Summary
ARC (Authenticated Received Chain) enhances email deliverability for DMARC-enforced domains, primarily by preserving authentication results across multiple intermediaries, especially when emails are forwarded through mailing lists or forwarding services. ARC addresses DMARC failures in forwarding scenarios, allowing forwarders to vouch for the authenticity of the original sender. However, ARC's effectiveness relies on widespread deployment, trust relationships between MTAs, and proper configuration of all entities in the email chain. Marketers should focus on implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC correctly, monitoring reports, building a good sender reputation with relevant content, segmenting email lists, and honoring unsubscribe requests. ARC is not a silver bullet and shouldn't be relied upon to fix deliverability problems caused by bad practices.
Key findings
- ARC Improves Forwarding: ARC enhances deliverability by preserving authentication during legitimate email forwarding scenarios, particularly with mailing lists.
- Not a Replacement: ARC is not a replacement for fundamental email authentication practices or a good sender reputation.
- Implementation Required: Proper deployment and configuration of ARC among senders, intermediaries, and receivers are critical for effectiveness.
- Authentication Remains Key: Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC correctly continues to be crucial for deliverability.
- Monitoring Essential: Regularly monitoring DMARC and ARC reports helps identify and address deliverability issues and potential problems.
Key considerations
- ARC is Supplementary: ARC should be seen as a supplementary measure and not a primary solution for deliverability issues.
- Holistic Approach: A holistic approach to email deliverability is required, combining technical configurations with good sending practices.
- Deployment Challenges: Recognize the deployment challenges and the need for coordination across different entities.
- Content and List Management: Focus on sending relevant content, segmenting lists, and honoring unsubscribe requests to maintain a positive reputation.
- Bad Practices: Avoid bad sending practices that could break authentication en route, as ARC is not designed to fix these issues.
What email marketers say
8 marketer opinions
ARC (Authenticated Received Chain) improves email deliverability for DMARC-enforced domains by preserving authentication results across multiple intermediaries, especially when emails are forwarded through mailing lists or forwarding services. However, ARC's effectiveness depends on widespread deployment and trust relationships between MTAs. For marketers, best practices include implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC correctly, monitoring DMARC and ARC reports, ensuring proper configuration of third-party senders, building a good sender reputation, sending relevant content, segmenting email lists, and honoring unsubscribe requests. ARC isn't a silver bullet; focusing on fundamental sender reputation and authentication remains crucial.
Key opinions
- ARC Improves Deliverability: ARC enhances deliverability by allowing legitimate intermediaries to forward emails without breaking DMARC authentication.
- Deployment is Critical: ARC's effectiveness relies on widespread deployment and trust relationships between Mail Transfer Agents (MTAs).
- Authentication Remains Key: Correct implementation of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC remains crucial for maximizing email deliverability.
- Monitoring is Essential: Monitoring DMARC and ARC reports helps identify deliverability issues and ensures proper authentication.
- Sender Reputation Matters: Building a good sender reputation with relevant content is fundamental to email deliverability.
Key considerations
- ARC isn't a Cure-All: ARC is not a magic bullet; it supplements, but does not replace, fundamental email authentication and sender reputation practices.
- Third-Party Senders: Ensure that all third-party senders are properly configured to align with your DMARC policies and ARC implementation.
- List Management: Practice good list management, including segmenting lists and honoring unsubscribe requests, to maintain a positive sender reputation.
- Content Relevance: Focus on sending high-quality, relevant content to avoid spam traps and improve engagement.
- Report Analysis: Regularly analyze DMARC and ARC reports to identify and address any potential issues in the email delivery chain.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that ARC is designed to allow a DMARC protected message to be modified and still be accepted, but it requires deployment on each MTA in the forwarding chain and trust relationships between MTA operators. It is not currently widely deployed enough to guarantee delivery of broken DMARC messages.
5 Jul 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Email marketer from Postmark notes that to maximize deliverability, senders should adopt best practices such as sending relevant content, segmenting email lists, and honoring unsubscribe requests, in addition to implementing authentication methods like ARC, DKIM and SPF.
