Support Center›Setup Checklist›Step 3
Email Services Setup
Make sure your messages reach inboxes
Before you begin
- Estimated time
- 20–30 minutes, plus DNS propagation wait
- Have ready
- Login access to your domain registrar and the sending address you want campaigns to come from.
If you send campaigns before authenticating, your emails will land in spam or be blocked outright by Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo — and recovering a damaged sending reputation takes months.
Why this matters
Done properly
- Emails land in the inbox
- Trusted by major inbox providers
- Full deliverability reporting
- Required for any meaningful sending volume
Skipped or rushed
- Emails routed straight to spam
- Your domain flagged as suspicious
- No protection against someone spoofing you
- Campaigns throttled or blocked
How to set it up
Decide which domain you will send from
A subdomain such as
mail.yourbusiness.comis the safer choice. It keeps your marketing sending reputation separate from your day-to-day business email, so a bad campaign cannot affect your ability to email a client directly.Sending from your root domain also works and is simpler. Choose one and be consistent.
Find your DNS records in the platform
Go to Settings → Email Services → Email Authentication. Your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC values are listed there. Keep this tab open — you will copy from it.
Add your SPF record
In your DNS registrar, add a TXT record at your root domain (
@). Copy the SPF value exactly.If you already have an SPF record, merge the values into it — do not create a second one. A domain may have exactly one SPF record. Two records cause both to fail, which breaks all your email, not just campaigns.
Merging means taking the existing record and adding the new include statement before the closing
~all.Add your DKIM record
Add a CNAME record using the name and value shown in the platform. The name is usually of the form
em._domainkey.DKIM cryptographically signs your mail so recipients can confirm it was not altered in transit. This one is platform-specific — you need it even if you already have DKIM set up elsewhere.
Add your DMARC record
Add a TXT record at
_dmarc.yourdomain.com. Use the value the platform provides.Start with a monitoring-only policy —
p=none. It tells providers to report on failures without rejecting anything, so you can see what is happening before you enforce. Tighten it later once your reports are clean.Verify each record
Return to Settings → Email Services and click Verify next to each record. Each shows a green check when it has propagated.
DNS can take up to 48 hours. If a record does not verify immediately, check back in a few hours rather than re-entering it.
Set your from address
Under Email Services, set the address campaigns will send from — for example
[email protected]. It must use the domain you just authenticated.Set a reply-to address that a human reads. Automated email that bounces replies into a void generates complaints.
Send a real test
Send a test message to an address on a different provider than your own — a personal Gmail if your business email is Outlook, or vice versa.
Emailing yourself at your own domain proves nothing. Your own domain trusts you.
Confirm it arrived in the inbox rather than spam or promotions, and check the sender name and logo look right.
GoDaddy sometimes removes the underscore from record names during entry. If your DKIM will not verify, check that em._domainkey did not become em.domainkey. The same applies to _dmarc.
This is worth repeating because getting it wrong breaks all your email. If a TXT record starting with v=spf1 already exists, edit that record. Never add a second.
Authentication gets you permission to be judged fairly. Reputation is what actually decides placement. Read Email Sending Limits before your first campaign — keep cold sending around 200 a day while you warm up.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | What to check |
|---|---|
| SPF will not verify | Check there is only one SPF TXT record on the domain. If two exist, merge them into one. |
| DKIM will not verify | Check the underscore survived, and that the record type is CNAME rather than TXT. |
| DMARC will not verify | Check the host is _dmarc and not _dmarc.yourdomain.com doubled by the registrar. |
| All records verified but mail still goes to spam | Authentication is necessary, not sufficient. This is a reputation problem — check your list quality, your sending volume, and your content. |
| Test email never arrives at all | Check the from address uses the authenticated domain, and check the recipient's spam folder before assuming it vanished. |
FAQ
I already have an SPF record — do I add another?
No. You can only have one SPF TXT record per domain. Edit the existing record to include the platform's sending servers. Duplicate SPF records break email delivery entirely.
How do I know when my records are verified?
Each record in Settings → Email Services shows a green check. If it has been over 48 hours and one still has not verified, re-check the record type (TXT versus CNAME) and that the host field matches exactly what the platform showed.
Do I need this if I already set up email in another platform?
Yes. Each platform needs its own DKIM record. SPF and DMARC may already exist on your domain — but DKIM must be added for this platform specifically.
Should I send from my root domain or a subdomain?
A subdomain isolates your marketing reputation from your personal business email. If a campaign goes badly, your direct client emails are unaffected. It is the more resilient choice.
What does p=none mean in my DMARC record?
It is monitor-only. Providers report failures to you but still deliver the mail. It lets you see problems before enforcing a policy that could block legitimate email.
✅Done when
- SPF, DKIM, and DMARC all show verified
- Your from address uses the authenticated domain
- A test email reached an inbox on a different provider
- You have read the sending limits page before your first campaign