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Add a sending domain

Until you set up your own sending domains, SmartMailing sends your email from [email protected]. That works for testing, but real campaigns should come from your own domain: it looks right to your subscribers and it builds a reputation you own. You manage this in Domains → Sending Domains in the top navigation.

Two subdomains per brand​

Each brand sends from two verified subdomains, one per sending stream:

  • Promotional: campaigns, newsletters, broadcasts. For example mail.yourdomain.com.
  • Transactional: double opt-in confirmations, password resets, order confirmations. For example send.yourdomain.com.

The two streams are kept separate on purpose. Reputation is isolated per subdomain, so a promotional campaign that lands badly cannot drag down the delivery of your transactional email, and vice versa. The two streams must use different subdomains; the form will not accept the same domain for both.

Always use a subdomain, never your root domain. If you enter something like [email protected], the form warns you: a problem on a sending domain should never be able to hurt your regular business email at the root domain. The form also warns you if the address you enter does not belong to your brand's own domain.

Set up your domains​

  1. Open Domains → Sending Domains and pick the brand with the brand switcher.
  2. Enter a full from address for each stream, for example [email protected] for promotional and [email protected] for transactional. The part before the @ becomes the visible sender address on your emails. You can fill in one or both; each field is optional.
  3. Click Add both (or Add if you filled in only one stream).
  4. SmartMailing generates the DNS records each stream needs: three CNAME records for DKIM signing and one TXT record for SPF, per subdomain.
  5. Log into your DNS provider (Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Hostinger, and so on) and open the DNS settings for your domain.
  6. Add each record from the table: copy the Name and Value with the copy buttons and choose the matching Type.
  7. Save, wait about 5 minutes, then click Refresh at the top of the card to re-check DNS for both streams.
warning

If your DNS is on Cloudflare, set the Proxy status of each record to DNS only (the grey cloud). Proxied records will not verify.

Verification status​

Each stream shows a status badge:

  • Pending: records were generated but DNS has not verified yet. The table shows the per-record status, so you can see which records are still outstanding.
  • Verified: the records are live and the stream can send. Keep the records in place; removing them breaks sending.
  • Failed: verification did not succeed. Double-check the records at your DNS provider and click Refresh.
  • Not configured: this stream has no subdomain yet. Use the inline field to add one.

Once the promotional stream verifies, a Domain warm-up card appears under it. New domains ramp up their daily volume automatically; see Domain warm-up.

Adding a missing stream later​

You do not have to set up both streams at once. If only one is configured, the other stream's section shows an input where you can add it at any time with Add.

Removing your domains​

Remove deletes both sending domains for the brand after a confirmation. Future emails fall back to [email protected], and you can then delete the DNS records at your registrar. This cannot be undone, though you can always set the domains up again from scratch.