DMARC compliance

Sendmarc helps businesses achieve full DMARC compliance quickly and confidently. With automated setup, real-time monitoring, and actionable reporting, Sendmarc reduces the complexity of email authentication, ensuring your company’s domain is protected from impersonation and abuse.

Secure your organization’s domain and build trust – start your DMARC compliance journey with Sendmarc today.

What is DMARC compliance?

DMARC compliance refers to the process of implementing and maintaining the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) protocol on a domain to authenticate outbound emails and guide receiving email servers on how to handle messages that fail authentication. DMARC builds on two foundational email authentication standards: Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM).

  • SPF allows domain owners to specify which email servers are authorized to send messages on their behalf.
  • DKIM adds a cryptographic signature to outbound emails. This enables the receiving server to verify that the message hasn’t been modified in transit.

DMARC ties these two standards together by enabling domain owners to publish a DMARC record. This record instructs receiving servers on how to handle emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks and specifies where to send reports on email authentication activity.

Why is DMARC compliance important?

Without DMARC, threat actors can spoof a domain and send fraudulent emails. This opens the door to phishing attacks, malware distribution, and significant damage to a brand’s reputation.

DMARC compliance helps businesses:

  • Protect their domain from impersonation
  • Reduce email-based fraud
  • Improve email deliverability and sender reputation
  • Build trust with customers and partners

How DMARC works: A summary

StepDescription
SPF checkThe receiving server verifies whether the sending IP is authorized in the domain’s SPF record
DKIM checkThe receiving server verifies the DKIM signature to ensure the message’s integrity and authenticity
DMARC policyBased on SPF and DKIM results, the receiver might apply the domain owner’s DMARC policy
ReportingAuthentication results are sent back to the domain owner through aggregate and forensic reports

Benefits of DMARC compliance

DMARC compliance provides multiple benefits that go beyond basic email security. These advantages support not only technical teams but also business operations, brand reputation, and regulatory requirements.

  • Enhanced email security

    DMARC compliance significantly reduces the risk of email spoofing and phishing by ensuring that only messages authenticated via SPF and DKIM are delivered (with the correct policy and settings). This protects employees, customers, and partners from fraudulent emails that could lead to data breaches or financial loss.
  • Improved email deliverability

    Emails that pass DMARC checks are more likely to be trusted and accepted by recipient email servers. This reduces the likelihood of legitimate emails being marked as Spam or rejected. As a result, marketing campaigns and operational communications become more effective.
  • Brand protection and trust

    By blocking attackers from impersonating your company’s domain, DMARC helps maintain brand integrity. Customers and partners can trust that messages from your organization’s domain are authentic, which enhances its reputation.
  • Visibility and control

    DMARC provides detailed reporting on email activity, showing who’s sending emails on your business’s behalf. This visibility enables rapid detection of unauthorized senders, making it easier to respond before threats escalate.
  • Regulatory compliance


    Many regulators require strong email security to meet their standards, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) v4.0 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). DMARC compliance helps support these requirements by securing emails and generating auditable reports.

Start protecting your company’s domain today and gain a better understanding of Sendmarc’s DMARC compliance solution.

Achieving DMARC compliance

Achieving DMARC compliance is a structured process that requires careful planning and ongoing management. The following steps outline how to implement DMARC successfully.

Step 1: Publish a DMARC record

Start by publishing a DMARC record for your organization’s domain. This record includes:

  • The version of the record
  • The DMARC policy (p=), which can be:
    • none: Monitoring only
    • quarantine: Marks suspicious emails as Spam
    • reject: Blocks unauthenticated emails
  • Email addresses to receive aggregate (rua) and forensic (ruf) reports
  • Optional settings, such as subdomain policies (sp) and reporting percentages (pct)

Example DMARC record:

HostTypeValue
_dmarc.yourdomain.comTXTv=DMARC1; p=reject; rua=mailto:[email protected]; fo=1;

Step 2: Start with monitoring (policy: none)

Begin with a p=none policy to collect data without affecting email delivery. This allows your business to gain visibility into which messages are passing or failing authentication before enforcing stricter policies.

Step 3: Analyze DMARC reports

DMARC aggregate reports are XML files, which are generally sent daily by email providers. They include:

  • The number of emails sent
  • The sending domains
  • The authentication statuses
  • Potential issues

Manually reviewing these reports is difficult and time-consuming. Sendmarc automates the entire process – reading, visualizing, and analyzing DMARC data, so your company can easily identify misconfigurations, unauthorized senders, and authentication failures, as well as ensure DMARC compliance.

Step 4: Optimize SPF and DKIM records

  • SPF: Ensure your organization’s SPF record includes all legitimate senders, including third-party providers. Avoid exceeding DNS lookup limits (maximum 10).
  • DKIM: Configure DKIM signing for all outbound emails.

Step 5: Gradually enforce DMARC policies

Once confident that all legitimate emails are properly authenticated:

  1. Transition from none to quarantine
  2. Progress to reject to block unauthenticated messages entirely

This approach ensures the highest level of DMARC compliance and improves domain protection without disrupting business operations.

Step 6: Continuous monitoring and maintenance

DMARC compliance is an ongoing responsibility. As your company adopts new tools and services, its email authentication configuration must evolve. Regularly reviewing DMARC reports ensures:

  • Detection of new unauthorized sources
  • Early identification of security issues
  • Continuous alignment with compliance goals

Use cases for DMARC compliance:

DMARC compliance isn’t just for security teams. It delivers value for:

  • Organizations protecting customer communications: Prevents phishing attacks that impersonate trusted brands
  • E-commerce and financial institutions: Safeguards transactional emails and reduces the risk of fraud
  • Marketing teams: Improves email deliverability and campaign performance through stronger authentication
  • IT and security teams: Provides visibility into unauthorized use of a domain

DMARC compliance FAQs

What is DMARC compliance?

DMARC compliance means that a domain has correctly implemented the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) protocol. This includes publishing a valid DMARC record and enforcing a policy to prevent email spoofing and phishing.

Being DMARC compliant means that all outbound emails from a domain are authenticated using Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM). It also means that the domain has a DMARC policy in place to guide email receivers on how to handle unauthenticated messages.

To get DMARC compliant, a domain owner must follow a step-by-step process:
  • Publish a DMARC record, starting with a p=none monitoring policy
  • Collect and analyze DMARC reports
  • Resolve any issues with SPF and DKIM authentication
  • Gradually update the DMARC policy to quarantine or reject for full enforcement

To know if an email is DMARC compliant, use Sendmarc’s DMARC record checker to verify that a domain has a valid DMARC record in place. The tool confirms whether a DMARC record is correctly published and provides immediate visibility into the current configuration.

If DMARC isn’t enabled on a domain, the domain becomes vulnerable to spoofing and phishing attacks. Without DMARC, receiving email servers don’t have guidance on how to handle unauthenticated emails, which increases the risk of fraud and brand damage.

Try Sendmarc’s DMARC compliance solution

Sign up for a free trial and start securing your business’s domain. Sendmarc’s platform simplifies DMARC compliance by making it easy to check your domain’s authentication status, analyze reports, and enforce policies that protect its emails from spoofing and fraud.