How do I send from a custom email address?

As of Feb 1, 2024, the rules to send email on Recapture are CHANGING

Previously, if you are a high-volume sender (more than 5,000 emails per day) you were allowed to use Recapture and other ESPs default sender domain to send emails for your store. This will no longer be true as of Feb 1, 2024. Gmail and Yahoo are changing their rules and your store must comply with them, otherwise your emails will be BLOCKED from sending on that date.

What is a default sender domain?

By default, we use a high-reputation sender domain that is generic (much like MailChimp and other ESP services)--rcmsv.net. We've done everything we can to make this deliverable--setup the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, optimized the servers for sender reputation, and so on. But there's only so far that takes us.

As of Feb 1, 2024, Gmail and Yahoo are requiring all stores that send high-volume emails (more than 5,000 emails per day) to have a custom from address in Recapture ("branded email domain" in their terms, or custom sender domain in ours)

What is a custom sender domain?

Custom sender domains are basically a way for us to send email on your behalf, making your domain the "from email" of all your marketing communications through Recapture.

Having the emails from you has always been a positive thing to increase deliverability and avoid the spam folder, but now it's a MUST HAVE if you're sending any reasonable volume of email. (Not sure if your store qualifies? We can help! Just ask.)

You cannot use a Gmail or Yahoo address in your From email anymore

This applies to all senders, not just bulk senders. In order to meet this requirement, you need an email address that includes your own site domain name. If you are a store that is just starting out, you may not yet own your own domain. However, you should consider investing in one before February 1, 2024. You can purchase your own domain from any domain registrar like GoDaddy, Namecheap, or similar vendors.

Yahoo and Gmail are now restricting these addresses in the From field of emails. If you are using @gmail.com or @yahoo in the “from” address of your emails, you must switch the "from" address over to a website domain you own.

You must have your own website domain and access to your nameserver (DNS) to complete the rest of the steps below.

You must use a Custom Sender Domain

(recommended for all, required for high volume senders)

In order to enable this feature, we need you to add some records to your DNS that we provide and then we are allowed to send emails using your domain.

The Process for a Custom Sender Domain

Get in touch with our support team.
They will provide some records to put in your DNS server (like GoDaddy or Cloudflare or your hosting provider)
You must add the required records to your DNS as instructed by support
Tell the support team you have that in place (again, here)
Recapture will setup your custom sender domain once we verify the records are in place (usually within 24-72 hours).
And then you'll want to follow our Other Recommendations below for your branded domain, if you haven't already.

All you need to do is get in contact with someone on our support team. You can do so via the blue message icon at the bottom right of all pages in your account (Live Chat) or contact us here. We'll have you set up a few DNS records on your domain so we can prove to email services like Gmail and Outlook that we have control of the domain we are sending from. The details are called out here.

When that process has been completed, you'll be able to send from any email address that is part of the domain we verified.

Other Recommendations for your Domain

As a part of the Gmail and Yahoo requirements, you'll want to add the following things to your domain as well. It boils down to these three items:

Add an SPF record to your domain
Add a DKIM record to your domain
Configure your DMARC policy

How can I tell if I have these or not?

Great question! Use a tool like this one: EasyDMARC

Enter your domain at the top of the page and click on "Scan Now". You'll see something like this:

What are all these acronyms about?

If you're not familiar with these things, you'll want to get your technical team involved or start reading these documents immediately:

Both Google and Yahoo strongly urge all senders to publish a DMARC policy for each domain that sends mail. If you're a high-volume sender (more than 5,000 per day, this is REQUIRED)
A DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) policy allows a sender to indicate that their messages are protected by DKIM and/or SPF, and tells a receiver what to do if neither of those authentication methods passes.
Authenticate every email with DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail), which creates a signature of the content of the message.
DKIM signatures allow Gmail and Yahoo to associate email with the sender and verify that the content of the email has not been changed during transmission.
Publish valid SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records, which allow a sender to specify the list of IPs which are allowed to send mail for that domain.
SPF records allow Yahoo to reject messages which originate from IPs not listed in the domain's SPF record.
Following these recommendations should provide senders with a consistent reputation for their domain, regardless of which IP mail is sent from.
For more information, see our FAQ, M3AAWG, DMARC.org, DKIM.org, and OpenSPF.org.

Configure your DMARC policy

‍DMARC authentication is a protocol policy that servers use to make sure emails are coming from a legitimate sender. Brands use DMARC policies to protect the domain in their sender email address from unauthorized use by bad actors.

Before you can setup DMARC properly, you must also have SPF and DKIM records in place. DMARC builds on top of those two protocols to authenticate your emails with senders as "truly from you" and not someone else trying to pretend to be you.

DMARC authentication is set up in your DNS provider (like GoDaddy or Cloudflare). If you do not already have a DMARC policy in place, configure a DMARC policy* on your root domain that contains the following:

v=DMARC1
p=none

*We recommend, but don't require: set an rua tag with a valid email address to receive DMARC reports. For example, "rua=mailto:dmarc-reports@[brand].com" (which assumes you have an email address configured on your domain that can receive emails at dmarc-reports@[brand].com!)

If you already have a DMARC policy in place, you do not need to make any changes to your p tag value. Just make sure you have an rua tag set up with a valid email address included in your policy.

About DMARC reports

DMARC reports allow you to monitor the email messages sent using your domain, which can help protect you against spoofing and phishing. The rua tag tells inbox providers which email address to send DMARC status reports to.

While you don’t need to actively monitor this inbox right away, it is a best practice to have a dedicated email inbox where you collect DMARC reports so your security or compliance team can easily review them when necessary.

Currently, it is not a requirement from Gmail or Yahoo that senders must have an rua tag in their DMARC policy. But, setting this up now will help future-proof your policy since inbox providers will continue to tighten sender requirements over time.

Explore third-party tools that can help you update and manage your DMARC policy

*Note that Recapture cannot set up SPF, DKIM or DMARC policies on behalf of customers for your own domains. We setup Recapture to send on your behalf, but these must also be present on YOUR domain for it to work at all.

Doing ALL of these will ensure that you won't get hit with the deliverability problems in the future.