Setting Up a Sending Subdomain

Choosing a Subdomain Name

Choose a subdomain name that clearly reflects the type of emails you'll send from it. While you can switch to a different subdomain later, doing so requires a new warmup process, which is time-consuming.

If you are sending marketing and transactional emails, we recommend you choose a different subdomain name for each type of message to segregate your email traffic.

❌ DON'T

• Technical solution names (e.g., batch.domain.com): While technical teams may prefer this approach to simplify DNS management, it's not recommended. Solution-specific subdomains are rarely used in production email infrastructure and can confuse recipients.

• Single-letter abbreviations (e.g., b.domain.com): Avoid abbreviated subdomains that could be confused with technical subdomains like bounce records, and make DNS management difficult.

• Localized names (e.g., bonjour.domain.com, hola.domain.com): These can create challenges when expanding to new markets. English subdomain names provide better international compatibility.

• Random names (e.g. xp3kd8.domain.com): These may be confusing for your recipients and spam filters.

⚠️ PROCEED WITH CAUTION

• Persona names (e.g., persona.domain.com): If you use sender personas in your "From" field (e.g., "Pierre from Company"), avoid encoding that persona in your subdomain. This creates issues if:

  • Your persona varies by country. You will end up sending emails from "Peter from Campany", and the sending email address will sat pierre.company.com)

  • You decide to change or discontinue using personas.

• Product names (e.g., productA.domain.com): This strategy can lead to subdomain proliferation if you have multiple products. We recommend consolidating your email activity around a few stable subdomains.

✅ DO

Here are recommended approaches that provide flexibility:

• Channel-related names: email.domain.com, mail.domain.com, etc

• Greeting-based names: hello.domain.com, hi.domain.com, hey.domain.com

• Generic, versatile names: contact.domain.com, news.domain.com, service.domain.com, updates.domain.com, etc.

These options scale internationally, and remain meaningful regardless of how your email strategy evolves.

DNS Setup

→ Strict vs Relaxed Alignment

We recommend strict alignment because it's simpler to configure and manage. Since Batch handles your email infrastructure, you don't need the flexibility of separate bounce subdomains. This approach gives you a cleaner setup with a single subdomain to monitor.

→ Get Your DNS Records

Once you have chosen the sending domain names and made sure they meet all the requirements described above, share the list with your Batch contact:

• A Solutions Engineer if an implementation project is ongoing

• Or our Custom Care team through support@batch.com

You will first be provided with DNS records that you will need to add on your main domain's DNS zone. Below is an example of what these records might look like:

[name] 3600 IN CNAME eu.sparkpostmail.com.
_dmarc.[name] 3600 IN TXT "v=DMARC1;p=quarantine;aspf=s;"
scphxxxx._domainkey.[name] 3600 IN TXT "v=DKIM1; k=rsa; h=sha256; p=[DKIM KEY]"

bounce.[name] 3600 IN CNAME eu.sparkpostmail.com.
_dmarc.[name] 3600 IN TXT "v=DMARC1;p=quarantine;aspf=r;"
scphxxxx._domainkey.[name] 3600 IN TXT "v=DKIM1; k=rsa; h=sha256; p=[DKIM Key]"
[name] 3600 IN MX 10 rx1.eu.sparkpostmail.com.
[name] 3600 IN MX 10 rx2.eu.sparkpostmail.com.
[name] 3600 IN MX 10 rx3.eu.sparkpostmail.com.

Here is more context on the records examples:

• [name]: This is the name you chose for your subdomaine name (e.g. news, if you chose news.domain.com).

• DMARC:

  • p=quarantine: This is the declared DMARC policy of your subdomain. You can choose between quarantine and reject. Feel free to adjust that value depending on your company's security policy (see more here: Understanding Email Authentication: SPF, DKIM, DMARC & BIMI)

  • Aggregated DMARC reports: Feel free to add an address that will be used to receive aggregated DMARC reports.

• MX records:

  • In strict alignment mode, you will use Batch's default MX records, provided to the mailbox providers via eu.sparkpostmail.com.

  • In relaxed alignment mode, you can either use explicitly Batch's default MX records or use the MX records of your choice.

→ Add the Records to Your Company's DNS Zone

Now, add your DNS records to your company's DNS zone.

Once done, let your contact at Batch know so we can verify the configuration.

Create a Sender on Batch Dashboard

Then, the last step would be for you to fill in your sender information on Batch's dashboard.

Sender information is what is going to be displayed before your sending domain in the recipient's Inbox.

To do so, you can go to Settings > Channels > Email and click on "Create sender":

Send Your First Emails

That's it! Once done, you are ready to send your first emails with Batch!