Custom Domains for Sending Emails

Table of Contents

Overview

Picking a Custom Domain and Working with Findem to Get Installed

Create and Use Custom Domains in the Application

Overview: What is a Custom Domain?

Findem supports sending email campaigns via its email platform. Findem offers Gmail and Outlook integrations that allow teams to send automated drip campaigns to candidates directly from a recruiter’s inbox or a talent marketing alias/shared inbox. This is the preferred method since any prospective candidate will trust your company's email more than a Findem email, which most of your candidates may not be familiar with.

However, some organizations need an alternate solution to solve for restricted access to Gmail/Outlook due to corporate policy or a desire to send mass emails to nurture prospects (which Gmail and Outlook will not allow). If your IT department will not allow your team to connect Findem to Gmail or Outlook, or you are looking to send a nurture campaign to thousands of people at a time, setting up a custom domain with Findem will help.

Picking a Custom Domain

You will want to acquire a custom domain that is appropriate for your brand to instill trust in the candidates your team is contacting. Talk with your IT department to determine if a primary domain or a subdomain is the right choice for your organization.

Let’s take a look at these options with an example company, Acme, whose corporate website is acme.com and whose recruiter sends emails from [e-mail]:

Custom Primary Domain

You may want to purchase the domain acme-careers.com or acmetalent.com so that the domain looks familiar to candidates (e.g. [e-mail], [e-mail]).

Custom Subdomain

You could also have IT set up a subdomain that can be configured to send emails (including mass emails, so it should be dedicated to sending Findem emails). Examples may be careers.acme.com or recruiting.acme.com.

Note you can also have Findem set this up for you. The preferable method is to have someone from your IT team set as a Findem Admin so they can set up the domain; reason being they'll already have all the records needed to complete the setup, as opposed to having to send Findem the records. 

Custom Domain Authentication: Working with Findem

Findem leverages the SendGrid email automation tool to enable recruiting teams to send branded marketing emails at large volumes. For more information on domain authentication, please refer to SendGrid’s How to set up domain authentication documentation.

Your IT department will need to perform the following steps to authenticate:

1. Provide Domain Name System (DNS) details to Findem

1. What Domain Name Server (DNS) host do you use?
   • Example: GoDaddy
2. Would you also like to brand the links for this domain? See Details of Link Branding
   • Yes/No
3. Provide the Custom Domain you will be sending from
   • Example: careers.acme.com 

2. Install DNS Records on your DNS

After providing DNS details to Findem, Findem will provide your administrator with the necessary CNAME records to be installed on your DNS. Copy and Paste the Host and Points To provided by Findem and add these records to your DNS. There may be 1-N DNS records for installation required.

We will send records similar to this for your IT team to add to the domain:

Type	Host	Points To
CNAME	x.com	a.b.sendgrid.net
CNAME	y.z.com	c.d.sendgrid.net

 

3. Let Findem Know When Complete

Let your Customer Success Manager know when the DNS records have been successfully installed. Once the DNS records have been verified, Findem recommends running a test on a small talent community to ensure that the authenticated domain and email sender are working correctly. 

Set up and Use Custom Domains in Findem

If you choose to set up custom domains yourself, as the admin user: 

1. From the Admin menu, head to Organization Settings then Campaigns.
   
2. Click Add Domain in the Domain Authentication modal. Enter the name of the domain, then Create Domain.
   
3. The DNS records will populate. This is where you may need to enlist the help of your IT team to install the DNS records. Refer to the steps above on how to do this.
4. Once DNS records are installed, you can add a new email address to send campaigns from. Note that only domains where DNS records have been successfully installed will be able to choose from. Select Add another name in the Available Names modal.
   
5. Input the display name (your name) and the email domain. Then click Create.
6. Now, when you're in a campaign, you can change the sender address by heading to Send From, then in the dropdown, scroll down to the bottom and choose Custom Domain.
7. Select your custom domain and assign the Sender as the name you just created.

Sourcing Engagement

Every Findem user in your organization will be given a custom domain email address based on their user name (e.g. [e-mail]). You can also set up as many additional aliases as you’d like (e.g. [e-mail]). These custom domain emails work with Findem campaigns and nurture campaigns.

CRM Nurturing

Nurturing often requires sending out to thousands of people at once. For your first large nurture campaign, Findem will send out slowly by warming up an IP Address according to SendGrid guidelines. For more information, please refer to the SendGrid Warming Up an IP Address documentation.

IP warming is the practice of gradually increasing the volume of mail sent with a dedicated IP address according to a predetermined schedule. This gradual process helps to establish a reputation with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as a legitimate email sender.

Findem recommends about 3-4 weeks of IP Warming before large volumes of one hundred thousand to ensure a strong sender reputation.

After the custom domain is warmed up, you can send out many thousands of emails per day in subsequent email campaigns.