CheckMXEmail setup can feel like a pile of unfamiliar acronyms and DNS records. Take it one step at a time. For settings that change by provider, follow the current instructions from the service that sends your mail.
What this guide isA preparation guide for legitimate, wanted business email. It is not a promise of inbox placement or legal advice. Your provider, recipients’ locations, and message type can change which requirements apply.
Choose a domain you control
A domain such as example.com gives your organization an identity on the internet. Register it through a registrar, keep the account in your organization’s control, and make sure the right people can manage its DNS.
DNS is the public directory where you publish records that tell other systems where your website and email belong. Keep access to the registrar and DNS account secure, and note renewal dates before you begin configuring mail.
Before moving onYou own or administer the domain, can sign in to the registrar, and know where its DNS records are managed.
Set up a mailbox with an email provider
A domain registrar and an email provider are different services, even when one company offers both. Choose a business email provider, create the mailbox and sender identity you need, and verify that mail works according to that provider’s instructions.
Providers such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 may use shared sending infrastructure. Their admin tools show the records and configuration they expect for your domain. Use those exact instructions; do not copy a record value from another domain or a generic example.
Before moving onYou can send and receive a test message using the provider, and you know where it displays its domain authentication instructions.
Never paste mailbox passwords, recovery codes, or sign-in tokens into an AI chat or a CheckMX setup form.
Publish SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
These DNS records help receiving providers check whether mail is authorized and whether the sender identity lines up. Your email provider supplies the record values. Add them in your DNS host and allow time for DNS changes to appear.
- SPF
- A DNS policy that lists which sending services may send for a domain. A domain should have one SPF record; coordinate providers into the same record instead of publishing competing SPF records.
- DKIM
- A cryptographic signature added to outgoing messages. The public key is published in DNS. Your provider gives you a selector and record value; the selector is part of the DNS name used to find that key.
- DMARC
- A policy and reporting mechanism that checks whether SPF or DKIM authentication aligns with the domain in the visible From address. Start with provider guidance and understand the reports before tightening enforcement.
When the outreach service is available, CheckMX can look up public MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. That lookup tells you what is published and visible to the resolver. It cannot prove that a real message was signed correctly, that the message passes DMARC alignment, or that a recipient will accept the message.
Before moving onUse your provider’s current setup instructions, publish the records at your DNS host, then run a public lookup and review any missing or unexpected values.
Review reputation signals in context
Blocklist checks and provider reputation tools can help you investigate a problem, but neither gives a complete deliverability verdict. A listing is a reason to investigate the listed IP or domain and the listing’s own removal guidance; a clean result is not an inbox guarantee.
Make sure you are checking the actual sending IP. With hosted or shared email, the provider may choose the sending IP and it may change. A website’s IP is usually not the same thing. If you cannot identify the mail server’s IP from provider documentation or message headers, leave the optional IP field blank.
Google Postmaster Tools can show some aggregate signals for eligible traffic to personal Gmail accounts after domain verification and enough data. It is not a universal reputation score and may have no data for low sending volumes.
Before moving onIdentify which service sends your messages. Check relevant provider dashboards and investigate any concrete warnings; do not treat a blocklist lookup alone as a send approval.
Make the sender clear and honor opt-outs
Use correct sender details and a subject line that describes the message. For U.S. commercial email covered by CAN-SPAM, messages need a valid physical postal address and a clear way to opt out. The opt-out method must remain available for at least 30 days after sending, and requests generally must be honored within 10 business days. Other laws can impose different or additional rules, including consent requirements. Check the rules that apply to you and your recipients.
Keep a suppression list of people who unsubscribed or should otherwise not receive a campaign. Apply it before each send and keep opt-out processing reliable. The CheckMX workspace includes a do-not-contact field that can flag matching draft recipients when the outreach service is available; it does not currently send campaigns or provide a live unsubscribe mechanism.
Only contact people where you have a valid basis to do so. Email verification checks address signals; it does not establish permission, consent, or compliance.
Before moving onConfirm your sender identity, postal address, recipient sourcing, suppression process, and a functioning opt-out method in your sending system.
Use the guide alongside your workspace
Check off the steps you reviewed, save your setup notes, and ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Cursor to explain the next one. The copied prompt contains general instructions and leaves your saved form values out.
The workspace provides fields for setup notes, campaign drafts, warm-up plans, and suppression lists. Saving and DNS lookups depend on the outreach service being available; wait for a clear saved confirmation before leaving your edits. Mailbox connections, live campaign sending, inbox sync, and performance reporting are planned. Nothing in the setup checklist enables sending.
Open sending setup