Use sending domains to send emails from your organization’s domain

Organizations increasingly implement stringent security protocols to protect confidential data. In many cases, it’s best for Shares and Shared Space invitations to come from a domain that belongs to the sender instead of the default share@showpad.com or noreply@showpad.com address.
This ensures that when buyers reply, the message is directed to the user’s actual company email address.

In Showpad’s Admin App, you can set this up using:

• Default domains
• A custom global sending domain

When using Default Domains, cooperate with your IT department if terms like DMARC, CNAME, DNS, SPF, DKIM, and MX settings sound unfamiliar. This requires changes to the existing email domain settings.

A custom global sending domain is used when IT security settings prevent an organization from setting up Shares to send from users' email addresses because it requires changing the company's DNS settings. In these cases, you can manually set up a custom sending domain and validate it for external sharing.

Note: Cooperate with your IT department to add the sending domain configurations to your settings.

See how the flow works

Key features

• Let users send Email Shares and Shared Space invitations using their company email address
• Make external communication more personal and consistent
• Reduce the likelihood of messages being flagged as spam
• Allow configuration of a Custom Global Sending Domain
• Improve reply handling: all replies go directly to the sender’s address

You need this to succeed

The quick way

1. Open Sending Domains in Settings.
2. Choose between sending from the Showpad domain or your users' company email addresses.
3. In the Custom Global Sending Domain section, configure custom domains.
   • Add the domains manually and validate.
   • These custom domains can be used as replacements for the existing email addresses, and the reply-to address will always be the user’s actual email address.
4. In the Default Domains section, validate default domains to avoid abuse.
   • Validation requires setting up DNS records, which depend on the chosen verification method. These records can be TXT, MX, SPF, DKIM, or TXT, CNAME records. A DMARC record is also required.

Do this step by step

Select your sending domain settings. You can use the Showpad domain or configure a custom global sending domain and validate default domains.

Make sure a DMARC record is set to ensure proper email authentication.

You can also review common issues that may arise when setting up a sending domain.

• Select your sending domain settings
• Use a custom global sending domain
• Use default domain details
• Ensure a DMARC policy is set
• Most common issues

Select your sending domain settings

1. Click the gear icon in the top right corner to open Settings.
2. Select Sending Domains from the left side menu.
3. In the Settings section, choose between sending from the Showpad domain or your users' company email addresses.
   • Showpad domain: If you choose to use the Showpad domain, all emails are sent via the default Showpad share@showpad.com address.
   • Default domain: If you choose to use a custom or verified default domain, only users who have sending domains configured can send emails from their own addresses. The other users will use share@showpad.com or, if configured, an email address with a custom global sending domain.

Set a custom global sending domain

1. In the Custom Global Sending Domain section, click Add Configuration.
2. Enter the domain you want to send from (e.g. yourcompany.com).
3. Select the configuration type from the dropdown (SPF/DKIM or CNAME), and verify the settings.
4. Click Save.
5. Once the configuration has been set on the mail server, click the Verify Now button.
6. When the Verification Status is green, the custom sending domain will be used. Otherwise, it will default to sending from share@showpad.com. 
   If there are errors, hover over the error for further details.

Note: If your DNS records authorize multiple Showpad organizations to use the same sending domain, the configuration and verification status will be propagated to all the authorized organizations.

Use default domain details

1. In the Default Domains section, locate the configuration settings of your user’s email domains. These details are necessary for your IT department to configure the sending domains, which requires changing the company's DNS settings.
2. You will likely already see a list of sending domains you can configure. The domains you see here are automatically added based on the email addresses of the users you’ve added.
   For example, when you create a user with test.user@myorganization.com as an email address, myorganization.com will automatically be added to this list as a domain name.
   Click the Configuration button next to a domain to see the current keys and values.
3. Select a Configuration Type:
   •  

     • SPF/DKIM (manual security)
       In this configuration type, we generate DKIM, SPF, MX, and DMARC records for you, which you need to add to your domain's DNS. This type supports a maximum DKIM record length of 1024 bits.
       View SPF/DKIM configuration keys and values:

       • TXT is an extra mandatory permission record for verification. The TXT record is unique for each Showpad instance and ensures that no other Showpad instance can be sent from your domain. Checking if the TXT Value is added to your company's DNS records is the first step in the verification process. It is the authorization needed to verify a sending domain in your organization.
       • DKIM is a signing key for the message which proves that content was not altered by any server along the way.
       • SPF and SenderID allow a domain owner to add a file or record on the server that the recipient server cross-checks. This Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email validation protocol to detect and block email spoofing. It verifies that incoming mail from a domain comes from an IP Address authorized by the domain administrator.
       • DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) is essential for email security. It helps prevent email spoofing and ensures that only legitimate emails are sent from your domain.
          

