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Sending Surveys From Your Email Domain

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Steps To Set Up Your Email Domain

Getting Started

Step-By-Step Instructions

FAQs

 

When you're first getting started, your surveys will be sent from an AskNicely email address (noreply@asknicelyemail.com) - however, once you have surveys going out, we strongly recommend you set up your own domain so that the emails will appear to originate from your company. This is important for a few reasons: 

  • Customers are more likely to open and respond to an email from someone they’re familiar with, like your organization.
  • Consistent branding is a good marketing principle to build trust with your Contacts.
  • Using your domain makes it less likely that the surveys will get caught in email filters. 

Video Example

 

Steps To Set Up Your Email Domain

In order to send your emails from the same overall email address that your company uses for all outbound emails, we need to set up your email domain - this is done by configuring your DNS settings to add to or create DKIM records. Once your DNS settings are configured, your surveys will be sent via the service AskNicely uses to do the actual sending - the name of this service is called Mandrill, and it is owned by MailChimp.com. 

To complete the following steps, you will need AskNicely administrator privileges 
and access to your DNS hosting provider. (This is usually the same company you 
bought your company's domain name from - for example, GoDaddy.com).

Step-By-Step Instructions

Here are the exact steps to enable Mandrill for your organization once you have arrived at Settings > Email Domain and entered your email domain.

 

Go to your DNS settings and create the following new records:

    • DKIM Records:
      • Create a CNAME record:
        • Name: mte1._domainkey.yourdomain.com
        • Value: dkim1.mandrillapp.com
      • Create another CNAME record:
        • Name: mte2._domainkey.yourdomain.com
        • Value: dkim2.mandrillapp.com
      • Replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain name.
Note: This DKIM setting will not affect the delivery of your current emails. To learn more about DKIM, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DomainKeys_Identified_Mail
    • DMARC Record:
      • Create a TXT record:
        • Name: _dmarc.yourdomain.com
        • Value: v=DMARC1; p=none
      • Again, replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain name.
Note: If you already define your DMARC policy, no changes are necessary. Only complete if no DMARC policy exists yet.

In Step 3, our tool will ask you for your email address so a verification link can be sent via email from "Mandrill Client Services".  

Once that email arrives, copy and paste the verification link found in that email into the "Verification Link" field in AskNicely. (Clicking that link will do nothing.)

You will receive an email from AskNicely Support within 2 business days informing you that the Verification process is complete.

In Step 4, set your email address to a "live" email address at your company.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is SPF?
SPF stands for Sender Policy Framework. It was developed so that email servers could verify the identity of the sending email server, and if this server was allowed to send emails for this domain. You are required to add mandrillapp.com to your SPF records so we can send emails from your domain. 

What is DKIM?
This stands for DomainKeys Identified Mail. You will need to add a 'new' DNS entry with this DKIM setting. This is required for us to safely send emails from our email provider Mandrill. 

What does DKIM do?
The DKIM setting you publish is Mandrill's public encryption key. When Mandrill sends an email, they digitally sign the email to prove their servers actually sent this email. 

Will DKIM effect our own email server?
DKIM is only used when an email has been digitally signed by Mandrill - the key is used by other email servers to verify the email signature. It does not affect any other email services you use today, eg gmail, office365 or you own email server. 

Why do I need DKIM and SPF?
These two settings help verify senders and confirm that messages have not been altered in transit. They also help maximize email deliverability so that our emails will actually end up in the intended inbox.  

Does AskNicely Support SPF Alignment?

No. DMARC only requires SPF or DKIM to pass but not both. 

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