Campaigns and replies by email should arrive from your own address — hello@yourcompany.com, not some address
of ours — and they should land in the inbox, not in spam. IsTyping gives you two ways to do that. This page
explains both, how to choose, and how to set up the built-in one step by step. Everything here happens in
Settings → Email sending, which shows at the top how your campaigns and your replies leave right now.
The two ways to send
- Send from your own domain (built in). You add your domain once and create a few DNS records. From then on IsTyping sends your campaigns for you, signed as your domain. There is no mail server for you to run or pay for, and no password to hand over. This option is part of your plan: when your plan does not include it, the page shows what it would take to get it.
- Use your own mail server (SMTP). You connect the outgoing server of the mailbox you already have (for example Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or your web host’s mail). Your mail then leaves exactly as if you had sent it from your own email program.
When both are set up, your own mail server always comes first. It is used for all your mail, campaigns and replies. The built-in service is used for campaigns only while no own mail server is connected.
With neither, your mail goes through our shared mailbox: it then arrives as “Your team via IsTyping” from our address, with your support address as the reply address — so answers still reach you and land in the right conversation, but the mail is not from your own address.
Which one should I pick?
- You send newsletters or announcements to more than a handful of people: pick send from your own domain. Ordinary mailboxes are not made for bulk mail; many limit how many messages you may send a day and some block you for trying.
- Your email provider already handles your bulk mail well, or your company requires that all mail leaves through its own server: pick your own mail server.
- Not sure: start with send from your own domain. You can connect a mail server later and it takes over at once.
Your replies to customers by email are sent the way the page says at the top. Replies are never paused, whatever happens to campaign sending.
Set up sending from your own domain
You need to be an owner or admin of the website, and you need access to the place where your domain’s DNS is managed (see “Where to add the records” below). Plan for ten minutes of work, plus the time DNS takes.
- Open Settings → Email sending. Under Send from your own domain, the Domain field already suggests the domain of your From address. Change it if you send from a different domain, then press Add domain.
- The page now lists the DNS records to create. Required records come first: without them nothing can be sent from your domain. Recommended records follow: they are not needed to start, but they help your mail reach the inbox.
- For each record, create a new record at your DNS host with the type, name and value shown.
Every name and value has a copy button — copy them rather than typing them, one wrong character is enough
for a record not to work. Where the page shows a shorter “Name/Host” (for example
abc._domainkeyinstead ofabc._domainkey.yourcompany.com), use the short one: most DNS hosts add your domain to the end by themselves. - Back in IsTyping, press Check now. Each record shows Found or what is still missing. The badge next to your domain says Waiting for DNS until the required records are found and confirmed, then Verified.
- That’s it. Campaigns from an address on your domain are now sent signed as your domain. The campaign sending dialog shows “Send from my own domain” as the way they leave.
Your From address must be on the verified domain (or a subdomain of it): news@yourcompany.com works for
yourcompany.com. When it is not, the page says so and links to where the address is changed.
What each record is for
- Ownership record (TXT). Proves the domain belongs to your workspace, so nobody else on the service can send as you.
- Signature records (CNAME). Prove the mail really comes from you. Inboxes check this signature on every message; mail without it is far more likely to end up in spam.
- Bounce address records (MX and TXT, recommended). Let undeliverable mail come back under your own domain, which spam filters like to see.
- Policy record (TXT, recommended). Tells inboxes what to do with mail that claims to be from you but is
not. If your domain already has a record named
_dmarc, keep yours: a domain has only one.
Where to add the records
DNS records are managed by the company your domain’s nameservers point to. That is usually where you bought the domain (a registrar), your web host, or a service such as Cloudflare. Look for a page called DNS, DNS records, Zone editor or Advanced DNS next to your domain, and an Add record button.
- Pick the record type the page shows (TXT, CNAME or MX).
- Paste the name into the field called Name, Host or Record, and the value into Value, Target, Points to or Content.
- For the MX record, also enter the priority shown.
- Leave the time-to-live (TTL) at its default.
- If your DNS host offers a proxy (an orange cloud at Cloudflare), switch it off for these records: “DNS only”.
Not sure who manages your DNS? Ask whoever set up your website, or look your domain up with any public “whois” tool: the nameservers listed there tell you the company.
How long it takes
New records usually show up within minutes, but DNS changes can take up to a few hours to be visible everywhere. You do not have to keep pressing Check now: while the domain waits, the page checks again by itself as long as it is open, and the service keeps checking in the background. Check now can be pressed once every few seconds.
If the records never appear, the domain eventually shows Failed. Remove the domain, add it again and create the new records it shows.
Keep the records in place after the domain is verified. They are checked again from time to time; when they disappear, the domain goes back to Waiting for DNS and campaigns stop being sent through the built-in service until the records are back.
Health, and why sending can be paused
Mail providers judge every sender by two numbers, and so does the built-in service. Settings → Email sending → Health shows them for the mail it sent for you over the last 7 days:
- Bounced. Mail sent to addresses that do not exist or refuse mail for good. An address that bounces is left out of your campaigns from then on. The limit is 5%.
- Marked as spam. Recipients who pressed “Report spam”. That contact is unsubscribed straight away. The limit is 0.3%.
The rates are judged once at least 100 emails were sent in those 7 days. When a rate goes over its limit, campaign sending through the built-in service is paused to protect your domain’s reputation — and that of everyone else who sends through the service. The page then shows a red panel with the reason, for example “6.2% of the last 480 emails bounced (limit 5%)”. Replies by email keep working.
What to do when sending is paused:
- Clean up your list: remove old or bought addresses, and contacts who never opened anything.
- Only email people who asked for it, and keep the unsubscribe link easy to find.
- Contact your provider. A person on the service team reviews the pause and resumes sending. The service team can also pause sending by hand, with a sentence that explains why.
Use your own mail server instead
The settings of your own mail server live in Settings → Email channel → Outgoing mail (SMTP); the Set up SMTP button on the Email sending page takes you there. You need the server name, port, security setting, user name and password your email provider gives for “SMTP” or “outgoing mail” (many providers call the password an “app password”). Press Save, then send yourself a test from the Test section.
Once connected, the Email sending page says so and all your mail leaves through it. Your provider is then the one who signs your mail: ask them how to set up the records that prove the mail comes from you (often called SPF, DKIM and DMARC) for your domain.
Troubleshooting
- Your domain is refused when you add it. Free mailbox domains such as gmail.com or outlook.com belong to those companies, and nobody else can sign mail for them. Use an address on your own domain.
- A record shows “Not found yet” for hours. Compare the name with what you typed at your DNS host: the
most common mistake is the domain written twice (
abc._domainkey.yourcompany.com.yourcompany.com). Use the short “Name/Host” the page shows. Check that you created the record in the right domain and that the proxy is switched off. - “Found”, but the domain still waits. The signature records are confirmed a little later than they become visible. Give it up to an hour.
- The domain is verified, but campaigns still say they leave another way. Your own mail server is connected (it comes first), or your From address is not on the verified domain. The top of the page says which.
- “Check now” is greyed out. It can be pressed again a few seconds after the last check; the page shows the countdown.
- The page says the service is not offered on this server. The server you use does not provide the built-in service. Connect your own mail server instead.
- Campaign sending is paused. See “Health, and why sending can be paused” above.