22 Dec 2023 - Postmark
What the experts say
6 expert opinions
ARC primarily addresses DMARC failures in email forwarding scenarios, particularly with mailing lists, by allowing forwarders to vouch for the authenticity of the original sender. While ARC can improve delivery rates, it's not a solution for bad email practices. Senders must still focus on proper authentication with SPF and DKIM, careful mailstream management, monitoring reports, and avoiding practices that break authentication during transit. The impact of DMARC is minimal if authentication is correct and the email composition is not problematic. Widespread ARC adoption may reduce DMARC failures in junk mail, but sender diligence remains the dominant factor.
Key opinions
- ARC Fixes Forwarding Issues: ARC primarily addresses DMARC failures when emails are forwarded, especially by mailing lists, by allowing forwarders to vouch for authenticity.
- Not a Substitute for Good Practices: ARC is not a replacement for proper email authentication and careful sending practices.
- Authentication is Key: Using SPF and DKIM and ensuring correct email composition minimizes DMARC's negative impact.
- Sender Diligence Dominates: Even with ARC, sender diligence and careful email practices are the primary factors in avoiding DMARC failures.
- Mailing List Benefits: ARC's biggest benefit is allowing messages to survive re-mailing from list servers.
Key considerations
- Monitor Reports: Continuously monitor reports to ensure SPF and DKIM are properly configured and working as expected.
- Mailstream Management: Implement rigorous mailstream management, ensuring emails are syntactically correct and resistant to content rewriting.
- Gradual Ramp-Up: Use a gradual ramp-up strategy when implementing DMARC to identify and address issues before full enforcement.
- Avoid Bad Practices: Do not rely on ARC to fix deliverability problems caused by poor sending practices or broken authentication.
- Authentication Breakage: Recognize there is no magic bullet for broken authentication en route and take steps to mitigate it.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks shares that if you send from a DMARC enforcing domain and your authentication is broken en route, your mail won't get delivered and there's no magic bullet to fix that other than not using DMARC. The DMARC best practices to reduce the fraction of your mail that arrives with broken authentication are monitoring, gradual ramp up, authoritarian mailstream management across the whole enterprise, sending every mail not only in a way that's syntactically correct, but which is robust against semanticless content rewriting.
22 Jun 2021 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Spamresource explains that ARC addresses the problem of DMARC failures when emails are forwarded. It allows forwarders to sign the email with their ARC signature, vouching for the authenticity of the original sender and the legitimacy of the forwarding process.
25 Jan 2024 - Spamresource
What the documentation says
3 technical articles
ARC (Authenticated Received Chain) improves email deliverability for DMARC-enforced domains by preserving authentication results across multiple intermediaries. It acts as a 'seal of approval' that helps receivers make informed decisions by validating the chain of custody of the email. Proper deployment requires that all intermediaries support ARC, correctly validate ARC signatures, and establish a chain of trust among senders, intermediaries, and receivers.
Key findings
- Preserves Authentication: ARC is designed to preserve authentication results across multiple intermediaries, improving deliverability for forwarded emails.
- Validates Chain of Custody: ARC helps receivers make better DMARC decisions by validating the chain of custody of the email.
- Acts as a Seal of Approval: ARC acts as a 'seal of approval', helping mailbox providers make more informed delivery decisions.
Key considerations
- Proper Deployment: Proper deployment involves ensuring all intermediaries support ARC and correctly validate ARC signatures.
- Chain of Trust: Establishing a chain of trust between senders, intermediaries, and receivers is crucial for ARC's effectiveness.
- Coordination Required: Successful ARC implementation requires coordination between senders, intermediaries, and receivers.
Technical article
Documentation from Red Sift explains that ARC acts as a 'seal of approval' for emails, preserving authentication results as they pass through different email systems. This helps mailbox providers make more informed decisions about whether to deliver the email.
23 Jun 2023 - Red Sift
Technical article
Documentation from DMARC.org explains that proper deployment of ARC involves ensuring that all intermediaries in the email chain support ARC and that the ARC signatures are correctly validated. This requires coordination between senders, intermediaries, and receivers to establish a chain of trust.
15 Dec 2023 - DMARC.org
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