How to Add DNS Records for Email Sender Verification

William Harper Updated by William Harper

Overview

Friendbuy requires setting up DNS records to ensure that we can deliver email on behalf of your domain. These records prevent email servers from rejecting the messages or treating them as spam. They are necessary for the success of your referral program to ensure high email deliverability. Follow the steps below to add email authentication.

Note: By default, we use Sendgrid as our email servie provider, however, we are able to support other email sender options to comply with GDPR/HIPAA. Please contact our team to learn more.

Step 1 

Navigate to Settings > Email Sender in the Friendbuy platform, and ensure the requested fields are saved. The From Address will determine what email address the referral program emails will be sent from.

Once done, click Save Changes.

Step 2

You will need to add a TXT record for the domain/subdomain you provided for your From Address. Email servers will look at SPF records to see what email servers are allowed to send emails on behalf of the domain, which is extremely important to ensure proper email deliverability. In this case, we are authorizing SendGrid to send emails for your domain. The following SPF record is required to send emails:

Note: You can only have one SPF record. Therefore, if you already have an SPF record, you will need to add sendgrid.net to it. You can see if you already have an SPF value by using https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx and choosing the dropdown for SPF Record Lookup, and search using your domain/subdomain.

You can have multiple "include" lines within your SPF record without issue. After adding SendGrid to the SPF record, it should look something like the example below:

v=spf1 include: _spf.google.com include:sendgrid.net ~all

Step 3

Now that the SPF record has been added/updated, it's time to add a DKIM record. DKIM records use private/public keys to verify the authenticity of the email being sent.

You will need to add the following record, replacing 'YOURDOMAIN' with your sending email domain. This can be found in the Friendbuy platform under Settings > Email Sender > Email Domain Verification.

Name

Value

Type

smtpapi._domainkey.YOURDOMAIN

k=rsa; t=s; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQDPtW5iwpXVPiH5FzJ7Nrl8USzuY9zqqzjE0D1r04xDN6qwziDnmgcFNNfMewVKN2D1O+2J9N14hRprzByFwfQW76yojh54Xu3uSbQ3JP0A7k8o8GutRF8zbFUA8n0ZH2y0cIEjMliXY4W4LwPA7m4q0ObmvSjhd63O9d8z1XkUBwIDAQAB

TXT

Step 4

We now have one last record to add, being the Verification Record! Friendbuy uses this verification record when sending emails through SendGrid on your behalf.

Navigate to Settings > Email Sender > Email Domain Verification to find your unique record that needs to be added. Here is an example one shown below:

Name

Value

Type

MerchantID.YOURDOMAIN

MerchantID.YOURDOMAIN

TXT

From the example above, if 'YOURDOMAIN' is equal to testmerchant.com and your MerchantID is equal to 1234567890, then your record should look like the below:

Name

Value

Type

1234567890.testmerchant.com

1234567890.testmerchant.com

TXT

You're now all set for the Email Authentication using DNS records! Below are some helpful links on different ways you can manager your DNS records based on what DNS manager you may be using.

DNS records can be updated wherever you register or manage your domain names. The process of adding DNS records can depend on what domain provider you are using. Here are links to help documentation for common providers:

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