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You can design emails, build audiences and draft campaigns from your first day. Before anything goes out, Hiveku needs three things, each done once: a sending domain you have verified, a postal address for your email footers, and marketing switched on for your account. This guide sets up sending on Northwind: it shows mail.northwindroasters.com, the domain Northwind sends from, adds news.northwindroasters.com to walk through a new domain’s DNS records, and checks the mailing address.

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Open the Email Marketing settings

Click Marketing in the left rail, then the Email Marketing card, then the Settings tab.
Marketing email with the tabs Campaigns, Audiences, Templates, Sequences, Deliverability and Settings, with Settings outlined

The Settings tab of Marketing email

At the top, Monthly marketing emails shows how many marketing emails your plan includes each month and how many you have used. Campaigns and sequences count toward it.
Monthly marketing emails: Your plan includes 250,000 marketing emails a month, and 0 are used

Northwind's monthly allowance

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Add your sending domain

1

Start a new domain

Under Sending domains, click Add domain.
2

Name the domain

Type the domain in Domain name. Use a subdomain of your website’s domain, with a word such as mail. or send. in front of it: it keeps the reputation of your marketing email apart from your everyday email, and its records can’t disturb the email you already receive.Under What will this domain send?, choose the Marketing option (newsletters and campaigns), then click Add domain.
Domain name news.northwindroasters.com outlined, What will this domain send? set to Marketing, newsletters and campaigns, outlined, and the Add domain button outlined

news.northwindroasters.com, for marketing

3

Add the records where your DNS is hosted

The next page lists the DNS records for your domain. Sign in where your domain’s DNS is hosted (often where you bought the domain) and add each record with its Type, Name / Host and Value. The copy button beside each value copies it exactly.
  • Three CNAME records whose names contain _domainkey. They are required: they prove the email comes from you.
  • A TXT record for SPF and a TXT record named _dmarc for DMARC. They are strongly recommended for reaching the inbox.
  • An MX and a TXT record named bounces. in front of your domain. They line SPF up with your own domain, which strict inboxes such as Gmail and Yahoo look for.
Verification pending for news.northwindroasters.com, and DNS records with three CNAME records and a TXT record, each with Type, Name / Host and Value, and the first record's copy button outlined

The records for news.northwindroasters.com (values blurred here)

The last two rows of the list repeat the SPF and DMARC records under a shorter name. A domain can have only one SPF record and one DMARC record, so add the first of each and skip those two rows.
When you have added them, click I’ve added the records at the bottom of the page.
The I've added the records button, outlined

Back to the domains list

4

Check that it is verified

Back on Settings, the new domain shows Pending. Hiveku usually finds the records within minutes, though DNS changes can take up to 72 hours. Click the refresh icon in the domain’s row to check again.
Sending domains with news.northwindroasters.com, Marketing, Status Pending and DKIM Pending outlined and the refresh icon outlined, above mail.northwindroasters.com, Verified

news.northwindroasters.com, waiting for its records

Right after you add a domain, its DKIM column can show Failed before the first check. Click the refresh icon and it changes to Pending.Once the records are found, Status and DKIM both show Verified, and the domain is marked Marketing-ready: your campaigns and sequences can send from it. The first domain you add is your Default.
mail.northwindroasters.com with the Default and Marketing tags, Marketing-ready outlined, and Status Verified and DKIM Verified outlined

mail.northwindroasters.com, ready to send

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Add your mailing address

The law in the US (CAN-SPAM) requires a postal address in the footer of every marketing email. Under Mailing address on the same tab, fill in Street address, City, State / Region, ZIP / Postal code and Country, then click Save address. Your email footers fill the address in for you. Hiveku won’t send a campaign until it is saved, and it also prints on your invoices.
Mailing address with Street address, City, State / Region, ZIP / Postal code and Country United States, and the Save address button outlined

Northwind's mailing address (blurred here)

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Switch on sending

Until your account is ready to send, the Campaigns tab starts with Get set up to send and three steps: Verify a sending domain, Add a mailing address and Activate marketing. You can build everything in the meantime; only sending waits. When the first two steps are done, tick the statement that everyone on your lists asked to hear from you, then click Activate. Sending is switched on at once. Email marketing is included on every paid plan. Northwind’s account is already active, so its Campaigns tab no longer shows the steps.

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Good to know