Email Whitelisting: Verifying Your Sending Domain
Email whitelisting is the process of proving to the world's mail providers that Edmingle is allowed to send email on behalf of your domain. Once it is done, your emails arrive from your own address rather than a generic one, and they are far less likely to land in spam.
This is a DNS task. You will need access to wherever your domain is managed (GoDaddy, Cloudflare, Route 53, your IT team), so line that up before you start.
What happens if you skip it
Your emails still go out. They are just not from you.
| Domain not verified | Domain verified | |
|---|---|---|
| Sender address | A generic Edmingle address | Your own, for example noreply@mail.yourschool.com |
| Learner sees | An unfamiliar sender | Your brand |
| Spam risk | Higher | Much lower |
| Replies | Go to Edmingle's address | Go where you set them |
Do this before your first big send. Deliverability reputation is built over time, so switching to your own domain halfway through a term means starting that reputation from scratch.
The three record types
You will be asked to add three kinds of DNS record. They do different jobs:
| Record | What it does |
|---|---|
| DKIM | Signs your emails so providers can tell they really came from you and were not altered |
| SPF and MX | SPF lists which servers may send on your behalf. MX makes sure bounce replies get back to the right place |
| DMARC | Tells providers what to do when a message fails the checks above |
The product's own tooltips put it the same way, including the warning that matters most: "If SPF and MX records are not verified, your emails may land in spam."
Before you start
Decide two things:
- Your domain, for example
yourschool.com. - A subdomain to send from, for example
mail, givingmail.yourschool.com.
[!Important] Sending from a subdomain is deliberate. It keeps your email reputation separate from your main website domain, so a bad campaign cannot damage the deliverability of your everyday business email.
Your sending address has to sit on that subdomain. If your subdomain is mail.yourschool.com, then noreply@mail.yourschool.com is valid and noreply@yourschool.com is not. You will see an error if they do not match.
Step 1: Configure your domain
- Go to Settings → Integrations and open the Emails tab.
- On the Edmingle Mail Service card, click Connect. If you have already started, click Manage instead.
- Fill in:
| Field | Required | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Domain Name | Yes | yourschool.com |
| Subdomain Name | Yes | mail. The screen shows the full result as you type |
| From Email | Yes | noreply@mail.yourschool.com. Must end in your subdomain |
- Click Verify DNS Status.
The screen moves to Add Verification & DNS Records.
You can run up to 5 email accounts. The first is your Transactional default. Additional ones are named by you and used by Campaigns and Workflows.
Step 2: Add the DNS records
You will now see up to three tables: DKIM Records, SPF and MX Records, and DMARC Records. Each row has a Type, a host, a value, and a TTL.
Use the CSV file link to download them all and hand the file to whoever manages your DNS.
Then, in your DNS provider:
- Add each row as a new record of the type shown.
- Copy the host and value exactly, with no trailing spaces.
- Leave the TTL as given, or use your provider's default.
Many DNS providers append your domain automatically. If the host shown is mail.yourschool.com and your provider already adds .yourschool.com, enter only mail. Adding the full value in that case creates mail.yourschool.com.yourschool.com, which silently never verifies. When in doubt, save one record and check how your provider displays it back.
What to expect:
- DKIM: three CNAME records.
- SPF and MX: two records, one MX and one TXT, both on your subdomain.
- DMARC: one TXT record on
_dmarc.yourdomain, set to a monitor-only policy.
The DMARC record Edmingle gives you uses p=none, which means monitor and report without blocking anything. That is the right starting point. Tightening it later is a decision for whoever owns email security at your organization.
Step 3: Verify
DNS changes are not instant. Come back and click Verify DNS Status again to re-check.
[!Important] Verification is not automatic. Nothing re-checks in the background. After you add the records you have to return to this screen and press Verify DNS Status yourself, otherwise your setup sits unverified indefinitely.
Allow up to 72 hours for DNS to propagate, although it is often minutes. If nothing has changed after a few hours, re-read the records in your DNS provider before raising a ticket.
When the chip reads VERIFIED - READY TO SEND EMAILS, click Save and Activate.
Why the Save button is greyed out
While verification is pending, the save button is disabled and hovering it says "Please verify DNS status". Finish the DNS records and re-verify.
If saving returns an error even though the status looks green, verification has genuinely failed rather than merely being pending. Recheck every record for typos, especially the three DKIM entries, then verify again.
DKIM and SPF verify separately
The main status chip tracks your domain, which is really the DKIM part. The SPF and MX block has its own status.
[!Important] You can activate with DKIM verified while SPF and MX are still pending. Email will send, but deliverability will be worse and messages may land in spam. Treat the setup as finished only when both show as verified.
Using Mailgun instead
Some accounts can connect Mailgun rather than Edmingle Mail Service. That form asks only for a Private API Key, Domain Name, and From Email.
There is no DNS step in Edmingle for Mailgun. Your domain has to be verified in the Mailgun dashboard, and Edmingle trusts whatever you enter here. If Mailgun email is not delivering, check the domain status in Mailgun first.
Setting the reply-to address
The verified domain controls who mail comes from. Where replies go is set per template, under Reply To Email in the email template editor.
Point reply-to at a mailbox a human reads, not at the no-reply address. Learners reply to course emails far more often than people expect, and those replies silently vanish otherwise.
Other things people mean by "whitelisting"
| If you are trying to... | Go to |
|---|---|
| Stop emails landing in spam | This article. Verify your domain |
| Get a learner off the bounce list after fixing their mailbox | Analytics → Notification Logs → Email Logs, then Remove from bounce list |
| See why an email was not delivered | Email Logs, where a Bounced row shows the bounce type and reason |
| Restrict which email domains can sign up | Not available in Edmingle today |
| Allowlist IP addresses for API access | Not available in Edmingle today |
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | What to check |
|---|---|
| Status still PENDING after hours | Records not saved, a typo, or the host duplicated with your domain. Re-read them at your DNS provider |
| "From email must match the subdomain" | Your From Email is not on the subdomain you entered. Use name@subdomain.domain |
| Save is greyed out | Verification is still pending. Re-run Verify DNS Status |
| Save returns an error with a green status | Verification actually failed. Recheck the DKIM records |
| Emails arrive but from an Edmingle address | The domain was never activated. Finish the flow and click Save and Activate |
| Emails land in spam | Check whether SPF and MX verified, not just the domain |
| Nothing changed after DNS propagated | Verification does not re-check on its own. Open the screen and press Verify DNS Status |