       Note: Adding the MX record is strongly encouraged to prevent internal sharing problems and is extra security against being marked as spam.

       

     • CNAME (automatic security)
       
       In this configuration type, we generate several CNAME and DMARC records for you, which you need to add to your domain's DNS. In this case, you will link to the DKIM and SPF records we automatically prepare for you.
       
       The CNAME configuration type provides timely rotation of DKIM keys, increasing security, and supports a maximum DKIM record length of 2048 bits. If you have used this type for a long time and your DKIM key is short, you can use another selector and we will generate a new key of maximum length.
       
       View CNAME configuration keys and values:
       • TXT is an extra mandatory permission record for verification. The TXT record is unique for each Showpad instance and ensures that no other Showpad instance can be sent from your domain. Checking if the TXT Value is added to your company's DNS records is the first step in the verification process. It is the authorization needed to verify a Sending Domain in your organization.
       • CNAME (Canonical Name) record is used in DNS to alias one domain name to another. In our case, we use it to create links to automatically generated records.
       • DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) is essential for email security. It helps prevent email spoofing and ensures that only legitimate emails are sent from your domain.

1. Select the Verify Now button to verify your domain.
2. Provide these details to your IT team and let them implement the changes on your company's domain settings. You can download a Zone file that contains the configuration in a single file.

Note: Depending on the domain configuration, it can take up to 24 hours before DNS changes are visible.

Ensure a DMARC policy is set

As of February 1st, 2024, for mail to be delivered as expected, a DMARC policy must be set for each domain that sends mail. A DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) policy allows a sender to indicate that their messages are protected by DKIM and/or SPF, or CNAME, and tells a receiver what to do if neither of those authentication methods passes.

Validate your domain here by entering: showpad.your-domain.com

If your domain does not have a DMARC record in place, contact your IT team.

Your IT team needs to publish a valid DMARC policy with at least p=none - DMARC must pass

• Including a “rua” tag, which is properly set up to receive reports, is strongly recommended to allow monitoring during initial setup
• Relaxed alignment is acceptable
• Ensure the domain in the From: header is aligned with either the SPF domain or the DKIM domain. This is required for DMARC alignment.

Example

_dmarc.your-domain.com TXT "v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:recipient_to_receive_reports@your-domain.com"

Most common issues

Review this helpful checklist in case the indicators are red.

• Confirm with your IT team that the sending domains have been configured on the company's domain side.
• Depending on your domain registrar, adding your own domain to the DNS records is not necessary, as this doesn't create valid records for the sending domains to work.
  • Sometimes, copying the value will automatically add your own domain to the DNS record, which will cause a double-paste of the domain, as seen in this example:
    • input: "showpad-verification.example.com"
      result: "showpad-verification.example.com.example.com"
    • If you notice a double domain, delete the extra, and the DNS setting will work properly.
• The changes to the DNS settings can take up to 24 hours to fully populate. That's the maximum time needed for all servers to know the changed records. We advise you to wait and try to verify the settings again the next day.
• Ensure you have not forgotten to add Showpad to the keys of your settings. For example, it can happen that the configuration was set in place for myorganization.com instead of showpad.myorganization.com
• Make sure there are no extra spaces or missing letters in the settings. We advise copy-pasting keys and values to make sure everything is correct.
• DMARC should be set to Relaxed. If the DKIM and SPF records are correct, the DMARC can also be set to Reject.
• In cases where SPF/DKIM or the m1 selector cannot be used, you can choose a custom selector. This only works for the CNAME configuration type. If you type sp1 into the Selector field, for example, the key/value pairs should update and show new CNAME records.