Setting Up Email Sending Domains (DKIM)

What is Domain Authentication

Domain authentication, sometimes known as whitelabel, shows Internet Service Providers that the email sending service we use has permission to send emails on behalf of your domain. Drift offers this service so that instead of it looking like emails are coming from Drift, your end users can now see that emails are coming directly from you! Here's a good resource if you'd like to learn more about Whitelabel. 

How to Set up Email Sending Domains

Note:  You can only have one domain per drift instance.

In order to make sure that your chat transcripts and various emails don't get marked as spam or junk when you send it to yourself or others, you will need to make sure that you are authenticating it with DKIM. DKIM authentication is a sender identification tool that protects email senders and their recipients from spam, forgery, and phishing.

To begin doing that, navigate into your Settings > App Settings > Conversations > Email Sending Domains. 

1. Click on Add Domain. 

2. Enter an example email address from the whitelabel domain that you want to add, and select an encryption level. 1024-bit is the default and recommended unless your IT team requires otherwise.

Then you'll see "Successfully created sending domain" after you hit Save. But you're not quite done! Above where you added the domain, you should now see that your domain needs verification:

 

3. Click the Needs Verification > . This will then give you a list of DNS entries that you will need in order to set up authentication. 

Use this information to change account settings with your DNS provider. It will look something like the following: 

If you don't know who your DNS provider is, reach out to your hosting service. Otherwise, we would recommend that you send the above information along to your company's IT department to have them set this up.

4. When your domains are validated by your provider, return to Drift and click"Verify."

Now, your domain should read as being Verified, and the TXT record should have a Verified status:

All done!  You're ready to start sending emails!  Try sending an outbound sales sequence with your new domain :-)