Sending domain and DNS
Which domain to send from, the DNS records to add, and the warm-up of a new domain.
Every Zeebra email comes from your own domain, signed so inboxes know it really is you. You add a few DNS records once, at the company that runs your domain's DNS (Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Route 53…).
Use a subdomain
Send campaigns from a subdomain such as news.yourcompany.com, not from yourcompany.com itself. If a campaign ever gets complaints, the damage stays on the subdomain, and your everyday email (invoices, sign-in codes, your team's inboxes) is not affected.
Add the domain
- Open Settings → Email sending and add the domain.
- Zeebra shows the records to add. Copy each one exactly.
- Click Check again once they are in. DNS changes can take up to an hour to show.
When the domain's DNS provider supports it, a Set up automatically button adds the records for you after you sign in to the provider.
The records
| Purpose | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| DKIM (3 records) | CNAME | Signs every email, so inboxes can check it came from you and wasn't changed. |
| Bounces (MAIL FROM) | MX | Bounces come back to Amazon SES at bounce.<your domain>, so Zeebra can stop emailing addresses that don't work. |
| SPF (MAIL FROM) | TXT | Says Amazon SES may send for bounce.<your domain>. |
| DMARC | TXT | Tells inboxes what to do with email that fails the checks, and where to send reports. Start with p=none. |
The domain is verified once DKIM and MAIL FROM pass. A DMARC record is strongly recommended: Gmail and Yahoo expect one from bulk senders.
No domain yet? Your Zeebra address
Until your own domain is ready, you can send from an address of your own on Zeebra's shared domain: hello@<your-name>.<shared domain>. On Settings → Email sending, pick the name (letters, numbers and dashes; some names like www or mail are kept for Zeebra) and click Set it up. Zeebra adds the DNS records itself; it's usually ready in a few minutes, and the page shows if something went wrong, with Try again.
- It's a subdomain just for your workspace, with its own signature (DKIM) and its own reputation: another workspace's problems never affect it.
- Replies go to the workspace owner, and the daily limit is low (20 emails on the first day, growing to 200 a day, and it stays there). Add your own domain to send more.
- Your published campaigns are on the web at
<your-name>.<shared domain>too. - Owners can change the name. A new address is set up from scratch: the current one keeps sending until the new one is ready, then stops working.
Once your own domain is verified, send from it instead: the shared address is no longer offered.
Senders
A sender is who the email is from: a name, an address on a verified domain (hello@news.yourcompany.com) and, if you like, a reply-to address where answers should go. One sender is the default for new campaigns.
Warm-up
Mailbox providers distrust a domain that suddenly sends a lot. So a new domain has a daily cap that grows each day from its first campaign email:
| Day | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emails | 50 | 100 | 250 | 500 | 1,000 | 2,500 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 20,000 | 35,000 | 50,000 | 75,000 | 100,000 |
Emails over the day's cap simply wait for the next day. After day 13 there is no cap.
Once all of a verified domain's records are found, its card folds them under one DNS records line; click it to see them again. If your default sender still uses Zeebra's shared address, a card offers to switch it to your verified domain.
Your public pages on your own domain
The campaigns you publish on the web are listed on your public pages. On the Email sending page, under Public pages, you can put them on a subdomain of your own, like news.yourcompany.com. Add the two records shown: a CNAME that points the subdomain at Zeebra, and a TXT record that proves the domain is yours (so nobody else can claim it with an old CNAME). Click Check now: it goes live once both are found. One domain at a time; if you remove a live one, its links redirect to your public pages on Zeebra. Tracked and unsubscribe links in your emails stay on Zeebra's own domain.
Test it
On the Email sending page, send a test email to yourself. If it lands in spam, check that every record shows as in place.