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Setting up your custom domain
Setting up your custom domain

Add your own domain to Rivo Loyalty's emails

Laurence Leech avatar
Written by Laurence Leech
Updated over a month ago

Introduction

Remove Rivo's sending domain from your automated emails and send them from your own instead! Read on to learn how to add your store domain to Rivo's emails for a truly branded email experience!

✨ Custom domain is available on the Scale and Plus plans. See pricing β†’


Add a custom domain to your outgoing referral emails

Just using Rivo Referrals? Follow the same steps below as this will apply to both Loyalty and Referrals emails.


Adding your domain to Rivo

πŸ“ Note: We highly recommend using a subdomain for your Loyalty emails e.g. rewards.example.com

When you set up our app's automated email feature to send messages from your custom domain, you'll need to create some special entries, called DNS records, in the settings of the company where you registered your domain (like GoDaddy, Bluehost, or others). This process tells the rest of the internet that our app is allowed to send emails on your domain's behalf.

Video Walkthrough

Important: When adding your domain, please ensure you omit the www. prefix and the https:// protocol. For example, use yourdomain.com rather than www.yourdomain.com or https://yourdomain.com

To add your custom domain to Rivo:

  1. From the Rivo dashboard, go to Settings > Email >

  2. In Custom Email Domain, enter your store's domain, and click Save

  3. You will be provided with a set of 3 DNS records that you need to add to your domain's records:

    Copy the DNS names and values and add them to your domain's DNS records
    1. CNAME hostname & CNAME value

    2. SPF hostname & SPF value

    3. DKIM hostname & DKIM value

  4. Add these records according to your domain provider's process

  5. When you have added the DNS records, click Verify Domain.

πŸ’‘ The CNAME will be added as a CNAME record type and the SPF & DKIM are added as TXT record types.


Custom domain configuration

There are three types of DNS records you will need to create: CNAME, SPF, and DKIM records. When creating these records, you'll input certain pieces of information, called hostnames. Most domain providers automatically append the domain name to DNS record names, so you will need to modify the hostname we provide before entering it into your domain provider's DNS settings. Here's what you need to do:

  1. CNAME Record: Take out your domain from the hostname. So, if we provide you with "email.example.com", you'll simply enter "email".

  2. SPF Record: Replace your domain with the "@" symbol. For instance, instead of entering "example.com", you'll just put "@".

  3. DKIM Record: Remove your domain so that the hostname ends with "domain key". So if we provide "smtp._domainkey.example.com", you'll input "smtp._domainkey".

To illustrate, if your domain is "example.com", here's what you'll enter

Type of record

Hostname we provide

Hostname you'll enter

CNAME Record

email.example.com

email

SPF Record

example.com

@

DKIM Record

smtp._domainkey.example.com

smtp._domainkey

πŸ“ Important Note: Only make these adjustments when entering information in your domain provider's DNS settings. Do not modify the hostnames in this way in the fields within our app. Once you've updated your DNS records with your domain provider, our app will automatically recognize the changes.


Updating an existing SPF record

If you already have an SPF record for your domain, don't create a new one. Instead, you should update the existing record to include our provider's information. Having multiple SPF records can cause verification issues and can affect your email deliverability. Here's how to update your SPF record:

If your existing SPF record is:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all

And you want to add our provider to your SPF record, you will update the record to:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:mailgun.org ~all

In this updated record, you are authorizing both Google and our provider Mailgun to send emails on behalf of your domain. Please make sure that your updated SPF record doesn't exceed the limit of 10 DNS lookups. If it does, you may need to simplify your SPF record.

Once you've updated your SPF record in your domain provider's DNS settings, the changes will automatically be recognized by our app.


Setting up a subdomain for email delivery

If you're looking to use a subdomain, such as "rewards.example.com", for your email delivery, the process is slightly different. You will still create CNAME, SPF, and DKIM records, but the adjustment to the hostnames we provide will include your subdomain. You will also need to add MX records if your subdomain is new and does not have these already.

Here are the modifications you need to make:

  1. CNAME Record: Keep the subdomain in the hostname. For example, if we provide "email.rewards.example.com", you'll enter it as "email.rewards".

  2. SPF Record: Add the subdomain as the Hostname. If we provide "rewards.example.com", you will input "rewards".

  3. DKIM Record: Exclude the domain but keep the subdomain. So, if we give you "smtp._domainkey.rewards.example.com", you'll put in "smtp._domainkey.rewards".

Type of Record

Hostname We Provide

Hostname You'll Enter

CNAME Record

email.rewards.example.com

email.rewards

SPF Record

rewards.example.com

rewards

DKIM Record

smtp._domainkey.rewards.example.com

smtp._domainkey.rewards


Adding MX records for your subdomain

If you're using a subdomain for your email delivery and there aren't any existing MX records for it, you'll need to create them. MX records are crucial for routing your emails correctly. They tell email servers where to deliver emails for your domain or subdomain.

In this case, you'll need to add two MX records. Here's how:

  1. MX Record 1: The hostname for this record is your subdomain (e.g., "rewards"). For the value, you'll enter "mxa.mailgun.org". Set the priority to 10.

  2. MX Record 2: Similarly, the hostname for this record is your subdomain (e.g., "rewards"). For the value, you'll enter "mxb.mailgun.org". Set the priority to 10.

Here's an illustration of how you should input these records, using the subdomain "rewards" as an example:

Type of Record

Hostname

Value

Priority

MX Record

rewards

mxa.mailgun.org

10

MX Record

rewards

mxb.mailgun.org

10


External help articles on adding DNS records

Remember, each provider's DNS management system might work a bit differently, and these guides should help you understand the specific steps for each one. If you can't find the information you need, or if you're using a different provider, we recommend reaching out to your provider's support for help.


Common questions

I already have a CNAME record with the hostname your app provided, what can I do?
Message us at [email protected] and we will configure a new one for you.

Are all loyalty and referral emails sent from my custom domain?
No, the Invite Friend email will be sent from Rivo's domain. This is because of the likelihood of spam complaints on these emails. Elevated spam complaints can burn your domain sending reputation, so for these peer to peer invite friend emails we highly recommend sending from our domain so if there is a spam complaint, we can absorb that and not you. So, in other words, this is by design.

Why do you recommend using a subdomain?

Rivo recommends using a subdomain it helps isolate the domain reputation and for better DNS record management.

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