SPF, DKIM and DMARC Verification

Mailbox providers such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo check every incoming email to decide whether it is legitimate or spam. Three DNS records on your domain, called SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, are how they verify that email sent from your Dewy account is really from your practice. Without them, your emails land in spam or get rejected outright. Gmail and Yahoo have required DMARC for bulk senders since 2024.

Setup has three steps:

Add your sending domain in your Dewy account and copy the DNS records
Add those records at your domain host (GoDaddy, Squarespace, Cloudflare, and so on)
Verify

Step 1: Add your sending domain in Dewy

Log in to your Dewy account and open Settings
Select Advanced
Enter your sending domain (the part of your email address after the @, for example brightderm.com) and add it
A window appears listing the DNS records to create. Keep it open.

Step 2: Add the DNS records at your domain host

Log in to wherever your domain is managed and add each record exactly as shown, as the record type shown (usually CNAME or TXT). Instructions for common hosts:

If your website agency or IT provider manages your domain, send them the records from Step 1. They will know what to do.

Step 3: Verify

Back in your Dewy account, click Verify. DNS changes can take up to 24 hours to propagate, so if verification fails right away, try again later in the day.

Common problems

Verify keeps failing after 24 hours. The most common cause is a host that automatically appends your domain to the record name, producing dkim._domainkey.brightderm.com.brightderm.com. Enter only the part before your domain in the name field.
You already have an SPF record. A domain can only have one. Merge the Dewy include into your existing record rather than adding a second one.
Not sure who hosts your domain. Look it up at lookup.icann.org; the registrar is listed there.

If you are stuck, send a screenshot of your DNS records through the help bubble in the bottom right corner of your Dewy account and we will tell you exactly what to change.