Add-on: custom email domain

Note

Contact support@sessionboard.com to receive pricing for this add-on.

Training video · 5:05Organization settingsThe settings that sit above every event. Organization details and timezone, the shared library of fields, tags and files, email templates and the system emails, the custom sending domain add-on, brand kits, and Early Access, where features arrive before they are on for everyone.

1. 0:02Organization settings
2. 0:26The settings overview
3. 0:55Details and timezone
4. 1:21The shared library
5. 1:56Email templates
6. 2:33The system emails
7. 2:56Your own sending domain
8. 3:33Brand kits
9. 4:08Early Access

Why use it

Speakers, reviewers and submitters are more likely to open, and trust, an email that comes from an address on your own domain, such as speakers@yourconference.org. Recipients’ mail servers are also less likely to filter it. Use it when you want your messages to carry your name, from the emails you write yourself to, with an event address, the confirmations and reminders Sessionboard sends automatically.

What the add-on changes

Out of the box, every email Sessionboard sends for you — a send from Contacts, a campaign, a portal digest, a submission confirmation — comes from no-reply@notify.sessionboard.com, with your event name as the sender name. A custom email domain replaces that address with one on a domain you own, such as speakers@yourconference.org.

Once it is set up:

• A Send From field appears on your email templates and a Send from: field in the send composer, listing addresses on your authorized domain.
• Automated emails — confirmations, portal notifications, evaluator reminders — go out from your address when the event has its own address on its Settings > Domains page. An event that uses the organization’s address keeps sending them from no-reply@notify.sessionboard.com; the organization address covers the emails your team composes and portal sign-in links. See Which emails use which address.
• Replies still go wherever Replies sent to points, so a shared inbox keeps working as before.

Recipients see mail from a domain they recognize, which reads as legitimate and is less likely to be filtered. Authentication proves to receiving servers that Sessionboard is allowed to send as you; it does not change the sending infrastructure — see Deliverability & allowlisting below.

Set it up

You set the address up yourself, and the DNS records are shown on the page, so there is no need to ask support for them.

1. Open Settings > Domains in the organization, or in one event to give that event its own address. Find the Email domain card.
2. Under Send emails from, enter the address and click Continue.
3. Add the records shown (Type, Host / Name, Value / Points to) at your DNS provider. Add them as new records, without changing your existing SPF, DKIM or MX records. If someone else manages DNS, use Email to IT contact or Copy instructions.
4. Click Check now, or wait: Sessionboard checks every 10 minutes and emails you when the domain verifies. Until then, emails keep sending from the default address.

To use a different address later, choose Change address. Full detail: Send email from your own domain.

The address must be on a domain your organization owns. Free email providers such as Gmail, Outlook.com or Yahoo cannot be authenticated.

Check your domain’s authentication status

The status badge on Settings > Domains shows whether your domain is verified, still waiting on DNS, or has records that are not resolving, with each record marked Found or Not found. On the organization’s page, Event email addresses shows the same for every event with its own address. If support set up your address before you could do it yourself, the page shows the result of an hourly check instead, including when a domain has never been authenticated with SendGrid — see Addresses set up before Domains.

DNS records can be edited, expire, or be replaced long after your domain was first authenticated, and when that happens every send from your address starts being rejected. Sessionboard rechecks each custom sending domain on a schedule rather than trusting the answer it was given at setup, and alerts us when a working domain stops validating, once per breakage, so a domain that fails overnight is noticed rather than discovered by a customer mid-campaign.

Deliverability & Allowlisting

Authenticating your domain tells receiving servers that Sessionboard is allowed to send as your address. It does not override filtering on the recipient’s side. Organizations with strict filters, commonly universities, controlled work networks, government agencies, and hospitals, may occasionally filter your email as potentially malicious, even if it’s not.

A custom email domain changes the sending address, not the sending infrastructure. All Sessionboard email is sent through SendGrid from the same Sessionboard sending IP addresses.

If anyone reports missing email, ask their IT team to allowlist:

• 159.183.10.230
• 159.183.207.219
• 159.183.47.254

Also have them allowlist your custom domain sending address: example@yourcompany.com

Allowlisting is per recipient organization. Setting up your custom domain does not allowlist you with any third party, and allowlisting done by one organization does not carry over to another.

For recipient-side troubleshooting, see: Why am I not receiving emails?

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why do I need to configure the DNS records?
   1. The records prove to receiving mail servers that you authorized Sessionboard to send as your domain. Without them, mail from your address is flagged as spam or rejected. Only someone with access to your domain can add them, which is what makes the proof meaningful. Sessionboard checks for them automatically once they are added. Background: SendGrid domain authentication.
2. How can I retrieve the SPF record entries?
   1. Sessionboard uses automated security which handles the SPF/DKIM so they stay automatically updated: https://docs.sendgrid.com/ui/account-and-settings/spf-records#spf-and-sender-authentication
3. We set up our custom domain but some recipients still are not receiving emails. Why?
   1. Domain authentication proves you authorized Sessionboard to send as your address. It does not stop the recipient’s mail server from filtering the message. If a specific organization is blocking your email, their IT team needs to allowlist your sending address and include:sendgrid.net. Allowlisting applies only to the organization that does it, so it does not extend to other recipients or organizations.
4. Check now says Not found for a record. What do I check?
   1. Compare each record’s Type, Host / Name and Value / Points to with what your DNS provider holds, character for character. Some providers add your domain to the end of the host automatically, so enter only the part before your domain if yours does. Add the records as new ones and leave your existing SPF, DKIM and MX records alone. DNS changes can take a while to spread, so click Check now again later; Sessionboard also rechecks every 10 minutes and emails you when the domain verifies. Until it does, emails keep sending from the default address.
5. The domain verified, then stopped working. Why?
   1. DNS records can be edited or removed after setup, for example during a DNS migration. When that happens sends from your address are rejected. The status badge on Settings > Domains shows which record is Not found: add it back. See Check your domain’s authentication status.