Difference Between a Tactic Email and a Standard Email?

Unlike a standard email that you might send directly from your inbox, a tactic email is part of a marketing campaign and is sent through a platform like StructuredWeb to a list of recipients. The key difference is that a tactic email is designed to appear as though it's coming directly from you (or the user managing the campaign), but it's actually being sent by the StructuredWeb system on your behalf.

Common Issues When Sending Tactic Emails

One of the main challenges with tactic emails is ensuring they still look like they’re coming directly from you, even though StructuredWeb is sending them. Modern email systems are designed to prevent spam or impersonation, so they need proof that the sender is who they claim to be.

For example, if you send an email from johndoe@domain1.com, the email provider receiving that message needs proof that it’s really coming from you. Without this verification, the email might be flagged as spam or blocked entirely.

One of the key ways this is handled is through something called DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance), which includes a DKIM signature. This is a way for email systems to confirm that the email being sent is legitimate and authorized by your domain.

Here’s how it works: If a tool like SendGrid sends an email on your behalf, it needs to generate a special signature key that gets added to your domain’s public record. When the email is sent, the system receiving it checks this signature against the public record to make sure it’s valid.

The tricky part is that this process has to be done manually for each domain, and most users aren’t familiar with updating domain settings. As a result, some emails may be dropped or sent to spam, especially if the user’s domain has a strict DMARC policy in place.

This is a common problem for many platforms that send emails on behalf of their users.

Example of a DMARC Issue

Here’s an example where an email campaign owner used a domain with DMARC protection, and the email ended up in the spam folder. StructuredWeb sent the email, but because the user’s email address was listed as the sender, the DMARC check failed.

How to check if your domain is DMARC-enabled

1. Open DMARC Record Checker in any browser.
2. In the Inspect The Domain text field, enter your email domain. (ex. Structuredweb.com ) 
3. Click Inspect the Domain.

If your email domain is protected by DMARC, you'll receive a message alerting you that your DMARC record if valid. Review details in the green box. Note the following conditions:

• When the DMARC policy is set to p=reject, it indicates that emails will not be delivered to inboxes that do not meet DMARC security requirements.
• When the DMARC policy is to p=none, it means that emails will be delivered, but with reduced confidence in their authenticity.

In this example the DMARC policy is set to p=reject.

If the email domain you are using to send email campaigns from the StructuredWeb platform has DMARC enabled, please reach out to StructuredWeb Support. Our team can provide instructions to update your domain information (DNS records) in order to enable DMARC with StructuredWeb as the sender.

How StructuredWeb Solves the Problem

To make sure your emails get delivered, StructuredWeb handles part of the email sending process for you. We split the email information into two parts:

• Sender Domain: This is managed by us.
• Reply-To Address: This is your email address.

Our Sender Domain Solution

StructuredWeb uses its own domains to send your emails, so they pass all the necessary security checks, including DMARC and DKIM. The email will come from an address that looks like:

Firstname.Lastname@<companyname>.structuredwebdomain.com

Here’s what this means:

• Firstname Lastname" is your name, as the owner of the tactic.
• "Companyname" is the name of your business or account.
• "structuredwebdomain.com" is a domain owned by StructuredWeb, and we make sure all the required security signatures are in place to keep things running smoothly.

By doing this, we make sure the emails you send are authenticated and less likely to be marked as spam.

Your Reply-To Address

The "reply-to" address will still be your own email, either from your profile or the one you’ve set in your tactic. This way, if someone replies to your email, the response will come directly to you. However, your "From" address includes the StructuredWeb domain: swsend.com. This domain is part of our infrastructure and is designed to handle email sending in a way that complies with DMARC and DKIM protocols.

Example of How This Looks to Recipients

Here’s an example of how this will appear to the people receiving your emails: