Setting Up Domains and Senders

Before you can send nurturing emails from Rizer, you need to configure a custom sending domain and create sender profiles. This article walks you through the setup process — adding your domain, configuring DNS records, verifying everything works, and creating the senders who’ll appear in your recipients’ inboxes.

Why You Need a Custom Domain

You can’t send nurturing emails from a generic Rizer address. Every email must come from a domain you own. This isn’t a limitation — it’s how professional email works, and it benefits you.

Better Deliverability

Email providers like Gmail, Outlook, and corporate mail servers look at where emails come from. Messages from properly authenticated domains you control land in inboxes. Messages from shared or unauthenticated domains land in spam.

When you set up your domain correctly, you’re telling email providers: “This is really from us. We’ve proven we own this domain. These emails are legitimate.”

Brand Consistency

Your emails come from yourcompany.com, not from some third-party address. Recipients see your brand in the “From” field. Replies go to your team. Everything looks and feels like it’s coming from you, because it is.

Reputation Control

Your sending reputation belongs to you. If you maintain good practices — relevant content, reasonable frequency, honoring unsubscribes — your reputation stays strong. You’re not affected by what other companies do.

With a shared sending domain, you’d inherit everyone else’s reputation problems. Your own domain keeps you in control.

Compliance

Many regions require commercial emails to come from verified, identifiable senders. Using your own authenticated domain helps meet these requirements. It shows recipients (and regulators) that you’re a legitimate business sending legitimate emails.

The Domain Setup Process

Setting up a domain involves three main steps:

1. Add your domain to Rizer
2. Add DNS records to verify ownership
3. Wait for verification to complete

The whole process takes 15-30 minutes of active work, plus waiting time for DNS propagation (usually minutes to hours, occasionally up to 48 hours).

What You’ll Need

Before starting, make sure you have:

A domain you control — Typically your company’s primary domain (yourcompany.com) or a subdomain you’ll create.

Access to DNS settings — You’ll need to add records in your DNS provider. This might be Cloudflare, GoDaddy, AWS Route 53, Google Domains, or wherever your domain’s DNS is managed.

The right permissions — If IT manages your DNS, you may need their help adding records.

Adding Your Domain

Let’s walk through adding a domain to Rizer.

Choosing a Subdomain

You’ll want to use a subdomain for sending, not your root domain. Common choices:

• mail.yourcompany.com
• email.yourcompany.com
• news.yourcompany.com
• updates.yourcompany.com

Using a subdomain keeps your nurturing email reputation separate from your main domain. If something goes wrong with nurturing emails (spam complaints, for example), it doesn’t affect your primary domain’s reputation for regular business email.

Adding the Domain in Rizer

1. Go to Settings > Nurturing > Domains
2. Click + Domain
3. Enter your sending subdomain (for example, mail.yourcompany.com)
4. Click Save

[Screenshot: Add domain modal with subdomain field]

The domain appears in your list with status Pending verification. Now you need to prove you own it.

Configuring DNS Records

After adding a domain, Rizer provides DNS records you need to add to your DNS provider. These records authenticate your domain for email sending.

Viewing Your DNS Records

1. In the domains list, find your new domain
2. Click the domain row to expand it
3. You’ll see the DNS records you need to add

[Screenshot: Domain row expanded showing DNS records with types and values]

Rizer provides three types of records:

SPF Record

What it does: SPF (Sender Policy Framework) tells email providers which servers are allowed to send email from your domain. It’s like a guest list — only approved senders get through.

Record type: TXT

What you’ll add: A TXT record with a value that includes Rizer’s sending servers in your domain’s SPF policy.

DKIM Record

What it does: DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a cryptographic signature to your emails. This proves the email wasn’t tampered with in transit and really came from your domain.

Record type: TXT

What you’ll add: A TXT record with a long cryptographic key value.

CNAME Record

What it does: This points your subdomain to Rizer’s email infrastructure for tracking and delivery.

Record type: CNAME

What you’ll add: A CNAME record pointing to Rizer’s servers.

Adding Records to Your DNS Provider

The exact steps depend on your DNS provider, but the general process is:

1. Log in to your DNS provider (Cloudflare, GoDaddy, AWS Route 53, etc.)
2. Navigate to DNS settings for your domain
3. Add each record with the type and value shown in Rizer
4. Save your changes

Tips for Different Providers

Cloudflare:

• Add records in the DNS section
• For CNAME records, you may want to disable proxy (orange cloud) — use DNS only (gray cloud)
• Changes propagate quickly, often within minutes

GoDaddy:

• Add records in the DNS Management section
• Use the “Add” button for each record type
• Propagation may take longer than some providers

AWS Route 53:

• Create records in your hosted zone
• Use “Simple routing” for these records
• Propagation is typically fast

Google Domains:

• Add records in the DNS section
• Follow the prompts for each record type

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Adding to the wrong domain: Make sure you’re editing DNS for the subdomain, not a different domain you manage.

Wrong record type: SPF and DKIM are TXT records, not other types. The CNAME is a CNAME, not a TXT.

Extra characters: Copy values exactly. Extra spaces, missing periods, or typos break verification.

Root domain vs. subdomain: Records should be added for your subdomain (mail.yourcompany.com), not your root domain (yourcompany.com).

Verifying Your Domain

After adding DNS records, you need to verify that they’re in place.

How Verification Works

Rizer checks your domain’s DNS to confirm the records exist and are correct. This proves you own the domain and have configured it properly for sending.

Triggering Verification

1. Return to Settings > Nurturing > Domains in Rizer
2. Click the menu icon next to your domain
3. Click Verify

Rizer checks the DNS records. If everything is correct, the status changes to Active.

[Screenshot: Domain showing Active status with green badge]

If Verification Fails

If verification doesn’t succeed immediately:

Wait for DNS propagation. DNS changes take time to spread across the internet. Most propagate within 15-30 minutes, but some providers take up to 48 hours. Wait and try again.

Check your records. Log back into your DNS provider and verify:

• All three records are present
• Values match exactly what Rizer provided
• Record types are correct (TXT vs. CNAME)
• No typos or extra characters

Check you’re editing the right place. Make sure you added records for the subdomain (mail.yourcompany.com), not the root domain or a different subdomain.

Use a DNS checker. Search for “DNS checker” online and test your subdomain. You should see the records you added. If they don’t appear, the records aren’t set up correctly or haven’t propagated yet.

Check for conflicting records. Some DNS configurations have existing records that conflict with what you’re adding. Look for duplicate TXT records or conflicting CNAME entries.

Verification Success

Once verified, your domain shows Active status. You can now create senders on this domain and start sending emails.

The verification isn’t a one-time thing — Rizer periodically checks that your DNS records are still in place. If they change or disappear, you may need to re-verify.

Creating Senders

With a verified domain, you can create sender profiles — the email addresses that appear in your nurturing emails.

What Is a Sender?

A sender is an identity for sending emails. It includes:

• Name — What recipients see (like “Sarah from Acme”)
• Email address — The from address (like sarah@mail.acme.com)
• Reply-to — Where replies go (can be different from the from address)

You can have multiple senders on one domain. Different flows can use different senders depending on who should appear to be reaching out.

Adding a Sender

1. Go to Settings > Nurturing > Senders
2. Click + Sender
3. Select the Domain from the dropdown (your verified domain)
4. Enter the Name that appears in the From field
5. Enter the Email address local part (the part before @)
6. Optionally set a Reply-to address if different from the sender
7. Click Save

[Screenshot: Add sender modal with name, email, and reply-to fields filled in]

Choosing a Sender Name

The sender name is what recipients see in their inbox before they even open the email. Make it count.

Use real names when possible. “Sarah Chen” or “Sarah from Acme” feels more personal than “Acme Sales Team” or “noreply.”

Match the relationship. If the recipient worked with a specific rep, sending from that rep’s name makes sense. For broader campaigns, a company name works.

