Branding your account is one of the most important steps you'll take in the entire account setup process. Why? Because to the subscriber, it should always appear that emails are coming from you, not Listrak. In terms of the end user, Listrak acts as your invisible partner. 

The branding process consists of creating DNS records on your DNS host server. The records can be created on your primary domain name, a new/secondary domain name, or a domain name belonging to one of your clients.

⚠️ Because a working knowledge of the DNS hierarchical naming system is required, we recommend that you consider involving a member of your organization’s IT team in the creation of the DNS records.

The two primary branding settings are as follows: Domain Alias, and Bounce Domain. Again, ideally, an email marketing campaign should appear to come from you, not Listrak, for two important reasons:

This is the most important step to improve the deliverability and trust of your emails for two reasons:

To add a domain alias, you must add a record to your DNS host. We recommend using “link” as the subdomain. The record type is CNAME and should be constructed as follows: 

Adding a bounce domain will help you achieve the highest rates of deliverability and trust. This process allows you to include your domain name in the message header for bounced email processing. To add a bounce domain, you must add a record to your DNS host. We recommend using “bounce” as the subdomain. The record type is MX and should be constructed as follows:

⚠️ Never add this record to your root domain. Doing so could cause your incoming mail to be undeliverable, or worse, unrecoverable. 

Now that the branding settings have been configured on your DNS host, they must be registered within the Listrak application. Follow the below steps to add the settings to your Listrak account.

⚠️ Account Settings will be applied to every list in the account. If you have multiple domains in your account, you will need to take additional steps to change the settings for the different domains in your account. If you do not add a setting at the account-level you can apply branding settings to each list so that it can be based on the specific domain.

These settings will now be available for selection from within the list settings section for each list.

SPF, or Sender Policy Framework, is a protocol that is used to diminish forged email, and for ease of spam detection. If you have a bounce domain, you must also add an SPF record that matches that specific bounce domain. To add an SPF record, you must add a record to your DNS host. The record type is TXT and should be constructed as follows:

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) allows you to take responsibility for a message in transit. You become the handler of the message as its originator. Your organization’s reputation becomes the basis for evaluating whether or not to trust the message and whether or not to deliver it. DKIM is created based on the from address domain.
​
To enable DKIM for your outbound messages, contact Listrak Support at [email protected]. Please be prepared with the following information:

A DMARC Record is a line of plain text configured as a public DNS txt record, typically on the organization domain or subdomain that is used in the PRA From Address." The record contains a list of tags and values separated by semicolon. Some of these values are required and other values are option. Learn more about the DMARC values.

The line of text outlines what a receiving server will do if an email is not authenticated. The policy (p) defines these actions.

Learn more about the DMARC actions.

Gmail offers additional Postmaster Tools to bulk email senders. The majority of Listrak clients are bulk mailers and qualify for this program. By allowing Listrak to utilize the Gmail Postmaster Tools on your behalf, we can better serve you if there are any deliverability issues. To grant access, simply contact Listrak Technical Support at [email protected].
​
Based on your from address domain, Listrak Technical Support will give you up to two additional CNAME records to add to your DNS. These entries are for Gmail to verify ownership of the domain and to grant access to Listrak’s team to further help with any deliverability issues that may arise.

💡 Access to this information can be revoked by you at any time by removing the CNAME records that we have requested to add.

For more information on Gmail Postmaster Tools please visit:

💡 Depending upon your DNS, you may or may not choose to include your domain in the record itself. Some DNS servers require the addition of an asterisk* or an at sign@ in place of your domain.

Below is a list of guides that are tailored to specific DNS providers.