Emails can be sent to your clients directly from Inform Direct, to enable this you can choose to authenticate your domain.
For further details on setting up user email addresses and the options available if you do not wish to authenticate your domain, please see our guide: How to set up sender email addresses
Note: If you are not familiar with your DNS, please speak to your IT team who can assist with the below process.
To authenticate your domain you will need the following:
- Your domain name (e.g. xyzaccounting.com)
- Access to your domain's DNS records with the ability to create a TXT and a CNAME record
- If you do not know what this is, or you do not have access, you'll need to seek out a person who has this access. This will be the person that created your domain, or maintains it, or your IT team.
You will then need to take the following steps:
- Enter your domain details in Inform Direct
- Update your domain's 'Domain Name System (DNS)' records with the information provided unique to the domain you entered
- Wait for this change to take affect (can be up to 48 hours)
Step 1 - Enter your domain details
On clicking continue you'll be presented with the details of the DNS records that need to be created.
Step 2 - Create the DNS records
If you have access to the domain's DNS records, then do these yourself, otherwise send the information (using the 'Copy all' button) and send this to the person in your organisation that can do this.
You/They will need to create two new DNS records. These records will enable the recipient's email server to validate that the email is really being received from your email address (rather than someone trying to imitate your email address).
The first record is a DNS record of type TXT. This is the main record used to achieve DKIM authentication (which is explained well by postmark, our email provider, here - https://postmarkapp.com/guides/dkim).
The second record is a CNAME record, specifically for handling email bounces (i.e. when an email attempts to be sent but bounces, usually due to the address of the recipient not existing.
Once these 2 records are in place you need to wait for them to take effect
Please note:The DKIM hostname for the TXT record does not contact the domain by default, some DNS record management systems automatically add this which could duplicate the ending.
For example, we advise you to enter "20231204211764pm._domainkey" as the Hostname, once saved it should show as "20231204211764pm._domainkey.exampledomain.com" If this is missing the DNS change will not work.
If you require support send a screenshot of the records you have input to support@informdirect.co.uk and we will be happy to help!
Step 3 - Wait for the changes to take effect
Once the changes have taken effect (can take up to 48 hours) you will be able to see the domain as 'authenticated' in Inform Direct.
Here are a few examples of how this is done in some commonly used DNS management software:
Cloudflare
Log in to your Cloudflare account and select your domain
From the left menu select 'DNS'
Select 'Add record'
Enter the details of the TXT DNS record required and select 'Save'
Select 'Add record again' and this time enter the details of the CNAME DNS record required, turning the 'proxy' off on this record, and select 'Save'
The changes are now complete, but it can take up to 48 hours for these changes to take effect.
123 Reg
Log in to your 123 Reg account, expand 'Domain names' , choose your domain and select 'Manage'
In 'advanced domain settings, select 'Manage DNS'
Select the 'Advanced DNS' tab and then enter the details of the TXT DNS record required, select 'Add +' and then add the details of the CNAME DNS record required and select 'Add +'
The changes are now complete, but it can take up to 48 hours for these changes to take effect.