When an email says it's from hello@yourstore.com, inboxes like Gmail check whether yourstore.com approved the service that sent it. If your domain hasn't approved Follow Up Email, some inboxes send your emails to spam or refuse them. This article explains how Follow Up Email handles that automatically, and how to approve it once so your emails come from your own address and land in the inbox.
Why this happens
Your domain's DNS settings hold three kinds of email records:
- SPF: a list of services allowed to send email for your domain.
- DKIM: a digital signature that proves an email really came from an approved service.
- DMARC: your instruction to inboxes about what to do with email that fails those checks. "none" means deliver it anyway, "quarantine" means send it to spam, and "reject" means refuse it.
Many domain providers now turn on "quarantine" or "reject" for you, and Gmail and Yahoo encourage it. That protects you from scammers sending email in your name, but it also catches legitimate services you haven't approved yet. It has nothing to do with how old your domain is.
How Follow Up Email sends your emails
Go to Settings and look at the Sender authentication panel. It shows one of these:
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Verified | Your emails come from your own address, and inboxes can confirm they're really from you. | Nothing. You're all set. |
| Action recommended | Your domain would send our emails to spam or refuse them, so we send from an address like yourstore@awsender.com instead. Customer replies still go to your reply email. | Verify your domain (below) to send from your own address. |
| Not verified | Your emails come from your own address and are delivered, but some inboxes may show them as sent "via" our servers. | Verify your domain to look fully professional and stay protected if your domain's rules tighten later. |
| Shared address | You haven't set a From address on your own domain, so emails come from our shared address. | Set a From address like hello@yourstore.com in Settings first. |
We check your domain automatically when you save Settings and about once a week after that, so the status stays current if your domain's rules change.
Verify your domain
You do this once. It takes about 10 minutes, plus waiting for your DNS changes to take effect. If you've set up sender authentication for Shopify Email, it's the same idea.
- In Follow Up Email, go to Settings and click Verify your domain in the Sender authentication panel.
- Keep the suggested sending domain (for example em.yourstore.com) and click Add domain. A subdomain like this doesn't change anything about your existing email or website.
- You'll see a table of DNS records. Sign in to wherever you manage your domain (see below) and add each record exactly as shown. Use the Copy buttons to avoid typos.
- Back in Follow Up Email, click Check now. Changes usually appear within an hour but can take up to 48 hours. Each record shows Found once it's live.
- When every required record is found, the status changes to Verified and your emails start coming from your own address.
em or k1._domainkey.em, and add your domain automatically. If you paste the full name into a Host field, you'll end up with your domain twice (em.yourstore.com.yourstore.com) and the check won't find it.
Where to add DNS records
Domain bought through Shopify
In your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Domains and click your domain. In the DNS settings section, click Manage, then Add custom record. Choose the record type, enter the details, and click Confirm. Repeat for each record.
GoDaddy
Go to My Products, find your domain, and open DNS. Click Add New Record for each record.
Cloudflare
Open your domain, then DNS > Records > Add record. For CNAME records, set the proxy status to DNS only (grey cloud), or the check will fail.
Squarespace (including former Google Domains)
Go to Domains, choose your domain, open DNS, and add each record under Custom records.
Namecheap
Go to Domain List, click Manage next to your domain, open Advanced DNS, and click Add New Record.
Using a different provider? Search their help center for "add DNS record". The steps are similar everywhere.
If your domain requires an exact match
A few domains have strict DMARC settings that only accept email signed by the exact domain in the From address, not a subdomain. Follow Up Email detects this and suggests your main domain (yourstore.com) instead of em.yourstore.com.
In that case, one of the records is an SPF record (it starts with v=spf1), and a domain can only have one SPF record. If you already have one, don't add a second. Instead, edit your existing record and add include:mailgun.org before the ending ~all or -all. For example, v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all becomes v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:mailgun.org ~all.
Check that it worked
Send yourself a test email at a Gmail address. Open it, click the three dots, and choose Show original. You should see PASS next to SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
Troubleshooting
- Still "Not found yet" after a day: compare each record with what's in your DNS. Look for a doubled domain in the Host, an extra space, or a missing character in the long DKIM value.
- The MX records: these are recommended rather than required. They help us process bounces for your sending domain. They only affect the em subdomain, never your regular email.
- Need to start over: on the Sender authentication page, click Remove domain, then add it again.
- Changed your From address: if the new address is on a different domain, verify that domain too.