Sending Domain
This guide explains how to set up your store domain for sending emails.
Sending emails from your store domain helps improve email deliverability. Once your store domain is set up, emails sent to customers will appear as if they are coming from your store domain, rather than the Retainful domain.
What is a Sending Domain?
A Sending Domain is an essential part of your email strategy, as it helps people recognize and trust your brand. For example, if your company’s domain is example.com, it’s recommended to send emails using example.com instead of relying on a shared domain. If you haven’t configured the Sending Domain in your Retainful dashboard (Settings → Email → Sending Domain), all emails sent from Retainful will appear as though they are signed and sent from Retainful’s shared domain
Setting up your email domain in Retainful
By setting up your email domain in Retainful, you can ensure that all emails are sent from your domain. This removes the "via retainful.net" label and uses "yourdomain.com" in the email details.
Additionally, the email address used to send emails will match your domain. This helps your emails look more professional and not like they’re coming from a shared domain.
NOTE
You can set up the ‘From Name’, ‘From Email Address’, and ‘Reply-To Address’ in your Retainful dashboard by going to:
Settings → Email → Email Properties.
Why You Should Use Your Domain to Send Emails
Customers expect your business to have a domain name and a website.
While free email services like Gmail and Yahoo are fine for personal use, using them for business emails can make people question your professionalism and trustworthiness.
Using your own domain to send emails also helps prevent your emails from being marked as spam. This is because of an email security system called DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance).
Setting up Your Email Sending Domain in Retainful
This section explains how to set up your email-sending domain in Retainful.
Checklist
Generate DNS records
Add the DNS records to your domain host
Verify the DNS records
Step 1: Generating DNS Records
Log in to your Retainful dashboard.
Go to Settings → Email → Sending Domain.
Enter your Subdomain Name and click Add Domain
After clicking Add Domain, you will see a success message with the DNS records
When setting up your domain, you will find three DNS records:
The first two are of TXT type.
The last one is of CNAME type.
Adding DNS Records to Your Domain Host
You can follow these steps to add or edit the DNS records for your domain host:
Log in to your hosting provider account.
Navigate to the DNS Management or Name Server Management section.
Choose the option to add a new DNS record.
Use the DNS records provided by Retainful to add or update the necessary TXT and CNAME records.
Save each record after adding it.
Log in to your hosting provider account.
EXAMPLE
GoDaddy
Hostgator
AWS
Google Domains
Bluehost
Hostinger
Navigate to the DNS Records Page (e.g., Cloudflare).
Go to your domain's DNS records page, often called DNS Management or Name Server Management.
Add a New Record
Select the option to add a new record
Add the TXT Records
Select TXT as the record type.
In the Host field, paste the Host/Name entry copied from the Retainful settings page.
Save the record.
Add the second TXT record by repeating the same process.
Add the CNAME Record:
Select the option to add a new record.
Select CNAME as the record type.
In the Host/Alias/Name field, paste the Host/Name entry copied from the Retainful settings page.
In the Value/Answer/Destination field, paste the Value/Alias To entry copied from Retainful.
Save the record.
That's it! You’ve successfully added the DNS records to your domain host.
Verifying DNS Records
After adding the DNS records, verify if they are set up correctly:
Go to your Retainful dashboard → Settings → Email → Sending Domain.
Click on the Verify Domain button.
Once verified, emails sent through Retainful will include your domain's signature (DKIM) and appear to come directly from your brand.
Same Process for Adding DMARC and MX Records to Your Domain Host
DMARC Records
To ensure your domain is properly authenticated and to improve email deliverability, you need to add the following DMARC records in your DNS/hosting control panel.
Steps to Add DMARC Records:
Log in to your hosting provider account.
Examples of hosting providers: are GoDaddy, HostGator, AWS, Google Domains, Bluehost, and Hostinger.
Go to your domain's DNS records page.
This is often called DNS Management or Name Server Management.
Add a New Record:
Select the option to add a new DNS record.
Choose TXT as the record type.
Enter the Details for the DMARC Record:
Host Name: _dmarc.example.net
Type: TXT
Value: v=DMARC1; p=none;
Save the Record:
Once the DMARC record is added, save the changes.
Verification
Go to your Retainful dashboard → Settings → Email → Sending Domain.
Click on the Verify button to check if the record has been propagated.
MX Records
Adding MX (Mail Exchange) records ensures better email deliverability and allows your emails to be routed correctly.
Steps to Add MX Records:
Log in to your hosting provider account.
Go to your domain's DNS records page.
Add the First MX Record:
Host Name: noreply.example.net
Type: MX
Value: mxa.mailgun.org
Priority: 10
Save the record.
Add the Second MX Record:
Host Name: noreply.example.net
Type: MX
Value: mxb.mailgun.org
Priority: 10
Save the record.
Verification:
Go to your Retainful dashboard → Settings → Email → Sending Domain.
Click on the Verify button to confirm if the MX records are correctly added.
Known Issues
The following are some of the known issues when adding DNS records
WHAT IF THE SENDING DOMAIN TAKES MORE THAN 48 HOURS TO VERIFY?
Host Name handling differs for some DNS providers
Some hosting service providers like GoDaddy, Namecheap, Bluehost, Hover, and Google Domains will ask you to enter only names without the "root domain."
For instance, when you try to add the following TXT record:
Name
Type
Value
send.example.com
TXT
v=spf1 include:spf.retainful.net ~all
The name value contains two parts:
send = this is the subdomain
example.com = This is the root domain
GoDaddy, Namecheap, Bluehost, Hover, and Google Domains will automatically show the root domain. In the above table, "example.com" is the root domain. "send" is the subdomain.
In GoDaddy, Namecheap, Bluehost, Hover, and Google Domains, you should only enter the "Subdomain" value alone. Like this:
Name
Type
Value
send
TXT
v=spf1 include:spf.retainful.net ~all
SPF record already exists / Duplicate SPF records
Sometimes, you might already have a TXT record for the SPF policy for your sending domain. This rarely happens, especially when you try to use a subdomain that already exists.
So when you add the second record, the verification will fail.
For example, there will be 2 TXT records that begin with "v=spf1" for the same "Host Name/Name."
Here is an example:
THE PRESENCE OF DUPLICATE RECORDS WILL CAUSE THE DOMAIN VERIFICATION TO FAIL.
Here is a solution to sort this out:
Login to your hosting provider account
Go to DNS settings
Delete this record: v=spf1 include:spf.retainful.net ~all
Then edit the existing record. For example: v=spf1 include:_spf.yourdomain.com ~all
Append the value of Retainful's TXT record. So it looks like: v=spf1 include:spf.retainful.net include:_spf.yourdomain.com ~all
Save
This should help you verify your DNS successfully.
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