SPF: Complete Email Authentication

SPF is one part of email authentication. For best deliverability, you also need:

DKIM — Adds cryptographic signatures to emails. Most email marketing platforms handle this during setup. Check your DKIM.

DMARC — Tells receiving servers what to do when authentication fails. Important for brand protection. Check your DMARC.

Together, these protocols maximize deliverability and protect your brand.

Metrics That Indicate SPF Issues

Watch for these warning signs in your email marketing metrics:

Metric	Warning Sign
Deliverability rate	Sudden drop, especially across all campaigns
Bounce rate	Increase in hard bounces or authentication failures
Open rates	Decline without other explanation
Spam complaints	Increase (users marking promotional as spam)
Domain reputation	Decline in sender score or Google Postmaster data

When you see these patterns, check SPF first.

Ongoing Monitoring

Email authentication isn't set-and-forget. SPF records can break when:

Someone updates DNS without understanding SPF
A marketing tool changes their infrastructure
You exceed the 10 DNS lookup limit after adding services

The Email Deliverability Suite monitors your authentication daily and alerts you to problems before they affect campaign performance.

Protect your email marketing ROI

Monitor SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and MX daily. Get alerts before deliverability affects your campaigns.

Start Monitoring

SPF for Marketing Teams: Protect Your Email Campaigns