Sender addresses and domains

The shared address

Each newsletter can send from an address made from its slug, like hello@your-newsletter.mailcheap.email, with nothing to set up: the records that prove your emails come from you (DKIM, SPF and DMARC) are published for you. Your website lives at the same name, your-newsletter.mailcheap.email.

The address follows your newsletter's slug, so changing the slug changes it. Replies go to your account's email, or to the reply-to address you set in the newsletter's settings. You can keep it as long as you like: the Domains page shows it as used until you switch.

While a newsletter sends from it, the overview and the send step of a campaign show a short note with your next step toward your own domain: add one, finish verifying it, or send from it once it's verified. Close the note and it stays closed for that newsletter until the next step comes. It never stops a send.

Your own domain

Sending from an address at your own domain is optional. It puts your domain in the From address and builds its own reputation with inboxes. On the Domains page, under Add your domain, type the domain and the address's name before the @.

The page then lists the DNS records to add where your domain is managed (your registrar or DNS provider):

1. Signature (DKIM): proves the emails come from you.
2. Return path: bounces come back to a subdomain of yours, so SPF passes for your domain.
3. DMARC: tells inboxes what to do with emails that fail the checks. Gmail and Yahoo require one from bulk senders. Start with p=none, then move to p=quarantine once your reports look clean.

Copy each host and value with its button. If your DNS provider asks for the full name instead of the host, the page shows it. DNS changes can take up to a few hours: click Check to look again, and each record shows when it's found. Once they're all found, the records fold under DNS records, so sending from the domain comes first: click it to see them again.

Switching to your domain

Once the domain is verified, its card on the Domains page lets you send the open newsletter from an address at it. Your next emails go out from that address.

You can also switch from the newsletter's sender settings: pick the domain in the From email field and save. Once a domain is verified, the Domains page shows each newsletter that still sends from the shared address, with an Edit sender button: like the note on the overview, it opens those settings with the domain already picked. Each domain's card lists the newsletters that send from it, with a link to their sender settings.

Once a domain is verified, the Domains page also links to Google Postmaster Tools, where you can see how Gmail rates your domain.

Removing a domain

Removing a domain stops newsletters on it from sending until they move to another address. It's refused while a campaign from it is sending, paused or scheduled. Adding the domain again later needs new DNS records.

Bounces, complaints and how they affect your sending are covered in Bounces, complaints and pauses.