Using a Custom Sending Domain to Help with Email Delivery

Why is a custom Sending Domain recommended?

The BrandChamp system supports sending two types of emails:

1. System notification emails. Examples: password reset requests, emails when a new applicant applies or when an activity is completed, etc
2. One-off emails that you can send to your BrandChamps at any time using a custom email

Sending System Notification Emails

BrandChamp will always send system notification emails from the "notifications@brandchamp.io" email address unless you have configured a custom "from" email for those, in which case the same logic below applies.

Sending Custom Emails

When sending custom emails, you can choose what email to use for the "from" address. Most likely, you'll use your company email. E.g., ambassadors@mycompany.com.

Since BrandChamp sends those emails on your behalf, it may appear that we're attempting to send "spam" emails to some email providers since we've done nothing to prove that we have your permission to send emails on your behalf.

For example, real spammers might send an email with a "from" address of "accounts@paypal.com" even though they clearly don't own the domain.

That's where the "Sender Policy Framework" comes in. It's an email standard that describes how your company can grant permission for another company to send emails on your behalf. It gets a little technical, but it basically means that you must add some DNS records in your hosting provider, which indicates permission is granted.

Luckily, it's very easy to do that in BrandChamp by adding a custom sending domain. Once you add a sending domain, we automatically generate the DNS records you need to add to establish that permission.

Adding a Custom Sending Domain

Go to the Settings page and scroll to the "Emails" section.

In the "Sending Domain" field, enter your company domain only. E.g., if you want to send from alice@yourcompany.com, enter "yourcompany.com"

Click the "Get DNS Settings" button to generate the DNS records you'll need to add to your DNS provider. Note: dummy values are shown below. You'll need to use the real values you see on your own Settings page:

The system generates several DNS records, which you must add to your DNS provider. Until you do, the Sending Domain will be marked as "invalid" and cannot be used. We provide a link which gives a suggested email to send to your IT team.

You must add and then validate those DNS records before the sending domain is valid. See below for details.

How do I add DNS records?

Each hosting provider is different, so you must consult their documentation.

Here are some links for common hosting providers:

• Amazon Web Services
• Bluehost
• Dreamhost
• GoDaddy
• Google Domain
• HostGator
• Namecheap

Validating the DNS Records

Once you've added the DNS records, you can return to the BrandChamp settings page and click the Validate button.

However, the records will likely only validate after 24 or even 48 hours for the records to propagate to the rest of the internet, depending on your hosting provider. Usually, records will be validated within 10 minutes.

Once your DNS records have been validated, the sending domain is marked as valid. Any future emails sent from that email domain by BrandChamp will be fully validated via the "Sender Policy Framework" system and virtually guaranteed to skip the spam filters!

Diagnosing Problems

If you have added all the DNS records, you may have an issue where some records fail to verify.

If all records fail to verify, it's likely that you just need to wait a little longer, but you may see issues with just one or two records as shown below:

In this case, you should double-check that you entered the values correctly in your DNS hosting provider. The expected values are shown in the table and repeated in the error message. 

If you update a DNS record, click Validate again, but don't forget that you may need to wait a little while for its new value to update. If it doesn't validate immediately, try again a little later.

Other Options

If you are sure you have the right values in your provider, another option is to use a third-party tool like this one offered by Google: https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/dig/#CNAME/. It will read from your DNS records and show you the current values.

To check a CNAME record, you need to:

• 1) Enter the full hostname value in the "Name" field. This will be the hostname shown in the table, followed by your domain
• 2) Select the "CNAME" option

Taking the error shown above for the hypothetical "yourcompany.com" domain, an example result is shown below:

If you get a result, check that the value returned (pointed to by the arrow above) matches exactly what is shown in the DNS table in your BrandChamp portal (disregard the period at the end).

TIP: it can be hard to see small differences, so to confirm it matches, we suggest copying the value from the result (e.g., copy "bc2._domainkey.u2000713.wl214.sendgrid.net" in the example above - note: without the period at the end) and then search for that value with CMD/CTRL + F in the BrandChamp admin page. It should find the same text in the table shown.