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Sending domains

A sending domain is the part after the @ in the address you send from, such as mail.harborbooks.example in [email protected]. Wakio sends from it only after you prove it is yours, and every email your account sends goes out from one of your verified domains.

Add a domain

Under Sending domains, an owner or admin adds a domain by typing it in.

The Add a sending domain form, with one field for the domain to send from and an Add domain button
  1. The domain you want to send from, such as mail.yourcompany.com.

Publish your DNS records

After you add a domain, Wakio shows the records to publish at your DNS provider. DNS is the public directory that tells the internet where your domain's mail and website live. Publish the first two, and the third too unless your domain already has a DMARC record, which is a TXT record whose name starts with _dmarc. If it does, keep yours: a domain with two DMARC records gets neither applied, and Wakio does not need its own to mark the domain ready. Wakio checks for the records on its own, and an owner or admin can choose Check now to check right away. Once they check out, the status changes to Ready to send.

The DNS records Wakio asks you to publish for mail.harborbooks.example, each with a copyable name and value
  1. Proves you own the domain.
  2. Signs your mail so inboxes can tell it really came from you (this is DKIM).
  3. Tells inboxes what to do with mail that fails those checks (this is DMARC).
  4. Copies all three at once, as a zone file fragment for providers that can import one.

Verification

A new domain reads Waiting on DNS until Wakio finds your records.

The page for mail.harborbooks.example, with its status reading Waiting on DNS beside the record count
  1. The domain's status, next to how many records it needs and when you added it.

Wakio checks your records on its own until the domain is ready, and keeps checking afterward. DNS changes can take hours to reach everyone, so if the status has not changed yet, wait a while. An owner or admin can choose Check now on the domain's page to check right away.

Once a domain is ready, Wakio keeps it ready through a brief problem looking up your records. If the records that sign your mail are removed for good, its status changes to Setup did not finish and it stops sending until the records are back and the domain checks out again.

When the records check out, the status reads Ready to send, and the page shows how to send from the domain.

The Send from this domain panel for mail.northwind.example, with an example from address, orders@mail.northwind.example, ready to copy

Any address on a verified domain works as a from address. You do not set up each mailbox separately.

"Setup did not finish" can appear on a domain's page in two different places, and each one needs a different fix.

  • As the status, beside the domain name. Wakio cannot confirm the records that sign your mail. The page still lists every record. Compare each one with what your DNS provider shows, fix any that differ, and have an owner or admin choose Check now again. If the status stays the same, email [email protected].
  • In a sentence above the records. Wakio did not finish preparing the domain, so only the record that proves you own it is listed, and the records that sign your mail are missing. Check now cannot help here. An owner or admin chooses Finish setting this up under Actions, and the rest of the records then appear on the page. If that keeps failing, email [email protected].

Good to know

  • A paused domain does not send. Its page reads Paused and shows the reason when one was recorded. Its sending history stays on the page while it is paused. A flow or campaign still sending from it fails each email that comes due meanwhile, and a failed email is not sent again.
  • Campaigns warm up in stages. Your account's campaign sending climbs through stages of 500, 2,500, 10,000, and 50,000 recipients. The next stage opens only once the current one is full and settled: its whole limit has been used, and 90 percent of that mail has reported back, or 2 hours have passed since its last message went out. A stage counts recipients across all your campaigns, so if you send small campaigns, your account can stay in the first stage of 500 recipients for a while. If too many messages in a stage bounce or draw complaints, campaign sending holds instead. After the last stage, campaigns send with no stage limit. The warm-up reaches flows too: no flow email goes out while it is held, and the current stage caps how many people one bulk add can start in a flow. It does not apply to the email your app sends through the API. Campaigns explains how a send moves through the stages.
  • Removing a domain stops every send from it, and its delivery history is kept. Owners and admins remove a domain. Nothing moves to another domain: a flow or campaign still sending from it fails each email that comes due, and a failed email is not sent again. Pause those flows first. Flows explains what a flow does when its domain goes away.