This article covers the SPF and DKIM authentication processes for Alchemer (ex SurveyGizmo) and how they are managed in Valimail. While only one of the two authentication methods is required for an email to pass DMARC, our recommendation is to configure both whenever possible.

Note: In order to configure your DKIM and SPF records, you will need to be an Alchemer Account Administrator.

To begin your DKIM configuration within Alchemer, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your account integrations page via Integrations -> Data connectors on the left hand navigation menu.

2. Scroll to the bottom-half of the Integrations page and click the Configure button next to the Custom Email Settings option.

3. Provide an Integration Name. This is the internal title that will be used to identify this integration in Email Actions and Email Campaigns. It is important to make this name something meaningful like DKIM & SPF for alchemer.com.

4. (Optional) Determine whether you want this integration to serve as the default for any Email Actions and Email Campaigns that are created going forward.

The option to Use this integration as the default for all new email invitations and email actions will be automatically selected. Un-check the option if needed.

5. Select Send emails using Alchemer's servers (Setup SPF and DKIM). This will expose additional fields for configuring this integration.

6. Within the From Address section, provide your Domain Name and Default From Address.​

7. Under DKIM Settings you will need to generate your public key. This public key will then need to be added to Valimail Enforce.

8. Click Generate DKIM to generate your public key.

9. A DKIM selector (the DNS domain name for the public key) as well as the DNS Public Key will be generated:.

10. Add the newly created DKIM key in Valimail.

11. After the key has been added in Valimail, go back in Alchemer, click the Save button to finish setup.

Note: You will notice that both your SPF and DKIM Settings are not validated during setup. We will attempt to validate your settings when you Save your integration. We perform this validation by sending a test email (to one of our servers) and reviewing the email headers of that test email.

Your DKIM & SPF Records will need to be verified before you can start using them in email sends. On the main Integrations page, look for the green check-mark under the Verified column.

You can find the instructions on how to set up DKIM for Alchemer here.

You can find more detailed information on how to add a DKIM key in Valimail, here:

Once you establish that Alchemer is an authorized sender for your domain, you will need to add the service in your Enabled Senders.

You will find more detailed information on how to add a service for your domain in Valimail, here:

Note: We encourage you to use the comment section for any useful information about your sending service, such as the name of the service owner, change request ticket numbers, etc.

In theory, Alchemer should send SPF aligned emails once it has been configured to do so.

However, you may notice that Alchemer emails are not authenticated via SPF, even after you have added Alchemer to your domain's configuration. This is likely caused by Alchemer not sending SPF aligned-mail and can be corrected by making sure SPF alignment if turned on in Alchemer for your domain.

You can find more information about SPF setup here.