Send email from your own domain

By default your customers get warranty and claim email from an Umbrella address. Point Umbrella at a domain you own and the same email arrives from warranties@yourbrand.com instead — better recognition in the inbox, better deliverability, replies landing where you want them.

The work is four steps, and only one of them happens outside Umbrella: publishing three DNS records at whoever manages your domain. Most of the time people lose is in that one step, so it has a section of its own below.

The same four steps appear as Domain Setup Progress at the top of the tab, so you can always see where you stopped.

Before you start: pick a subdomain

Use a subdomain — mail.yourbrand.com, warranty.yourbrand.com — rather than your root domain.

Your root domain almost certainly already sends mail through Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or your helpdesk, and it carries the SPF and MX records that make that work. A subdomain gets its own records, so nothing you add here can collide with what is already there. It also keeps warranty mail’s sending reputation separate from your team’s.

Step 1 — Enable and configure

Turn on Use Custom Domain, then fill in:

Select Save Email Settings.

Step 2 — Add the domain

Select Add Domain, next to the Custom Domain field.

This registers the domain with our email provider and asks it for your DNS records. Your DKIM key is generated here and is unique to your domain — which is why the DNS Configuration card is empty, and in fact not shown at all, until this step completes.

That is the point people most often get stuck: there are no records to copy until the domain has been added. Saving your settings usually performs this registration for you, in which case you will see “Domain verification initiated” and the DNS card appears straight away. If it has not, the button is there.

Once the domain is registered, the same button becomes Verify Domain — you will use it in step 4.

Step 3 — Publish the DNS records

The DNS Configuration card lists three records. Each has a copy button that puts the value on your clipboard.

Add them wherever your domain’s DNS is managed — your registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap), your DNS host (Cloudflare, Route 53), or your store platform if your domain is managed there (Shopify → Settings → Domains → Manage → DNS settings).

Records 1 and 2 are what authenticate your mail. Record 3 is for receiving mail at the subdomain and is listed for completeness.

Name: the part everyone gets wrong

Umbrella shows the full record name — k1._domainkey.mail.yourbrand.com. Many DNS providers do not want the full name: they append your domain automatically, so you enter only the part in front of it.

Umbrella prints the shortened version for you underneath the DKIM record — “Some DNS providers automatically append your domain. If you get an error, try entering just …” — so you can copy whichever one your provider takes.

How to tell which you have: look at a record that already exists in the zone. If your existing records read www and @ rather than www.yourbrand.com, your provider appends the domain and you want the short form. @ means the domain itself, so a record whose Name is your custom domain is entered as @ if you are working in that domain’s own zone, or as mail if you are in the parent zone adding records for mail.yourbrand.com.

The symptom of getting this wrong is a record that ends up doubled — k1._domainkey.mail.yourbrand.com.yourbrand.com. Verification will fail, and looking at the saved record in your DNS provider’s list is usually enough to spot it.

Quotes, spaces and other small traps

• Quotes around the TXT value. Some providers add the quotes themselves and expect you to paste the bare text; others store exactly what you type. If your saved record displays as ""v=spf1 …"", strip the outer pair.
• Do not add line breaks to the DKIM value. It is long and will wrap on screen — that is fine, as long as the value you paste is one unbroken string. Use the copy button rather than selecting the text by hand.
• Priority is its own field for MX records. Enter 10 in the priority box and mxa.mailgun.org as the value; a value of 10 mxa.mailgun.org in a provider that has a separate priority field will not resolve.
• Trailing dots. Some providers show a trailing dot (mxa.mailgun.org.) after saving. That is normal and correct.
• TTL does not matter. Leave the default.

Step 4 — Verify

Come back to the Email Domain tab and select Verify Domain. Umbrella asks the provider whether the records are visible and updates the status.

• Domain Verified — you are live. From now on your warranty and claims email sends from your address.
• Domain Added — DNS Setup Required — the records are not visible yet. Either they have not propagated, or something in them is off.
• Verification Failed — check the records and try again.

DNS changes are usually visible within minutes, but can take up to 24 hours to propagate — occasionally longer. Clicking Verify Domain repeatedly does not speed it up.

After you are verified

From Name and Reply-To Email can be changed at any time — save and they take effect immediately, no re-verification.

Changing the Custom Domain itself starts over. The new domain is registered, a new DKIM key is issued, verification resets to unverified, and Umbrella sends from its default address until the new domain verifies. If you are moving domains, publish the new records before you change the field.

Turning Use Custom Domain off returns everything to Umbrella’s default sender. Your domain and its verification are kept, so switching back on does not mean redoing the DNS.

Troubleshooting

It says verified, but email still comes from Umbrella

Check the From Email Address is on your custom domain. An address on any other domain is ignored in favour of the default sender, silently, to avoid sending unauthenticated mail. Also check that Use Custom Domain is still switched on and that customer email is not being routed through Klaviyo, which sends from your Klaviyo domain instead.

”This domain is already registered with another Mailgun account”

The domain was set up with our email provider previously — often by a past agency, or a service you used before. It has to be released from that account before it can be added here. If you cannot identify the account, contact support and we will help sort it.

Verification will not pass

1. Confirm both TXT records exist and are publicly visible with an external lookup.
2. Check the DKIM record’s Name for the doubled-domain problem above.
3. Confirm the DKIM value pasted as a single unbroken string.
4. Confirm there is exactly one SPF record on the name — see below.
5. Wait an hour and try once more before escalating.

The SPF record is the one that can break other mail

A name may carry only one SPF record. If the domain you entered already has one — because it sends mail through Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Shopify or a helpdesk — do not add a second. Merge the include instead:

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

Two separate SPF records on the same name is a permanent error state that fails authentication for every sender on that domain, not just Umbrella. This is exactly the accident a dedicated subdomain avoids.

Email arrives but lands in spam

A new sending domain has no reputation. Start with normal volume rather than a burst, keep the From Name recognisable, and give it a couple of weeks. If it persists, check that no old SPF entry on the domain contradicts the new one.

Related

• Notification Settings — which emails go out, and to whom
• Email Templates — the content and design of those emails
• Klaviyo Integration — send customer email through your own Klaviyo instead, using a domain already verified there