Set up your sending domain

Your email goes out from a domain you own, such as mail.yourbrand.com. To make that work, one thing has to be added to your domain's DNS settings. DNS is the address book of the internet. You change it in the place where you manage your domain, such as Cloudflare, GoDaddy or Namecheap.

You do this during setup, on the Domain step. You can also do it later under Settings → General → Domains or Email & SMS → Reports → Reputation → Domains & warmup.

#Add a domain

1. Go to Settings → General → Domains.

   On screenSettings › General › Domains

2. Press Add a domain (owners and admins only).

3. Type the domain in Where your email comes from, for example mail.yourbrand.com.

4. Press Add it.

It must be your own domain. A domain under an Amino Engine name is refused, because Google counts every subdomain of one name as a single sender against a limit of 5,000 messages a day. Crossing that line is permanent for everybody on it.

#The one record

For most hosts the screen shows a card headed The simple way — one record. It has two lines with the same Name (for example mail.yourbrand.com) and the same Type (NS), and two different Value entries. Each has a copy button, labelled copy name or copy value.

Add both lines at your host. Many hosts let you paste both values into one box. Nothing else about your domain changes. Your website and any email you already have keep working. After this, we publish and maintain the signing keys, the bounce address and the click-tracking address for you, including replacing keys later.

Your From address becomes something like hello@mail.yourbrand.com. Marketing and receipts can use different domains, so a bad campaign cannot slow down your order confirmations.

#Steps by host

The card tells you who runs your DNS, for example "Your DNS is at Cloudflare", and lists the steps. They look like this.

• Cloudflare. Open DNS → Records, press Add record, choose type NS, paste the name and the value, save. Add the second value the same way.
• GoDaddy. My Products → DNS → add a record of type NS. Same name, two values.
• Namecheap. Domain List → Manage → Advanced DNS → Add New Record → NS Record. In the Host box type only the first part. For mail.yourbrand.com type mail.
• Route 53, IONOS, DreamHost, Bluehost, HostGator, Hover, Porkbun, Gandi and others have their own steps on the card. If we cannot tell who your host is, you get general instructions.
• Squarespace and some others do not offer the NS record type. The card says so and shows the six-record list instead. See "Add your DNS records one by one".

#The buttons

• Add it for me appears only where your host supports one-click changes.
• Email this to your web person opens an email already written, with the record in the text. Use it if somebody else manages your DNS.
• Check now looks right away. The pill beside Your one record reads Waiting until we find the record. The status becomes Working, then the page says Ready to send.
• Use the simple way appears if you started on the long path and want the short one.

We also check every 10 minutes on our own. You can close the tab.

#Before it is verified

Nothing can be sent until the domain is verified. Everything else works: build campaigns and flows, import people, design emails. When you try to send, the campaign says Connect a sending address in Settings first.

When the domain verifies, a warm-up starts by itself. See "Why emails land in spam".

#Set your sender details

Go to Settings → Email → Sender information. The card Who your email comes from lists the verified addresses. Under Replies and the footer:

• Where replies go. Someone who presses reply reaches this inbox. A campaign can set its own.
• The address printed at the bottom of every marketing email. The law asks for a real postal address. Without one we refuse to send marketing.

Press Save.

#Change what a domain is for

On Settings → General → Domains the column Used for shows Marketing, Receipts or both. Press Change to set it. If you have two domains, give marketing one and receipts the other.

#If it didn't work

• Still Waiting after an hour. Press Check now. Then check the name in your host. On Namecheap, pasting the whole name creates a record that points at nothing.
• You added only one value. There are two on purpose. Add both.
• No NS option at your host. Use I'll add the records myself.
• You are on Cloudflare and mail seems unsigned. Every email record must be DNS only, the grey cloud.
• You already run mail on mail.yourbrand.com. Do not add the record there, or your staff email stops. Choose another name such as send.yourbrand.com.