This article covers the SPF and DKIM authentication processes for Brevo (ex Sendinblue) 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.

With a dedicated IP, you will configure a dedicated subdomain for Brevo. This can either be hosted on your DNS or the subdomain can be delegated to Brevo.

Step 1: Access the Domains page

To access the Domains page:

1. In Brevo, click on your name at the top-right side of the screen.

2. Select Senders & IP.

3. Click Domains.

Step 2: Generate the DNS records

To generate the DNS records that you will use to authenticate your domain:

1. Click Add a domain.

2. Enter the domain name you wish to use to sign your emails and click Save. In our example, we are using the domain domain.com.

3. The Brevo code and SPF will need to be added to your domain host. The DKIM key needs to be added in Valimail.

4. After you publish the records needed in the DNS and Valimail, click Verify & Authenticate or Authenticate.

5. Once the configuration is complete, a green check appears next to the Value fields for DKIM and SPF records.

You can find the instructions on how to set up a DKIM key in Brevo, here.

IMPORTANT: Brevo has a verification process that checks to see if a customer has correctly published SPF and DKIM records before they will send in an aligned way. This check is only done when Brevo is being onboarded to a domain that is already pointing SPF to Valimail and not when Brevo was already configured as a sender in the customer's DNS before pointing SPF to Valimail. Brevo does a simple text match for their SPF include and is not able to recognize the Valimail Macros. In order to bypass this, the SPF include for Brevo needs to be temporarily added after the Valimail Macro, the record now showing like this:

v=spf1 include:%{i}._ip.%{h}._ehlo.%{d}._spf.vali.email include spf.sendinblue.com ~all

The Brevo include can safely be removed once we make sure that the emails are being DKIM signed and that they have verified their include exists.

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

Once you establish that Brevo 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.