On Track With Jack: Welcome Newbees and Deliverability Buzz

Finally, spring is here! With the warm weather comes a swarm of newbees, new free trial users that is. Over the last month or so, we've had the most sign-ups to date, and today we're going to review what you need to do to get started with JangoMail.

Existing users, you can benefit from this post too. Use it as a checklist to ensure you have everything in place with your account. These steps will also help with deliverability. Check out these five simple steps to get started:

Get started in 5 Simple Steps:

	Step 1: Activate your account. Note: Your Full-Featured Free Trial Account is valid for 30 days.
	Step 2: Send from an email address at your company's domain. If you do not have a domain, read this article.
	Step 3: Set up SPF. An SPF record tells recipient servers that your JangoMail account has permission to send messages as your company.
	Step 4: Set up DKIM. Messages with DKIM signatures prove that your From Address is legitimate.
	Step 5: Set up Custom Tracking. A custom tracking domain adds another level of authenticity to your messages if you want to track opens or clicks.

So, what's all the buzz about deliverability? Deliverability has been a serious issue lately, not just with JangoMail, but everywhere with any ESP. In an effort to prevent spam, email clients have upped their security measures. They have gotten so strict that sometimes messages from a trusted sender falls into spam until it's added to a safe sender list.

What can you do? In addition to following the above steps, your first message should be a welcome email announcing that you've switched providers. If you're not a new user, send a just checking in message. Encourage your subscribers to do the same. Why? Once you're on their safe sender or white list, your message will stay out of spam.

In our emails, you may have noticed the link up top: Add Our Address to Your Safe Sender List. In addition to your welcome/checking in email, create your own link that will be placed at the top of all your messages moving forward. Write up a new blog post or landing page on your site that includes these steps. If you're concerned that your users never check their Spam Folder, post a guide on your website and social media networks. It will work well near your opt-in form and confirmation page.

In JangoMail, use our Delivery Optimizer, Spam Score Checker, and Delivery Health Check. Read this step by step guide on our Delivery Optimizer. View the Spam Score Checker with any broadcast message you send, and if a specific email address still isn't receiving your message, check it with the Delivery Health Check tool beside the Delivery Optimizer on the Reports page.

Think you have all your bases covered? Create and send your first email.

To recap: Follow the above steps to make sure your account is set up to properly deliver your email messages. Send a welcome email encouraging subscribers to add you to their safe sender/white list.

Still have questions? Ask. Dial 1-888-465-2646 or drop us a line here.

Jack the Jangolope
Department of Awesome
JangoMail

About Jack

Jack the Jangolope is our JangoMail mascot.  Each week, look for Jack's emails for marketing advice, trends, and quick tips on how to grow your email marketing plan to the fullest!  Hop into email marketing each week with Jack's helpful tips!

What is a Jangolope? Find out HERE

We want to hear from you. Remember, at JangoMail it's your email, your way.  Have a topic you would like Jack to cover?  Email us at marketing@jangomemail.com with the subject line: On Track With Jack.  Follow Jack on Facebook

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How to Set Up SPF Record and a Domain Key

Let’s explore the reasons why you want to use an SPF record and a domain key, and how they can improve your inbox delivery rate.

If you own your own domain and are sending using your domain name as the FROM address (through JangoMail's servers), adding SPF and DKIM records essentially authorizes JangoMail to send on behalf of your domain.  This tells the recipients' email clients that we have permission to send email on your behalf.  It’s just one more thing you can do to legitimize your messages in the eyes of the different email clients you'll be sending to.

What's more, setting up your DNS records will allow your_domain_name.com to establish its own reputation with a recipients' email client (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.).  When you send through JangoMail without doing this, you are sharing a reputation with all of our other customers, past and present.  This is why it is a good idea to set up your SPF and DKIM records at your earliest convenience.

When we are working with a customer, our call center usually asks for a list of FROM address domains they want to use, and creates a personalized guide for them.  This DOES require users adding SPF and DKIM records into their domain's DNS settings.  This is the template we use:


SPF Record
Create a new DNS record at your_domain_name.com. The type will be TXT. The value should be:

v=spf1 include:jangomail.com a mx -all

If you already have an SPF record, then just add include:jangomail.com, so that you have:

v=spf1 (whatever you had before) include:jangomail.com -all

DKIM Record
Create a new DNS record of selector._domainkey.your_domain_name.com.  The type will be TXT. The selector value should be a single word/string of jm, jango, myname, and so on.

You have to first create the key in your JangoMail account. Copy the text shown in the Value field of the popup window you see when viewing the key (starts with k=rsa; p=MIG...).  You will paste this into the value field for the TXT record you are going to create in your DNS settings.  The host value will be:

selector._domainkey

For example, if you used jm as the selector value, the left side would be jm._domainkey, and the right side would be the long string of k=rsa; p=MIG....

Custom Tracking Domain
Create a new CNAME record in your DNS settings.  The host value can be a single word or character such as x, trk, or track.  The right side value (alias or "points to" are common names here) is jngo.net.  If your domain is acme.com and you used trk, then when entering trk.acme.com into browser, you'll see a JangoMail landing page.


Your DNS changes can be seen right away, in some cases.  In others, it may take a few hours before the values can be seen by our system.  For your domain key, come back into your JangoMail account and enable it.  For your custom tracking domain, enter the tracking domain name you used (e.g., you would enter trk.acme.com using the example above.  You don't need to do anything within your JangoMail account for the SPF record.

