Scenario 2 – Authentication and domain alignment (without domain delegation)

Scenario 2 differs from scenario 1 in the type of DNS entries. You use CNAME and TXT entries here. In practical terms this means that in the long run, you are responsible for maintaining and, if necessary, updating your DNS entries (= no domain delegation).

There is no difference between scenario 1 and 2 with regard to the impact on your deliverability. You are in a good position with regard to your deliverability with both scenarios.

  1. In this scenario you have the assurance that all email authentication technologies are included: SPF, DKIM and DMARC. This domain is therefore protected against external misuse by cybercriminals.
    Prerequisite: The receiving mail server or spam filter interprets DMARC.

  2. A matching sender and bounce domain (‘domain alignment’) is rated by many email service providers as a positive characteristic when classifying emails. This way, you can avoid unwanted spam classifications.

  3. In addition to the sender and bounced domain ("Domain Alignment"), the mailing links also point to the same domain (= "Full Domain Alignment"). This means that you can design your newsletter campaigns to continuously have the same domain and achieve a consistent brand identity.

  4. Authenticating your sender domain eliminates the need to display the Inxmail sender domain , as happens in the Outlook, Hotmail or Gmail email clients, for example.

Disadvantage compared to scenario 3: What is not possible in this scenario:

  • You cannot use your main domain as the sending domain but have to create your own subdomain for sending in Inxmail Professional.
  • You cannot use the subdomain used here outside of Inxmail Professional for other purposes.

Switch to scenario 3 if any of these cases are relevant to you.

Do not start authenticating your domain in the Brand Identity Protection agent until:

For the setup process outside of the Brand Identity Protection agent see : Optimal deliverability – step by step.

Step by step

  1. Launch the Brand Identity Protection agent.

  2. Select the Optimal deliverability option and make sure the Delegate domain to Inxmail check box is not enabled.

  3. In the Your domain input field, enter the subdomain that you want to use as the sender and bounce domain in Inxmail Professional.

    Before you can use the subdomain in Inxmail Professional, you need to set up the subdomain with your domain host (see Step 2: Set up the new subdomain with your domain host).

    An Internet address (or URL) consists of the following:

     

    A URL can have a subdomain, but it does not necessarily need one.

    • Main domain: example.com

    • Subdomain: subdomain.example.com

    For technical and performance reasons, you can use a maximum of 50 domains per XPRO client (as a sending domain or as a redirect URL). Contact us if the maximum number is not sufficient for you.

    The subdomain you define in the Brand Identity Protection agent will not become active until you define the subdomain in the list settings.

     

  4. Specify an email address for forwarding replies. This can be a mailbox on your main domain, such as reply@example.com. All replies to your mailings will be sent to this forwarding address (after you have stored your subdomain in the list settings). You must set up a mailbox of the same name with your domain host or email service provider if the forwarding address does not yet exist.

    The forwarding address cannot be on the subdomain you are in the process of authenticating.

    Test your forwarding address: Verify that forwarding to your forwarding address actually works.

    Get in touch with your Inxmail contact person or . The deliverability of the original e-mail is not affected by this.

    By using the Brand Identity Protection agent, you transfer the management of your subdomain to Inxmail. This means that you can (no longer) manage all email addresses that are on your authenticated subdomain with normal mailboxes outside of Inxmail Professional.

    The catch-all forwarding address you store here collects all replies to email addresses on your subdomain and sends them to the forwarding address. In this manner, the forwarding address acts as the default reply address for your mailings. Bounce messages will continue to be displayed in the Inbox & bounces agent in Inxmail Professional.

    You can define exceptions if you do not want replies to certain email addresses on your subdomain to be delivered to the catch-all forwarding address.

    You are trying to authenticate a subdomain, for example, subdomain.example.com. It means that the domain of the forwarding address cannot be on the subdomain subdomain.example.com that you are in the process of authenticating.

    The forwarding address can be on your main domain, for example, reply@example.com. It can also be on a different subdomain, for example, reply@mail.example.

    A loop would occur if the forwarding address is on the same subdomain as the subdomain you are in the process of authenticating because the forwarding address is a catch-all forwarding address.

    • The authenticated subdomain is: subdomain.example.com.

    • All emails to email accounts within subdomain.example.com are sent to a central (‘catch-all’) forwarding address. Let’s assume that the catch-all forwarding address is: reply@example.com.

    • That means that all emails to mail@subdomain.example.com will be sent to the forwarding address reply@example.com.

    • If the forwarding address would be reply@subdomain.example instead of reply@example.com, it would cause the following to occur:

      • All emails to mail@subdomain.example.com are forwarded to reply@subdomain.example.

      • But since reply@subdomain.example.com is on subdomain.example.com, catch-all forwarding would apply and the email would be caught in a loop; it would continue to be forwarded from reply@subdomain.example.com to reply@subdomain.example.com and never arrive.

    What does it mean? The forwarding address cannot be on the subdomain you are in the process of authenticating to prevent your emails to the forwarding address being forwarded again and again.

    Yes. There needs to be an actual email address connected to the forwarding address and there needs to be a real mailbox for your emails to arrive.

    On the other hand, the mailboxes of the email addresses in the list settings do not need to be real ones. The addresses can be fictitious, because they will be sent to the forwarding address address anyway.

    Replies to your mailings will arrive in the inbox of your forwarding address. That means that the replies to your mailings will no longer appear in the Inbox & bounces agent in Inxmail Professional.

    Note: Get in touch with your Inxmail contact person or  if you want the replies to your mailing to be displayed in the Inbox & bounces agent.

    Yes. You can change the forwarding address during operation.

    In the Brand Identity Protection agent, there is a catch-all forwarding, which means that all variations of *@news.sample-company.org will be sent to the forwarding address that you enter here.

    You can store exceptions if you do not want all emails to be sent to this forwarding address.

  5. Click Authenticate domain.

    You will be directed to the Domain authentication page.

  6. Optional: Store your BIMI logo.

  7. Store your DNS entries with your domain host.

  8. Enter the authenticated subdomain in the Inxmail Professional list settings. You need to adjust the list settings in each list if you want the settings from the Brand Identity Protection agent to be active for all lists.

  • You have authenticated your domain in the Brand Identity Protection agent and enabled it for your mailing list .

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