How does email sending work, and do I need my own address?

Two kinds of email

Emails bernard sends for you. Each one goes to one person because of something they did: the welcome when someone enrols on a course, the sign-in link to their course, the list of their courses, an order receipt, a note that their certificate is ready. They come from hello@bernardmoves.com. They need no setup.

Emails to your audience. These are your email campaigns and your automatic emails: a welcome series, care after a sale, the emails that follow a student through a course. They need a sending address for this site, such as hello@yourdomain.com. Until the site has one, they do not go out. Bernard never sends them from his own address instead.

Two more emails wait for the same address. The “please confirm” email after someone fills in a form on your site uses it once it is ready; until then, the Automatic emails tab in Your customers shows the address it uses. And a website can only be made invitation-only once it has its own address, because every invited person gets their link by email.

Your choice for the sending address

There are two ways to get a sending address for a site.

An address you already have. If another site in your account already sends from a verified address, such as info@babyem.co.uk, this site can send from it too. It is already set up for your business, so there is nothing to add. This is the first choice whenever your account has one.

An address on this site’s own domain. A site at yourdomain.com sends as hello@yourdomain.com, so your emails look like they come from your own business. You can change the part before the @ once the address is active.

To use an address you already have, see the next section. To set up the site’s own domain:

1. Connect your web address to this site first. Connect my own web address (domain) to my site covers that step.
2. Open Your customers → Email campaigns. At the top is Sending from your own address. Press Set up email sending. Or ask Bernard for the Set up email campaigns job: he names the exact site and domain, and starts it after you say yes.
3. Add the records Bernard shows at the company that runs your domain’s DNS. Bernard checks them for you and the box turns green when the address is ready.

Use an address you already have

If your business has several sites, they do not each need their own address. When one site in your account already has a verified address, the Email campaigns tab on another site says: “Your emails can come from info@babyem.co.uk. It is already set up for your business, so there is nothing to add.” Press Use info@babyem.co.uk, or ask Bernard to set up email campaigns and choose it. The page says “Getting ready. This usually takes a few minutes.” Then it shows “Your emails send from info@babyem.co.uk.” with a Change link. There are no records to add. Opens and clicks are on from the first email, and the site’s own consent rules still apply. Each site still keeps its own unsubscribes, pauses, warm-up and reply-to address. A website that is invitation-only needs the site’s own address, not a shared one. If the other address is still being set up, the page says so and you can use it here when it is ready.

Where replies go

Replies are a separate choice from the sending address. They go to the account owner’s address unless you choose another inbox, such as a shared info@ address: see Replies to my emails should go to a shared inbox.

Ask Bernard where your site is

In Bernard’s Workshop, the How email sending works job reads this site’s real email setup. He tells you which of your emails already go out, which are waiting for a sending address, where the site is today and the one next step. That job only explains: it changes nothing and sends nothing. To act on the next step, ask for Set up email campaigns.

Use the list Bernard shows

The records are in Sending from your own address. Copy every record shown there. Do not rely on an old instruction that says there are always two.

A new sender normally shows:

• three signing records, which let receiving mail systems trust the domain;
• one mail-routing record and one sender-policy record for bounce handling;
• a recommended protection record when the domain does not already have one.

That means most new setups show five required records, or six including the recommended protection. A legacy sender can still show two. The page is authoritative for your site, because the values and the count are specific to the sender it is preparing.

The records do not change your mailbox, nameservers or website connection. They only cover mail Bernard sends for the site.

Two different waits, and how to tell them apart

Before any records exist. After you press “Set up email sending”, Bernard prepares your sending address on his own, usually within minutes. While he does, the page says “Bernard is finishing your sender setup. This usually completes within one working day; we will email you when it is done.” If his own attempts fail, the bernard team is told straight away and finishes the step by hand. If you are in this state there is nothing to copy into your registrar yet, because the records are produced by that step. Pressing “Set up email sending” again will not create them. We email you at your account address when it is done.

Two rarer messages. “Bernard could not finish this setup on his own, so the bernard team has been told and will finish it” means a person is on it and you will get the same email. “Bernard couldn’t finish setting up email sending just now, and could not pass it to the team either” means nothing is in progress: press the button again in a little while.

After you have added them. Once your records are published, the page says “Your records are in place. Bernard is checking them with the email provider; this usually takes under an hour.” That wait is automatic and nobody is involved. No email is sent at this step; the page turns green by itself, and the email that says your address is live arrives when the whole setup finishes.

The other campaign readiness checks are listed in Why can’t I send my email campaign?. The wider campaign path is in How do email campaigns work?.

If the records do not turn green

DNS can take time to spread. Bernard checks automatically, and a stalled setup offers a Retry action. I added the email records but they are not working explains missing and mismatched records, including the common problem where a provider adds your domain to the name twice.