This article helps you get more out of our email marketing tool.
All email providers, like Yahoo and Gmail, use DKIM and SPF records to verify that the sender (so, in this case, you) has permission to use this domain and isn’t a spammer. Domain authentication is a way to verify your sender identity, and so, helps ensure your emails reach inboxes.
On the other hand, custom tracking domains will use your own subdomain in email open and click tracking URLs (instead of Outfunnel's), and can help with email deliverability as the domain in the links will match your sender email address domain.
You can use Outfunnel’s email marketing tool without domain authentication and custom tracking domain, too, but you’ll get better results with this done.
Contents
About domain authentication (DKIM and SPF)
Domain authentication is a part of public email infrastructure. Email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft/Outlook, use DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) authentication to scan incoming emails for spam or spoofed addresses.
Why does this matter?
Having these records in place will improve your email deliverability and sender reputation because email clients will view your domain as being more trustworthy.
Additionally, if you send an email via Outfunnel (or any other email marketing tool for that matter) without having authenticated your domain, it will show a "via..." header next to the from address.
Once you have verified your domain, the "via..." header will no longer be shown on your emails, which makes your emails look better to anyone who opens them.
To set up authentication, you need to change some account settings with your DNS provider. Most commonly, your DNS provider will also be the same as your host (GoDaddy, HostGator, etc.)
About custom tracking domains
By default, Outfunnel tracks email campaign opens and clicks through Outfunnel-controlled domains which are shared among our customers. While this makes it easy to get started with sending campaigns the emails include links to a domain that you don't control.
The solution is to configure a custom tracking domain so that when you send emails from Outfunnel your own domain is used in the tracking links instead of Outfunnel's.
Using custom tracking domains is not mandatory but this will help you build your sender reputation. This in turn can result in better deliverability of your emails and also give your recipients confidence that they are receiving the email from you and not someone pretending to be you.
How to authenticate your domain (DKIM and SPF)
If you don’t have access to your DNS records, please send these instructions to someone on your technical / IT team.
Verify the email address you signed up for Outfunnel with if you haven't already. Your email is verified when you see "Verified" under the Sending status on the Verified Domains page
Open your domain's DNS settings page (see instructions for GoDaddy, Digital Ocean, NameCheap, G Suite.
Set up DKIM and SPF based on the instructions on Verified domains or see below:
- For DKIM, create a new CNAME record foro1._domainkey.yoursite.comwith the valuedkim.outfunnel.com.
- For SPF, check if you already have a TXT record that starts withv=spf1. If yes, simply addinclude:servers.outfunnel.comto your existing SPF TXT record. If no, create a TXT record foryoursite.comwith the valuev=spf1 include:servers.outfunnel.com ?all
Once you've added the records, click on "Verify records" on the Verified domains page in Outfunnel. If everything is correct, you'll see a green
Verifiedtext appear next to DKIM and SPF.
Notes
Please note that it can take up to 24 hours for the changes to be processed by your DNS provider. If you don't see the green
Verifiedtext appear, please check back in 24 hours or reach out to our support team via live chat.Yoursite.comin the examples needs to be replaced with the domain of your site. See Verified domains in Outfunnel for your account-specific settings.If everything is configured correctly your DNS settings should look similar to this (please note that this might vary slightly based on how your DNS settings page looks like):
How to set up a custom tracking domain
If you don’t have access to your DNS records, please send these instructions to
someone on your technical / IT team.
Open your domain's DNS settings page (see instructions for GoDaddy, Digital Ocean, NameCheap, G Suite.
Create a new CNAME record for
of.yoursite.comwith the valuetracking.outfunnel.com.Once you've added the record, click on "Verify records" on the Verified domains page in Outfunnel. If everything is correct, you'll see a green
Verifiedtext appear next to the CNAME record
Troubleshooting
DKIM: Use
o1._domainkeyinstead ofo1._domainkey.yoursite.com. Some admin panels add your domain name to the hostname automatically so you can simply inserto1._domainkeyas the record nameSPF: Only one TXT record per domain that starts with v=spf1. Each domain can only have a single TXT record that starts with
v=spf1. If you have multiple, please combine them into one.SPF: Use @ symbol instead of
yoursite.com. In some cases, you might need to add the @ symbol instead of your site's domain as the record name. In the DNS zone, @ - represents the domain, so it might be sufficient to replace it with the @ sign.
Last but not least, please understand that while authenticating your domain will improve the chance of your emails reaching the intended destination it does not guarantee that every email will reach the recipient's inbox. If you are finding that emails don't arrive in the inbox, we recommend looking at other factors that go into improving your email deliverability