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ejscnFlag for United States of America

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SPF Record Creation Assistance

We are looking for advice on a proper SPF record.  Our current record is as follows:
V=spf1 mx ~all

But after doing some research, it seems that we should have a different setup like this:
v=spf1 mx a ip4:xx.xx.xx.xx include:mailchimp.com ?all

Where:
1) ip4:xx.xx.xx.xx = our mail server external address
2) include:mailchimp.com = mailchimp sends marketing emails on our behalf, but through their system, not ours

We have used a few of the online SPF creation tools, but all this seemed to have done is confuse us more.  We want to make sure that our emails are received without issue on other systems, but don't want to open things up too much - especially with the mailchimp service.  Any advice/explanation would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks
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Leon Kammer
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OK, 100% of our staff send through the server itself - either through Outlook or through webaccess.  so with that in mind, would you recommend:
 
v=spf1 mx a ip4:xx.xx.xx.xx/xx include:mailchimp.com -all

Thanks
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Thanks - this is really helpful.  One final (hopefully) follow-up question.  We were recently put on a spam blacklist because (it seems) of the marketing emails send through mailchimp.  Although the email addresses that received the emails signed up to get them, there were between 1500 and 2000 emails sent.  We have since been removed from the spam blacklist after contacting them, but don't want it to happen again.  Coming back full circle, would the "include:mailchimp.com" have any impact on this issue?  As an FYI - mailchimp is send the emails on behalf of information@elizajen.org, so I believe they are appearing to come from our domain.

This reason is one of the mail reasons that we began looking at the current SPF record.  In doing research on the possible causes, we were directed to look at it.

Thanks