Act now to comply with the new domain authentication requirements and safeguard your emails from any potential risks. Don't delay - take immediate action today to ensure the security of your communications.
Beginning on March 15, 2024, Mandrill, our trusted email delivery service within Flybook, will be implementing new requirements for domain authentication. You must take immediate action on these authentication requirements, as they differ from any previous verification process you may have undergone to validate your domain with Flybook.
Why is this happening?
Google and Yahoo recently announced new sending requirements that will take effect in February 2024. To comply with these new requirements, users are required to update their DKIM records and enact a DMARC policy on any sending domain that might be used. (Don't let the acronyms scare you, this is a simple process for whoever manages your website - even if it's YOU!)
What is the impact?
Impact on your Flybook account
While DKIM and DMARC are not strictly required to send emails via Flybook, you cannot send emails with your domain in the From Address (e.g., employee@example.com) until you connect that domain to Flybook by setting up DKIM and DMARC. This will also increase email deliverability for that domain.
Domains not authenticated as email-sending domains in your account will be modified to a Flybook-hosted domain, sending From: donotreply@flybookreservations.com.
Impact on email performance
Most inbox service providers prefer emails authenticated by DKIM. Emails sent without DKIM authentication are more likely to bounce, quarantine, or be categorized as spam. Some inbox providers, such as Google and Yahoo, will be requiring DMARC and DKIM to be fully set up on any domain sending bulk emails to their users. If you don't meet these requirements, emails from your domain will be rejected (not sent).
PLEASE NOTE: Flybook will take necessary measures to prevent any account emails from being rejected and, in turn, any domain that is not authenticated will be modified to a Flybook-hosted domain for enhanced security and reliability. Additionally, the sending address will be altered to the Flybook-hosted domain from-address (donotreply@flybookreservations.com).
What do I need to do?
If you have a dedicated person or agency managing your website, please share this link with them. This process is straightforward and widely recognized in the web development industry. If you are a website manager and have limited experience in this area, don't worry - we have provided a range of helpful articles below from top hosting registrars. Our advisory team is also available to assist you with any issues you may encounter.
Steps To Authenticate:
- Log in to your domain host (ex: GoDaddy, Bluehost, Hostinger, HostGator, etc) and edit the following settings:
DKIM
Create two (2) CNAME records:
- One with the name mte1._domainkey.yourdomain.com (replace “yourdomain.com” with the domain name of your business) and with the value dkim1.mandrillapp.com,
- Another with the name mte2._domainkey.yourdomain.com (again replace “yourdomain.com” with the domain name of your business) and the value dkim2.mandrillapp.com
DMARC
Create and save a TXT record in your DNS with the name of _dmarc.yourdomain.com (replace “yourdomain.com” with the domain name of your business) and a value of v=DMARC1; p=none;
For the domain name edit please make sure to only include the domain itself (ex: the domain for advisors@theflybook.com would be theflybook.com
Additional Help Resources
If you are unsure about how to make these changes, your domain host will provide step-by-step instructions on how to do so. To make things easier for you, we have included helpful articles from well-known domain registrars.
**If you use Squarespace, you should not include your domain name when creating the DKIM and DMARC records as Squarespace automatically adds the domain name to the end of of what you enter. So for example, instead of the first CNAME record being mte1._domainkey.yourdomain.com you would enter mte1._domainkey instead. This would be true for the second CNAME record as well as the DMARC settings too.