In email marketing, the professionalism of your communications can significantly impact your brand’s reputation and the success of your campaigns. When recipients open your emails, it's highly beneficial for them to see your company name rather than a generic "Sent by Mailgun" or another third-party service name. By properly configuring reverse DNS (rDNS), you can ensure that mailbox providers display your company name in the "From" or "Sender" field, enhancing both your email deliverability and brand recognition.
Why Displaying Your Company Name Matters
Featuring your company name in the "From" field provides several key benefits:
- Enhanced Deliverability: Emails that appear to come directly from your company are less likely to be flagged as spam by recipients or email providers.
- Improved Tracking: Using your company name instead of a third-party service facilitates better tracking and reporting of your email campaigns.
- Brand Trust: Displaying your company name fosters trust with recipients and strengthens your brand’s presence in their inboxes, ensuring a consistent and professional image across all communications.
What is Reverse DNS (rDNS)?
Reverse DNS (rDNS) is the opposite of a typical DNS query. Rather than mapping a domain name to an IP address, rDNS converts an IP address into its associated hostname. This is a crucial process in email communications, as it verifies that the IP address sending the email is associated with a legitimate domain, ensuring authenticity and trust.
In practical terms, rDNS translates the IP address of your sending email server into a domain name (e.g., example.com). This ensures that recipients see your company name rather than the generic third-party service name.
This process differs from masking the CNAME of mailgun.org in your DNS settings. The focus here is on configuring rDNS for your dedicated sending IP, which plays a pivotal role in improving deliverability and ensuring your company’s name appears in recipients' inboxes.
How to Set Up rDNS
Setting up rDNS with multiple hostnames is only possible when using a dedicated IP address. Shared IPs do not support rDNS configuration for multiple hostnames, as rDNS can only resolve to a single hostname per IP. By using a dedicated IP, you can take full advantage of rDNS to present your company’s name as the sender, improving both your branding and email reputation.
To configure rDNS with multiple hostnames for your dedicated IP, follow these steps:
Input the “A Record” into Your Zone File
Add the appropriate "A record" to your DNS settings at your hosting provider. Your "A record" should look like this:
A, mail.customer.com, 123.45.67.89
Where mail.customer.com is your email sub-domain, and 123.45.67.89 is the connected IP address.
Navigate to Agency Settings
Go to the email service settings and select the SMTP service tab.
Configure rDNS in the LeadConnector Section
In the "Dedicated Domain and IP" section, click the three dots next to your dedicated IP and select the "Reverse DNS (PTR)" option.
Provide Your A Record
Input the same "A record" you previously added.
This will update the PTR record on the server side to match the hostname you’re using.
Setting up rDNS correctly is an essential step for you to enhance your communication efforts, track campaign success, and ensure that your messages reach the intended audience with a trusted, professional appearance.
Common rDNS Mistakes
Proper configuration of rDNS records is essential for email deliverability and maintaining a reputable sender status. Common mistakes include:
- Incorrect PTR Record: One of the most common errors is failing to configure a valid PTR (Pointer) record for your IP address. The PTR record verifies that the sending mail server matches the IP address from which the email is sent. Ensure your PTR record is correctly set up and resolves to a valid hostname for the associated IP.
- Mismatched Hostname: The hostname returned by your PTR record should map back to the same IP address. If there is a discrepancy, it can cause rDNS lookup failures, harming your deliverability. For example, if your PTR record returns "mail.yourwebsite.com" for IP address 8.8.8.8, ensure that "mail.yourwebsite.com" resolves back to 8.8.8.8 when an rDNS lookup is performed.
- Hostname Resolution Failure: In some cases, the hostname specified in the PTR record may fail to resolve. This can cause significant delivery issues and diminish your credibility with email providers. To address this, ensure that the hostname specified in the PTR record resolves correctly to the intended IP address.