CxLEVER

GTM Glossary · Deliverability

DMARC

The policy that tells receiving servers what to do when a message fails SPF and DKIM, and that reports back on who is sending mail in your name.

[01]What It Means

DMARC ties SPF and DKIM together with two additional ideas: alignment and policy. Alignment requires the authenticated domain to match the domain a reader actually sees, which is what stops convincing forgeries.

The policy has three levels. p=none monitors and enforces nothing, p=quarantine sends failures to spam, and p=reject refuses them outright. Most companies publish none and never move on.

Reports are the underused half. Aggregate reports show every source sending as your domain, including the ones you forgot about and the ones that were never yours.

[02]Why It Matters

DMARC at enforcement is the difference between a domain anyone can impersonate and one that cannot be spoofed. For B2B sellers that is both a security control and a commercial one: procurement and security teams increasingly check it, and a domain at p=none is a finding in their review.

[03]Where It Goes Wrong

Publishing p=none and treating the project as finishedJumping straight to p=reject and blocking your own invoicing systemCollecting reports that nobody ever reads

[04]Related Terms

SPFDKIMBIMI

All glossary terms ➔

Apply This to Your Market.

Moving a domain from no policy to enforcement takes weeks of staged tightening and report review. We run that sequence as part of commercial infrastructure.

Request Strategic Market Audit