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SPF Creator

SPF for Email Marketers

Set up SPF for Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Constant Contact, HubSpot, and Brevo. Learn why SPF matters for deliverability and how to combine marketing platforms with your primary email.

Your Marketing Emails Have a 2% Open Rate and SPF Is Part of the Problem

You spent a week crafting the perfect campaign. The subject line is sharp, the content is relevant, the audience is segmented. You hit send through Mailchimp to 10,000 subscribers. Two days later, the open rate is stuck at 2%. Before you blame the copy, check your email authentication. If your domain's SPF record doesn't include your marketing platform, a significant portion of your emails never reach the inbox.

The Email Marketer's SPF Problem

Email marketing platforms send messages from their own servers using your domain name in the "From" address. When a subscriber's email provider receives your campaign, it checks your domain's SPF record to see if that marketing platform is authorized to send on your behalf. No authorization means the message looks suspicious.

Here's why this hits marketers especially hard:

  • Marketing emails are already scrutinized more than personal messages — ISPs apply stricter filtering to bulk sends
  • A single missing SPF include can tank deliverability across your entire subscriber list
  • You likely also send through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 for regular business email, and both need to be in the same SPF record
  • Switching marketing platforms means updating your SPF record, and forgetting to do so breaks authentication immediately

SPF is one of three email authentication standards (alongside DKIM and DMARC) that ISPs use to determine inbox placement. Without SPF, even well-crafted campaigns get filtered before anyone sees them.

How SPF Creator Helps

Marketing platform presets

Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Constant Contact, HubSpot, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) — select your platform and the correct include is added automatically.

Combine with your business email

Your marketing platform needs to coexist with Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or whatever handles your daily email. SPF Creator merges them into one record.

Prevent the duplicate record mistake

Many marketers accidentally create a second SPF record instead of merging. SPF Creator outputs a single, valid record every time.

DNS lookup awareness

Marketing platforms consume DNS lookups from your 10-lookup budget. SPF Creator tracks the count so you know if there's room for additional services.

Monitor your marketing email authentication

Make sure your campaigns always pass SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks. Get daily monitoring alerts.

Start Monitoring

SPF Includes for Marketing Platforms

PlatformSPF IncludeNotes
Mailchimpinclude:servers.mcsv.netCovers all Mailchimp sending
Klaviyoinclude:_spf.klaviyo.comCheck Klaviyo DNS settings for updates
Constant Contactinclude:spf.constantcontact.comStandard across all plans
HubSpotinclude:spf.hubspot.comCovers marketing and sales email
Brevo (Sendinblue)include:spf.sendinblue.comSame include after rebrand
ActiveCampaigninclude:emsd1.comActiveCampaigns sending domain
Campaign Monitorinclude:cmail1.comVerify in Campaign Monitor settings

Marketing platform SPF includes occasionally change, especially after acquisitions or rebrands (like Sendinblue becoming Brevo). Always confirm the current value in your platform's DNS setup guide. SPF Creator's presets are kept current.

Setting Up SPF for Your Marketing Email

1

Check your current SPF record

Before making changes, see what's already there. Use SPF Record Check to look up your existing record. You may already have a record for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 that you need to add to, not replace.

2

Open SPF Creator

Start a new SPF record or import your existing one.

3

Add your corporate email provider

Add Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or whatever handles your team's daily email. This is typically the most important service to include.

4

Add your marketing platform

Select your email marketing service. Mailchimp, Klaviyo, HubSpot — whichever you use for campaigns.

5

Add transactional services if needed

If you also send through SendGrid, Postmark, or another transactional service for order confirmations and notifications, add those too.

6

Check lookups and publish

Verify you're within the 10-lookup limit. Copy the record and update your DNS. A typical setup looks like: v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:servers.mcsv.net ~all

Why SPF Matters for Deliverability

SPF isn't a silver bullet for inbox placement, but it's a required foundation. Here's what happens at each level:

Without SPF

Receiving servers have no way to verify your marketing platform is authorized to send for your domain. Many ISPs will soft-reject or junk-folder these messages by default. You're effectively invisible to a chunk of your list.

With SPF (softfail ~all)

Messages that pass SPF get a positive signal. Messages from unauthorized sources get a softfail, which most ISPs use as a negative factor in spam scoring. This is the recommended starting point.

With SPF (hardfail -all)

Messages from unauthorized sources are rejected outright. Use this only after you've confirmed every legitimate sending source is in your record.

SPF + DKIM + DMARC

SPF alone improves deliverability, but the real gains come when you combine it with DKIM and DMARC. Most marketing platforms support all three. Set up SPF first, then add DKIM for cryptographic signing and a DMARC policy for maximum inbox placement.

Platform Migration Checklist

When you switch marketing platforms, update your SPF immediately:

  1. Add the new platform's include to your SPF record
  2. Remove the old platform's include once migration is complete
  3. Test a campaign from the new platform and verify spf=pass in email headers
  4. Keep the old include for 30 days if you're running platforms in parallel during migration

Pricing

Free

$0

  • Up to 3 items
  • Email alerts
  • Basic support

Pro

$9/month

  • Unlimited items
  • Email + Slack alerts
  • Priority support
  • API access

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Monitor Your New SPF Record

You've created your SPF record — now make sure it keeps working. The Email Deliverability Suite watches your SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and MX records daily and alerts you when something breaks.

Never miss an SPF issue

Monitor your SPF, DKIM, DMARC and MX records daily. Get alerts when something breaks.

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