What’s in a Name? How to use Domains to your Advantage

3 minute read

Upland Admin

What’s in a name?

Standing out from the crowd can be tricky when so many businesses are increasing their use of email marketing. So why not make it even easier for your emails to go straight to your subscribers’ inbox and ensure your messages are heard?

We initially use a sub-domain of MessageFocus (msgfocus) within emails but this can be customised to be a sub-domain of your website or brand domain instead. Sending from your own domain can ultimately improve deliverability and increase your ROI.

Why do I need one?

By using custom domains in your email marketing you can ensure your brand identity is consistent and recognisable. It has the advantages of building user trust as the email is coming from a recognisable, safe sender and reduces the risk of ending up in a junk folder.

How does it work?

There are two possible ways to use custom domains in your email marketing:

“¢             Authenticated domains – for using a personalised from address

“¢             Delegated domains – allow a custom domain to form the links in your emails

To use an authenticated domain to make your from address appear more friendly, you need to set up an SPF record and assign it to the specified domain. If you’re not sure about the how-tos of this, it’s something your IT team will be able to help with. This has the ultimate advantage of making your from address appear less “˜spammy’ and more personalised as it removes the tracking string before the @ sign.

For example, using Adestra as the brand, a from address without an authenticated domain might look like this:

But it could look like this with an authenticated domain:

delegated domain can also be used to make image and link URLs more consistent across your email campaigns. MessageFocus allows you to use your own domains for hosting links and images in your campaigns. This creates additional opportunities for branding and increases user trust as recipients can verify where the email has come from.

As your email campaigns are sent via the MessageFocus sub-domain, the links may look like this when they reach the recipients’ inbox:

By adding a CNAME record to your domain which creates a delegated domain, the links in your email campaigns would instead appear like this:

These little tricks can go a long way to improving deliverability as strict firewalls will be less likely to block or red-flag your campaigns before they hit the recipient’s inbox. Building your sender reputation and increasing brand awareness are added bonuses too.

Your Account Manager will be available to discuss further dos and don’ts of domains and make sure they work for you. Or you can contact clients@adestra.com for more information. Until next time!

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