Which DMARC policy should a new cold email domain use?
p=none, with a reports address. It changes nothing about delivery, it satisfies the DMARC requirement Google and Yahoo set for bulk senders, and the reports show you whether SPF and DKIM pass before you ask receivers to act on failures. Our DMARC policy guide covers when to move to quarantine and reject.
Why is there no pct tag in this cold email DMARC record?
The current DMARC standard, RFC 9989 (May 2026), removed pct. Receivers now ignore it. Its job, rolling a policy out gently, is covered by t=y, which publishes a quarantine or reject policy while asking receivers not to apply it yet. Older records with pct still parse, but a new record does not need it.
What do the reports from a cold email DMARC record show?
Aggregate reports arrive daily from the large mailbox providers. Each lists the servers that sent mail as your domain, how many messages, and whether SPF and DKIM passed and aligned. They are XML files, so most people read them through a free parser. Our guide to reading DMARC reports walks through one line by line.
Can cold email DMARC reports go to a different domain?
Yes, but the receiving domain has to agree. It publishes a small TXT record at yourdomain._report._dmarc.theirdomain; without it, receivers will not send the reports. Report services set this up for you. If you run many sending domains, pointing them all at one inbox you own is simpler.
Where do I put the DMARC record for a cold email domain?
Add a TXT record with the host _dmarc in your DNS provider. If email already fails DMARC after publishing, our guide to fixing DMARC fail goes through each cause. Then run the domain checker to confirm the record resolves.