Emails to my customers should come from my own address
Once your own address is connected to your bernard site, there is a second step: letting bernard send customer email from that address too. The Automatic emails and Email campaigns tabs in Community show the two routes separately because they have different safety rules.
What it does - and what it doesn't
Community shows the real address for each route. The Automatic emails tab shows where confirmations, welcomes and other one-to-one messages come from. The Email campaigns tab shows its own sender-readiness blocker and exact saved preview.
Campaigns fail closed. A campaign uses the customer-email identity for that exact site. Until the identity and the rest of its safety checks are ready, the campaign stays blocked. It never falls back to bernard's platform address.
It never touches how you receive email. Nothing about your inbox moves, changes, or needs re-checking. Replies still land exactly where they already do. These records don't touch your mail server or your mailbox - only the sending side of what bernard does for you.
You can set it up later. Your site and inbox keep working without it. Automatic messages use the safe route shown in Community, while campaigns wait. Add the records from the same Custom domain page where you connected your address.
How to do it
- Open Custom domain in bernard, on the site whose own address is already connected. Below the site records, a section called "Email from your own address" shows two more records, already filled in for your domain.
- Add them where you manage your domain, the same way you added the site records - copy each value exactly.
- Give it a little time. Same as the site records, it can take from minutes up to a few hours to catch on. Bernard checks automatically and switches sending over once both are in place.
Return to Community, then open Automatic emails to see the current automatic sender and catalogue, or Email campaigns to see campaign blockers, reusable templates, delivery history and the exact saved preview.
If you get stuck, the Bernard AI assistant can check your email records' live status and tell you in plain English what's in place and what still needs adding.
Adding your own address in the first place - the step this builds on - is Connect my own web address (domain) to my site.
The prompt
“Help me set up email sending from [my domain] on my bernard site - check whether the email records are working yet and tell me what to add if not.”
Press Copy, then paste it into your AI and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard first - a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI.
Questions people ask
- Does this change my email inbox?
- No. These records only affect mail bernard sends for you - a receipt when someone buys, for example. How you receive email is never touched: nothing arrives differently, nothing moves, and replies still land in the inbox you already use.
- What if I don't add them?
- Automatic one-to-one messages can keep using the address shown in Community. Audience campaigns stay blocked until the customer-email identity for that exact site is ready; they never fall back to bernard's platform address.
- Do I need a new mailbox?
- No - this is a sending address, not a new inbox to check. Once it's set up, emails simply carry your own address as the From; replies come back to the inbox you already use every day, exactly as they do now.
- What happens if I get it wrong, or it stops working?
- Community shows the route that needs attention. Automatic practical messages use their safe route; campaigns remain blocked rather than falling back to the wrong sender. Nothing is changed or sent without your approval, and you can retry or disconnect from the domain page any time.