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Sending Email with OPS-COM

Sending email from OPS-COM is a key element of communicating with your clients. This communication may be outgoing messages related to purchases, notifications and even as part of the appeals process. These are important messages and you want them to get to your clients quickly, securely and without ending up in spam. This guide offers information on setting up your domain with our preferred mail partner, Mailgun, to ensure your messages are delivered effectively.  

We selected Mailgun as our preferred email partner due to the ease of use of their APIs and their long standing success in the email space.  That together with their tools to track and report on sent emails made them an ideal candidate for email management.

Why is this so important?

When you send emails from a properly configured domain, internet service providers (ISPs) can confirm that you are a legitimate sender. This process, which relies on DNS records like SPF and DKIM, ensures your emails are not marked as spam. Using your own domain also projects a professional image and builds trust with your clients, as the emails will appear to come from a trusted source (e.g., parking@yourdomain.com).

Without this setup, emails sent from a non-yourdomain.com system may be marked as spam or carry an "on behalf of" header, which can make your brand appear less credible.

Why Do I See On Behalf Of in My Email

Visit https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012491394-Why-Do-I-See-On-Behalf-Of-in-My-Email- for more information

Setup Options for Your Organization

OPS-COM offers a few different ways to configure your email sending with Mailgun. The recommended method is to allow our team to manage this for you, which ensures the best support and easiest setup.

Recommended: Configuring Your SubDomain on the OPS-COM Mailgun Account

This method is the preferred option as it allows our support team to monitor email deliverability, track issues, and provide direct technical support for your email-sending needs. It simplifies the process for you while giving us the necessary access to ensure everything is working correctly. 

You will need your IT team to support you through this process.

Part 1: Your Role (Client)

  1. Provide your domain name: Inform the OPS-COM team of the exact domain or subdomain you want to use for email sending (e.g., mg.yourdomain.com). We highly recommend using a subdomain to protect the reputation of your main domain.
  2. Receive DNS Records: Our team will add your domain to our Mailgun account. We will then provide you with the specific DNS records you must add to your domain's settings. These records will include:
Type
 Hostname
 Value
 Notes
TXT mg.<your domain> v=spf1 include:mailgun.org ~all This adds an SPF record for Mailgun
TXT smtp._domainkey.<your domain> your DKIM key The DKIM key used with your domain

Part 2: Your Role (Client)

  1. Log in to your domain registrar: Log in to the service where you manage your domain's DNS settings (e.g., GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, etc.).
  2. Add the records from OPS-COM: Find the section for managing DNS records (it might be called "DNS Management" or "Zone File Editor"). You must create a new record for each of the entries we provided.
    • Record Type: Select the record type (e.g., TXT, MX, CNAME).
    • Hostname/Name: Paste the "Hostname" or "Name" value we provided.
    • Value/Data: Paste the "Value" or "Data" value we provided.
  3. Inform OPS-COM: Once you have added all the records, please notify our support team. We will verify the DNS records from our end. When they are correct, Mailgun will show a "verified" status.

Note: Mailgun also recommends adding other records for email tracking, but these are not required for this specific setup with OPS-COM.

Option 2: Using Your Own Mailgun Account

This method is for clients who wish to have full control over their own Mailgun account. This can be beneficial if you have other systems that use Mailgun and you want to consolidate them.

  1. Create a Mailgun Account: Go to the Mailgun website and create a new account.
  2. Add and Verify Your Domain: Follow Mailgun's instructions to add your domain and verify it by updating your DNS records.
  3. Find the API Key: Once your domain is verified, find your Private API Key in the API Security section of your Mailgun dashboard.
  4. Send to Support: Send your Private API Key to support@ops-com.com.
  5. Enable Support Access (Recommended): To allow our team to provide technical support, we highly recommend inviting support@ops-com.com as a Developer-level user to your Mailgun account.
  6. On the Admin portal, hover over System Configuration and click System Settings.
  7. Click the Third Party tab. 
  8. Add your Mailgun domain and Private API key in the settings.
Option 3: Simple SPF Security (Basic Setup)

Add the following to your SPF record (in DNS) to allow OPS-COM servers to send email on your domains behalf.

ip4:209.217.117.82/32  include:_spf.mailgun.org 

Please note that this is only first line generalized security. For more details click here: https://www.dmarcanalyzer.com/spf/


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