Definition
Phishing prevention in email marketing focuses on preventing malicious actors from impersonating your brand to deceive your subscribers. A strong authentication posture not only protects your subscribers but also improves deliverability because ISPs trust authenticated senders.
Key Measures
- SPF: Authorise only your legitimate sending servers to send mail from your domain
- DKIM: Digitally sign your emails so recipients can verify they have not been tampered with
- DMARC enforcement: Set a policy (quarantine or reject) telling ISPs what to do with unauthenticated mail
- BIMI: Display your brand logo next to authenticated emails in supporting inboxes
- Brand monitoring: Watch for lookalike domains and unauthorised use of your brand name
Why It Matters
Your subscribers cannot always distinguish your real emails from a convincing fake. Strong authentication is the only technical measure that prevents impersonation. Without DMARC enforcement, anyone can send email that looks like it comes from your domain.
Related Glossary Terms
AOL Mail for Email Marketers
AOL Mail is a legacy email provider with specific deliverability requirements and rendering quirks, now operating as part of the Yahoo+AOL network under shared infrastructure.
BIMI
BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is an email standard that allows brands to display their logo next to their emails in supported email clients. It requires DMARC enforcement at quarantine or reject policy.
Bounce Rate Threshold
A bounce rate threshold is the percentage of hard or soft bounces at which email platforms and ISPs begin to penalise sender reputation, typically around 2-5%.
Bounce Rate
Email bounce rate is the percentage of emails that were rejected by the receiving server before reaching the recipient. It is a key indicator of list health and data quality.
CAN-SPAM Act
The CAN-SPAM Act is a US law that sets rules for commercial email. It requires accurate subject lines, a physical address, a clear opt-out mechanism, and prompt processing of unsubscribes. Violations can result in penalties up to $51,744 per email.
Consent Expiry (Email Marketing)
Consent expiry is the time period after which a subscriber's permission to send marketing emails legally expires and must be re-obtained, varying by jurisdiction and consent type.