In a GoDaddy account (as an example of a domain provider), the SPF and domain key records will look something like what is shown below (this example uses jangomail as the selector value):"

The custom tracking domain CNAME record (this example uses "track")

Lastly, once your SPF record is in place, and when sending a new campaign, turn off the "Use System MAIL-FROM" setting in the new message's settings tab.

If you have any questions about setting these up, please let us know! Also, once they're set up, feel free to contact support, and we'll be glad to verify, and put them in place, on our end.

You may also be interested in reading:  Branded Subdomain Setup

Branded Subdomain Setup

Setting up a branded subdomain

Technically, all that is needed is the MX record, but we strongly recommend using an SPF record and a domain key.

Here is some general info on the subdomain setup:

https://www.jangomail.com/documents/Public/JangoMail_Custom_Sub-Domain.pdf

Let's say your domain is acme.com and you want a subdomain of news.acme.com (which will only be used for sending email through JangoMail).

In your DNS (where you registered your domain), you create the subdomain of news.

Since we are sending on behalf of your subdomain, your subdomain needs an MX record saying we can send for you. Set up an MX record for your subdomain that shows: mail.jangomail.com.

Overall, at the subdomain level, we look for a MX record (mandatory), SPF record and a domain key/DKIM (both are strongly recommended), and at the parent-level domain, especially if click tracking will be used, a custom tracking domain.  

Each of these has a short explanation below:

Custom tracking domain

http://blog.jangomail.com/2011/09/email-marketing-tracking-domain.html

If you are using a branded subdomain, the custom tracking domain only needs to be at the parent-level domain, not at the subdomain.

If you are using "track" for your custom tracking domain, the DNS entry will look similar to what is shown below.

Enter the tracking domain information in your JangoMail account. If you enter your custom tracking domain name into a browser and go to that address, you should see our landing page.

Domain key/DKIM

https://www.jangomail.com/documents/Public/JangoMail_DomainKeys_DKIM.pdf

A general summary of the DKIM/DomainKey setup is:

• Login to your account.
• Go to Settings > Advanced > Domain Keys / DKIM (in JangoSMTP) or Settings > Sending and Receiving > Domain Keys / DKIM (in JangoMail).
• Click on "Add New Item." Add your domain by entering your domain and a selector for your domain. The selector can be any word such as "jangomail" or even your account username. Keep in mind that the selector you choose will correspond to the DNS record you must add for your domain (TXT record for selector._domainkey.yourdomain.com). Click Save.

How it looks in your account before it is enabled:

If you are using a subdomain, then the left-side value is your_selector._domainkey.your_subdomain_name and the right-side value is the key value generated in your JangoMail.

A private key has now been created for your domain, but the key pair will be disabled until you add the public key into your DNS settings. To view the key, click the "View Key" icon on the line for your entry. A popup will launch showing you the public key, the private key, and the exact DNS TXT record you must add into your DNS server. Copy the "Value" entry onto your clipboard.

Create the TXT record in your DNS. An example using HostMonster is shown below (and it includes what you would add for the SPF record).

Once the DNS record is in place, you must come back to JangoMail to enable the key pair. Go back to DomainKeys/DKIM, and click the "Enable" link next to your domain. JangoMail will then verify that your DNS TXT record is in place and correct, and if so, it will enable the key pair. Your messages will now be signed with a domain key/DKIM.

SPF record

https://www.jangomail.com/documents/Public/JangoMail_SenderID_SPF_Guide.pdf

SPF setup is pretty straightforward, and the guide shows what to do based on two conditions.

FROM Address

In JangoMail, options for the FROM address are listed here:

https://www.jangomail.com/documents/Public/JangoMail_From_Address_Options.pdf

With the branded subdomain setup in your JangoMail account, send your messages using your subdomain name in the FROM address, for example, info@news.acme.com. JangoMail will be able to handle reply management for your messages.

General info

For your basic HTML email, a campaign has open tracking on by default. Click tracking is an optional setting, but one that you want to turn on for reporting reasons.

When you use a custom tracking domain, the URL for a hyperlink looks "better" in that it has your domain or brand in it, as opposed to ours. If you do not use a tracking domain, a URL will begin with something like x.jtrk86.net (that is not necessarily an actual URL, but you get the idea of what it looks like). With a tracking domain, recipients will see x.your_domain.com or track.your_domain.com (the "x" and "track" names are suggestions, you can use whatever you like).

Example domain

Using a subdomain named news.jangodemo.com, you can see the DNS values at network-tools.com (select the DNS Records radio button, enter news.jangodemo.com, and click Go, or use the link below):

http://network-tools.com/default.asp?prog=dnsrec&host=news.jangodemo.com

You can see the MX record referencing mail.jangomail.com, and the SPF record (the TXT entry) with include:jangomail.com. The domain key uses jm, so if you enter jm._domainkey.news.jangodemo.com, you'll see the key value. The custom tracking domain is track.jangodemo.com, so if you enter that, you will see entries for jngo.net. You can also enter track.jangodemo.com in a browser, and it will take you to the jngo.net landing page.

If you have any questions about the above, please let us know. It's actually pretty easy to do all of this - the explanation of the steps makes it seem like a lot of work, but all of this can done in less than 5 minutes (you may have to wait for DNS propagation of your settings, which can take several hours, but that usually takes place right away).

You may also be interested in reading:  How to Set Up SPF Record and a Domain Key