Whitelabeling and Dedicated IPs

Setting up a white-labeled domain removes all DNS references to the MessageGears service, so that messages appear to originate from your company’s domain. This is beneficial for consistent branding of your emails, as well as for inbox placement and email authentication.

• Custom Tracking Domain
• DNS record
• independent implementation (Portal access needed)
• Custom Signing Domain
• DNS records
• best practices
• contacting Support for implementation
• Dedicated IPs
• eligibility requirements

A custom tracking domain allows you to change the domain of the AutoTracking URL in your email content. AutoTrack URLs are redirects which route the clicker briefly through MessageGears before landing them on the target page, allowing MessageGears to identify that unique click and the recipient who made it.

Setting up a custom tracking domain for individual accounts is a simple process and the result is that the links in your email content will be white-labeled with your website's URL. This is an alternative to the messagegears.net domain that displays by default in click-tracked links. Having your own domain present in those URLs can help to reinforce the legitimacy of the links and ensure consistent branding across your email content.

To set up your custom tracking domain, you must first select a unique subdomain. This subdomain will be visible in the link that recipients click from your email content before they are redirected to the resulting web page. Here are some suggestions for tracking subdomains to use:

• trk.yourdomain.com
• link.yourdomain.com
• go.yourdomain.com
• www2.yourdomain.com

Once you've decided on a subdomain, you will need to create the following CNAME record in your DNS:

Subdomain	Type	Value
trk.yourdomain.com	CNAME	www.messagegears.net.

Once the CNAME record is in place, it's possible to make the tracking domain change within Portal:

1. Navigate to Account
2. Click to open a specific account
3. Edit Account Settings
• Enter the subdomain you've selected in the Tracking Domain box and Save the change

The next step in setting up a white-labeled domain for use with MessageGears is to set up DNS records designating a custom signing domain.

Use a Subdomain

We require you to select a subdomain to be used for marketing related messages sent from the MessageGears platform. Contact MessageGears support for the necessary records for SPF and DKIM to implement on your chosen subdomain.

We also highly recommend implementing SPF and DKIM on the top-level domain as well any domains used with From Addresses when sending via MessageGears.

Why place records on a subdomain and when to add records on the top-level domain (TLD)

The reason we suggest using a subdomain for the custom signing domain is related to organization and reputation. A specific subdomain for MessageGears records helps to keep sending reputation for your marketing and transactional emails (sent through MessageGears) separate from the reputation of the top-level domain tied to your regular one-to-one emails sent through your own mail server.

However, implementing email authentication DNS records for your TLD may still be important for best domain alignment across all receiving servers, particularly when DMARC is in place.

Sometimes deprecated or less popular email authentication methods are still checked by a receiving system, so having these records in place for your TLD will cover these methods as well. Examples include sender-id and domainkeys, which are less widely used than SPF and DKIM, but they may still occasionally appear in email headers.

Covering all of the bases by having MessageGears email authentication records in place on both a designated subdomain and the top-level domain helps to ensure best deliverability across all recipients.

Custom signing domain implementation - contact Support to complete!

In order for your emails to start being signed by your new custom signing domain, you'll need to contact Support to put this into effect. Support will verify the DNS records are in place, then provide an ETA on when the custom signing domain provisioning will be complete. This usually takes about 3-5 business days.

When writing in to Support, please be sure to providing the following details:

• Customer ID
• Account ID(s) - indicate whether all accounts for the Customer are getting the custom signing domain (common), or what specific account ID(s) the custom signing domain should be applied to
• Custom Signing Domain - be sure to include the subdomain you've chosen

Dynamic Signing Domain implementation - contact Support to complete!

In order for your emails to start being signed by your new dynamic signing domain, you'll need to contact Support to put this into effect. Support will verify the DNS records are in place, then provide an ETA on when the dynamic signing domain provisioning will be complete. This usually takes about 3-5 business days.

When writing in to Support, please be sure to providing the following details:

• Customer ID
• From domain, Custom signing Domain (subdomain), Tracking domain

Our new dynamic signing domain feature is setup at the organization/customer level, which automatically populates the SPF/DKIM domains (signing domain) and tracking domain based on the from domain used. This will ensure domain alignment and white-labeling across your emails. Additionally, this will ensure DMARC compliance, for those who have a policy in place.

Example:
From domain: example.com
SPF: mg.example.com
DKIM:mg.example.com
Custom tracking domain: link.example.com

Please note, that this feature is applied at the organization/customer level, so any account under the org that uses the from domain would automatically sign on the associated SPF/DKIM and tracking domains.

Dedicated IPs are unique Internet addresses dedicated exclusively to emails sent through your MessageGears account. Generally accounts send through a randomized set of shared IPs used by many other customers, which means the reputation of your sending IPs is shared by other MessageGears customers. The main benefit to having dedicated IPs for your sending would be more control over the reputation of those IPs, which only your account will send through. This also allows you to have a specific set of IPs to provide to recipients who may want to whitelist your sends to ensure delivery to their inboxes.

The primary criteria for dedicated IPs to send through with MessageGears is sending volume. If you're currently sending at least 1 million emails/month and are interested in dedicated IPs, please contact Support for more information and for evaluation on whether your account is qualified for them.