Domain verification for the SendGrid provider

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Marketing

If you use SendGrid for sending marketing emails, you will need to verify your email address and your corporate domain to allow the provider to send emails on your behalf.

If your recipients use MS Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, and other common mailing services, they can see that an email was sent from your provider's server on your behalf (this information is available in the “From” field).

Note. For example, if you are sending emails via SendGrid, the “From” field of the emails may contain the following text: “Your Manager <info@creatio.com> via sendgrid.net”.

The procedure for domain verification for SendGrid consists of several stages:

  1. Add your corporate domain on the Bulk email settings page. Read more >>>

  2. Obtain MX-, SPF-, and DKIM records. Read more >>>

  3. Specify MX-, SPF-, and DKIM records in the DNS area of your domain Read more >>>

Note. Only custom email domains can be verified. Public domains (for example, gmail.com, yahoo.com, etc.) cannot be verified. We do not recommend using public domains for bulk emails. Such emails have a high risk of being marked as spam and ruining the reputation of the sender IP address.

Add your corporate domain on the Bulk email settings page 

SendGrid users need to add their corporate domain to Creatio before starting their emails. To do so:

  1. In the Emails section, select Bulk email settings in the Actions menu (Fig. 1)

    Fig. 1 Opening the bulk email settings page
    scr_section_email_bulk_settings_page.png
  2. On the Bulk email settings page, specify the domain of the necessary email address in the Sender domain area, i.e., “mycompany.com” (Fig. 2).

    Fig. 2 The Sender domains tab
    scr_section_email_sender_domains.png

Get setup keys for your domain 

MX-, SPF- and DKIM records are generated automatically in the Email section once the domain is added to the email settings page. To obtain these records, in the Email section, select Email settings in the Actions menu.

The SPF and DKIM records will be generated automatically in the DKIM/SPF setup instructions area on the Bulk email settings page (Fig. 3) for your specified domain once your email is verified.

Fig. 3 MX/DKIM/SPF keys for the specified domain
scr_section_email_mx_spf_dkim_record_valies_sendgrid.png

Attention. MX-, SPF- and DKIM records of the SendGrid provider are different for different domains.

Add records to the DNS area of your domain 

To verify the mail domain using the SendGrid provider, you need to add the MX, SPF to the DNS area of the mail domain settings, otherwise, the domain reputation and the mail delivery quality are not guaranteed.

Note. We recommend looking into the examples provided in the Recommendations on setting up the popular DNS providers article.

Specify MX record in the DNS area of your domain

MX record is the primary record in the domain zone; it specifies mailing host names of the domain. The email server checks if MX records are available in the DNS zone and whether they match the sender’s IP address. If the data is unavailable or the IP addresses do not match, the remote server is very likely to deny sending and receiving emails.

Unlike SPF and DKIM records, the syntax of MS records includes priorities. Priority is specified as an integer; it indicates the order in which the availability of email servers is checked.  The highest possible priority is “0.” You can add several MS records with equal priority.

An MX record looks like this:

Name

Priority

Type

Value

subdomain.yourdomain.com

0

mx

mx.sendgrid.net.

The subdomain name is unique and is generated by the provider.

Specify SPF record in the DNS area of your domain 

Copy the generated SPF record from the DKIM/SPF setup instructions area on the Bulk email settings page, which will look as follows: The record will look as follows:

Name

Type

Value

subdomain.yourdomain.com

TXT

v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.sendgrid.com ~all

The subdomain name is unique and is generated by the provider. Add a separate record for each subdomain.

Specify DKIM record in the DNS area of your domain 

After the configuration of the SPF record, you need to add DKIM records. For the SendGrid provider, the record should look like this:

Name

Type

Value

m1._domainkey

TXT

k=rsa; t=s; p=XXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the record above, “XXXXXXXXXXXXX” is an individual key for each domain. The key is generated automatically and is available on the Sender domains tab.

Certain DNS settings may require entering the provided subdomain in the “Host / Name” field in the following format: “m1._domainkey.yourdomain.com”

Note. Detailed information about MX, SPF, and DKIM record setup is available in the SendGrid online guide.