VipeCloud can send email as your own domain in two ways. Inbox Sync sends through your own mailbox provider, and a verified sending domain authorizes VipeCloud's servers to send for your domain. Without one of them, receiving servers can treat your email as spoofed and send it to spam.
Inbox Sync vs Domain Authentication: Which Should You Set Up?
Inbox Sync connects your mailbox (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or IMAP) to VipeCloud, so individual emails send through your own provider and are authenticated by it. Domain authentication adds DNS records that tell receiving servers VipeCloud may send for your domain. Mass email needs it, because mass email sends through VipeCloud's servers.
We recommend setting up both. What each one covers:
Inbox Sync - Emails you send from your email client show in VipeCloud, emails sent from VipeCloud show in your client's Sent folder, and series can cancel or create tasks when a contact replies.
Domain authentication - Mass emails send from VipeCloud's servers as your domain, without your mailbox provider's daily sending limits.
To connect a mailbox, see Setting Up Inbox Sync. Reach out to our support team if you have questions about what's best for your company.
Inbox Sync Default Settings
Once a mailbox is synced, Inbox Sync starts with the settings below.
Default settings:
Email Routing - Individual emails send through your own mailbox and mass emails send through VipeCloud, because mailbox providers limit how many emails you can send per day.
Auto-Activity Logging - When turned on, your emails are logged as activities on the matching contact record.
How to Add a Sending Domain and Confirm Ownership
The Sending Domains page is where you verify a domain you own, so VipeCloud can send from any address on it. It's available on the Enterprise plan to Account Admins. On other plans, reach out to our support team to authenticate your domain.
Open Settings.
Under Account, click Sending Domains.
Enter your domain, such as example.com, in the Domain field under Add a Sending Domain. If you have no domains yet, the field is pre-filled with the domain of your login email.
Click Add domain.
Copy the TXT record shown under step 1, Confirm ownership. Its host is _vipecloud-verify followed by your domain.
At your domain registrar, add a TXT record with the Name / Host and Value shown.
Back on the Sending Domains page, click Verify ownership.
When ownership is confirmed, the Ownership badge changes from pending to verified and step 2 shows the DKIM and SPF records.
How to Set Up DKIM and SPF for Your Sending Domain
After ownership is confirmed, the domain's card on the Sending Domains page moves to step 2, Set up sending (DKIM & SPF), and lists five records.
Records in step 2:
CNAME (three records) - DKIM records at hosts ending in ._domainkey followed by your domain. They let receiving servers confirm your email was signed for your domain.
MX - A record at vipe followed by your domain, with priority 10. This is the custom MAIL FROM subdomain VipeCloud sends from.
TXT - An SPF record at the same vipe subdomain, starting with v=spf1.
At your domain registrar, add each record with the Type, Name / Host, and Value shown on the domain's card.
On the Sending Domains page, click Verify on the domain's card.
The Published column shows a check for each record that's live in DNS and an X for each one that isn't found yet. Once every record is published, AWS can take up to about 45 minutes to confirm them. When setup is complete, the DKIM and SPF badges show verified and the card shows Verified. Verifying a domain also turns on mass email for your account.
How to Add DNS Records at Your Registrar
Your DNS records are usually managed where you bought your domain, such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, or HostGator. Each registrar labels its DNS fields a little differently.
Registrar tips:
Name or Host - Registrars call this field Name, Host, or Hostname. Enter the value from the Name / Host column on the Sending Domains page.
Domain added automatically - Many registrars add your domain to the end of the host. If yours does, enter only the part before your domain, such as _vipecloud-verify or vipe. Otherwise the record ends up at a host like _vipecloud-verify.example.com.example.com.
One record per entry - Add each record as its own DNS entry. Don't paste a value into an existing record on a different host.
Priority - If your registrar has a separate Priority field, enter 10 for the MX record.
Cloudflare - Set the CNAME records to DNS only, not Proxied.
Why Is My Sending Domain Still Pending?
Click Deliverability Check on the domain's card to open a report of each record and whether it's live in DNS. After you fix a record, click Re-check in the report.
Common causes:
Still pending after an hour - Check the Published column. An X means the record isn't live in DNS yet. If every record shows a check, click Verify again, since AWS can take up to about 45 minutes after records go live.
Record added to the wrong host - The registrar often adds your domain to a host that already includes it. Edit the record so its full host matches the Name / Host column.
Existing SPF record - You don't need to change the SPF record on your main domain. A host can have only one SPF record, and VipeCloud's goes on the vipe subdomain, so the two don't conflict.
The MX record - The MX record on the vipe subdomain is expected. It applies only to that subdomain and doesn't change where your regular email is delivered.
If the records still won't verify, reach out to our support team with the domain name and a screenshot of the domain's card.
Key Notes
Sending Domains is available on the Enterprise plan to Account Admins. It isn't available to agency accounts.
You can add more than one sending domain. Each one goes through the same two steps.
If no DMARC record is found, the domain's card shows a warning. Sending still works, but we recommend a DMARC policy. See Mass Emailing Best Practices.
Removing a domain stops any sending addresses on that domain from working.
The Email Settings page shows whether your domain is authorized to send through VipeCloud.