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Verify a sending domain

Add your domain to Maillayer and publish the DKIM, return-path and DMARC records so inboxes trust your email.

Maillayer sends from your own domain, so inboxes see your name and your reputation, not ours. Before you can send, you prove you own the domain by publishing a few DNS records.

Choose a domain#

We recommend a subdomain just for email, like mail.acme.com or news.acme.com. It keeps your main domain's reputation separate, and you can still send from [email protected] with replies going to [email protected].

Add the DNS records#

Add the domain under Domains. Maillayer shows the exact records to create at your DNS provider (Cloudflare, Route 53, Namecheap, GoDaddy and so on):

RecordTypeWhat it does
DKIMCNAME (or TXT)Signs every email so inboxes can check it really came from you and wasn't changed.
Return pathCNAMELets bounces come back to Maillayer, and aligns SPF with your domain.
DMARCTXTTells inboxes what to do with email that fails the checks. Needed by Gmail and Yahoo for bulk senders.
If you use Cloudflare, set CNAME records to DNS only (gray cloud), not proxied, or verification will fail.

Verification#

Maillayer checks your records automatically. Most domains verify within a few minutes; DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to spread. Once a domain shows Verified, any address on it can be a From address, such as [email protected].

Which of my domains are verified and ready to send from?

Tracking subdomain#

Optional. Campaign links, open tracking and unsubscribe links normally use our shared link address. With a tracking subdomain they use your own, like links.mail.acme.com, so every link in the email matches your brand. Inboxes like that too.

  1. Under Domains, on a verified domain, enter a subdomain (links by default) and click Add.
  2. Add the one record shown: a CNAME from links.mail.acme.com to links1.mllinks.com.
  3. We check every minute and set up HTTPS for it. Once it shows Active, new campaigns from that domain use it.
Keep the record for as long as the emails you sent are around. If you remove it, links and unsubscribe links in those emails stop working. If it ever breaks, new emails go back to our shared link address on their own.
  • It has to be a subdomain; the root of a domain can't be a CNAME.
  • On Cloudflare DNS, set it to DNS only (grey cloud). If your DNS has CAA records, allow letsencrypt.org, pki.goog and ssl.com.
  • Transactional email is never tracked, so it doesn't use this.

Troubleshooting#

  • Copy the host exactly. Some providers add your domain automatically, so enter only the part before it.
  • Remove any old DKIM or DMARC record for the same host before adding the new one.
  • Check a record with dig CNAME host.mail.acme.com or an online DNS lookup.

Next: send transactional email or send a campaign.