Updating DNS Records After Email Sender Switch

PracticeQ is making a switch with the email sender we are using. This will only affect those using a custom sender. If you received notice that you are being switched over, the below documentation should help you get your new settings set-up correctly. 

Making the Switch

1. When you are ready to make the switch to Mailgun
2. Go to your Email Sender settings from "More > Settings > Email Sender" to walk through the process to get your new DNS settings to work.
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3. In the 'Sender Display Name' field, add the name you want the emails to come from
4. In the 'Sender Email Address' field, add the email address you want your emails to come from
5. Use the checkbox if you want this sender to apply to all practitioners on the account
6. Click 'Save'
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7. The system will send an email to the email you defined for verification. 
8. Click the link in the email to verify.
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9. Once verified, go back to your Email Sender settings in PQ and click the "Refresh" link to reload the page.
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Setting Up Your Email Sender Authentication

By default, IntakeQ will send emails using our own app@intakeq.com email address. However, most of our users prefer to send form their their own domain. Our Email Sender feature allows our users to do just that.

Editing the DKIM and SPF records for a domain name may require the assistance of someone who is comfortable editing DNS settings on a domain name. This could be your web hosting company or your IT person.

1. You'll find the DNS information to provide to your domain technical person under "More > Settings > Email Sender".
2. You'd first have to copy and paste the values under the "Add this Value" column to a new TXT or CNAME record on your domain's DNS. 
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3. Once that is complete, come back to this page and click the "verify" buttons to activate each. If successful, it will show a green "Verified" tag.

If you are not familiar with DNS records, this website does a great job at finding specific instructions for your DNS provider: https://dnshelp.stunning.co

TROUBLESHOOTING

• Some systems append your domain name at the end of the DKIM hostname, this will often prevent us from being able to verify the address. You will want to remove this. (domainname.com)
• If you're having a different issue verifying one of the records above (usually the DKIM), please email us as sometimes we need to manually validate it.

Tips for Better Email Deliverability

Engagement

One of the most important things you can do for good email deliverability is to only send emails to people who have a relationship with you.

Email providers build a profile of your domain over time. Each person that opens or replies to an email from you is signalling to their ISP that you are a good sender. On the other hand, each person who ignores or deletes your emails is sending the opposite signal.

Furthermore, if a person flags your email as spam, it's sending their ISP a strong signal that you are violating email etiquette rules, and once you get enough of those, it can get really hard to reverse the damage.

These are some actionable tips for keeping a high engagement levels when sending emails via IntakeQ.

• When collecting emails, make sure you have the correct address.
• If you notice that an email is invalid, fix or remove it from the client profile.
• Don't create fake email addresses for your clients. It's better to just leave it empty.
• Ensure clients opt-in to email communication.
• Don't send unsolicited emails.
• Never send emails from a "no-reply" address.

Domain Reputation

Much like real world reputation, your domain reputation is one of your most important assets. If you use your domain to send marketing emails to people who have not opted in, your domain will eventually be added to a blacklist. Then even when you send legitimate emails, mail servers may block them.

• When using email marketing tools like MailChimp or Active Campaign, make sure to follow all email marketing guidelines to avoid hurting your domain reputation.
• For marketing campaigns, use an email address that is different from the email you use to send forms and appointment confirmations. Using a different domain or subdomain is even better.

Content

A key aspect of good email deliverability is the content of your emails. You can have a great email reputation, but if the content of your emails look like spam, spam filters will start to flag them.

Here's a few tips that will help you avoid spam filters:

• Don't use shortened URLs. Spammers love to use URL shorteners (like bit.ly) in order to hide malicious URLs, which makes them always look suspicious to spam filters.
• Avoid using images.
• Avoid having too many links.
• Avoid using marketing lingo when sending forms, appointment reminders/confirmations.
• Test your emails using mail-tester.com (covered in the next section).

www.mail-tester.com.

Hopefully, your result is as good as the one above. If not, keep tweaking things and try to get it above 8. Feel free to contact us if you need any help.