Configuring the SPF Record
With the growing concern of email marketing misuse and SPAM/Spoofing email systems being setup, additional security precautions have been enacted by the majority of businesses and email service providers. One of these precautions that has become quite prominent is an SPF Record verification. SPF stands for ‘Sender Policy Framework’ and essentially outlines who has the authority to send e-mails on behalf of your domain. With any e-mail marketing service, you have the ability to state who is sending the email. This is typically identified in the “From” address of the message. The message itself though will not be originating from your domain but will actually be sent from mail servers belonging to the email service provider. An example case would be that the ClubHouse Online servers are actually distributing your email marketing campaigns and some of your website email notifications to your members. That being said the “From” address you are using most likely belongs to your club.
So, to ensure your campaigns and notifications will not be rejected due to a failing SPF verification check, you will need to have an appropriately configured SPF record for your domain. This configuration will need to completed by the Administrator for your domain or by your IT team. Below is just an example of an SPF record that would cover emails being sent out from your Clubhouse Online website and Clubhouse Online Email Marketing.
[
the club’s domain here]
IN TXT "v=spf1 mx a include:mailer.clubhouseonline-e3.com include:smtp1.clubhouseonline-e3.com -all"
Note: The above record is just a provided example of how your SPF Record could be configured and should not be used as an exact entry unless confirmed by your Domain Administrator and/or IT Team.
Your club's SPF record may contain alternate/additional entries to accommodate other Jonas products as well as any 3rd Party products that employ email delivery on your club's behalf as part of their features. Here are the entries your SPF record could include:
- For your Clubhouse Online website
- include:smtp1.clubhouseonline-e3.com
- For your Clubhouse Online Email Marketing Account
- include:mailer.clubhouseonline-e3.com
- For your Frankie Email Marketing Account
- For your MemberInsight Account
Note: Please exclude any entries for products your club does not currently employ
Similar to the example displayed above, your SPF record contains a value at the end of it that should be paid special attention to as it will need to be decided by your Domain Administrator and/or IT Team. The ending parameter can be configured as either "~all" or "-all".
For more information on which option is right for your club please review the following guideline:
Once this record has been configured on your domain it will take approximately 24 hours to propagate. You can confirm that this record has been put in place by following these steps:
- In a web browser navigate to centralops.net
- Under Domain Dossier, enter in your club domain name
- Click on GO
- This will display your domain profile. Scroll to the bottom of the profile
The DNS record section of the profile will display all the DNS records that have been setup for your domain. You will be looking for the same entry that is listed above. An example of how it will appear is displayed below
The other security precaution that you will need to account for is SPAM/Quarantine filters. These configurations will also allow your email campaigns and website notifications to be delivered successfully. Internally at your club, your SPAM filters will need to be configured either on your email server or if your email is web based it will have to be configured on a per account basis. This is something you will need to confer with your IT, to ensure it is setup the correct way.
The contacts listed in your Email Marketing system and the members listed in your ClubHouse Online website could also benefit from configuring their own SPAM/Quarantine filters. Unfortunately, there are too many email clients available to list how to configure all of them so it will be up to your members to configure their settings on their own.
The information that both your IT and your contacts will need to configure within their SPAM/Quarantine filters is as follows:
- For your Clubhouse Online website
- smtp1.clubhouseonline-e3.com
- For your Clubhouse Online Email Marketing Account
- mailer.clubhouseonline-e3.com
- For your Frankie Email Marketing AccountWe
- For your MemberInsight Account
If you or your IT have any questions or requires any assistance with setting this up, please do not hesitate to contact support.