Be recognizable. The name should connect to something the recipient remembers. If they talked to your company, they should recognize you.

Examples:

• “Sarah Chen” — Personal, good for direct relationships
• “Sarah from Acme” — Personal with company context
• “Acme Sales” — Less personal, but clear
• “The Acme Team” — Friendly but generic

Choosing an Email Address

The local part (before @) of your sender email should be:

Professional: sarah@, sales@, hello@ — not coolguy123@

Recognizable: Something recipients might expect from a business

Consistent: Use a pattern across senders if you have multiple

Common patterns:

• firstname@ (sarah@mail.acme.com)
• firstname.lastname@ (sarah.chen@mail.acme.com)
• role@ (sales@mail.acme.com)
• hello@ or contact@ for general sends

Understanding Reply-To

The reply-to address is where responses go when someone replies to your nurturing email.

Same as sender: Leave reply-to blank to have replies go to the sender address. Simple and expected.

Different from sender: Set a specific reply-to if you want replies routed elsewhere. For example:

• Send from sarah@mail.acme.com
• Replies go to sales@acme.com (a monitored inbox)

This is useful when:

• The sender address isn’t monitored
• You want replies centralized in a team inbox
• The sending subdomain isn’t set up to receive email

Important: Make sure someone actually monitors the reply-to address. Prospects replying to nurturing emails is a buying signal. Don’t let those responses go unanswered.

Testing Your Sender

After creating a sender, test that emails actually send:

1. In the senders list, click the menu icon next to your sender
2. Click Send test email
3. A test email goes to your Rizer account email address
4. Check your inbox

[Screenshot: Senders list showing menu with Send test email option]

The test email confirms:

• Your domain is properly configured
• The sender works
• Emails aren’t landing in spam

If the test email doesn’t arrive:

• Check your spam folder
• Verify your domain is still Active
• Make sure DNS records haven’t changed
• Wait a few minutes and try again

Managing Multiple Senders

You might want several senders for different purposes.

When to Use Multiple Senders

Different people: If multiple reps handle recycled accounts, each can have their own sender. Emails feel more personal coming from someone the prospect knows.

Different purposes: Sales outreach vs. marketing content vs. product updates might come from different senders.

Different flows: A flow targeting enterprise deals might come from a senior person. A flow targeting SMB might come from a team address.

Testing: Try different sender names to see which get better open rates.

Creating Additional Senders

Just repeat the sender creation process. You can have as many senders as you need on each verified domain.

Choosing Senders for Flows

When you create a flow, you select a default sender. Individual steps can override this if needed.

Think about who should be reaching out to this audience:

• Personal relationship? Use the rep who worked with them.
• No personal relationship? Use a friendly team identity.
• High-value prospects? Consider a senior person.
• Educational content? Consider marketing or content team.

Deactivating and Reactivating

Sometimes you need to stop using a sender or domain without deleting it entirely.

Deactivating a Sender

If someone leaves the company or you want to stop using a sender:

1. Go to Settings > Nurturing > Senders
2. Click the menu icon next to the sender
3. Click Deactivate

What happens:

• The sender can’t be selected for new flows or steps
• Existing active flows using this sender continue sending (so active campaigns don’t break)
• The sender stays in your list for reference

Reactivating a Sender

To restore a deactivated sender:

1. Go to Settings > Nurturing > Senders
2. Filter by Deactivated to find the sender
3. Click the menu icon next to it
4. Click Reactivate

The sender is available again for flows.

Deactivating a Domain

If you need to stop using an entire domain:

1. Go to Settings > Nurturing > Domains
2. Click the menu icon next to the domain
3. Click Deactivate

What happens:

• All senders on this domain are deactivated
• Flows using those senders stop sending
• The domain stays in your list

Only deactivate a domain if you’re sure you don’t need it. This stops all email activity on that domain.

Reactivating a Domain

To restore a deactivated domain:

1. Find the domain in your list (may need to filter by deactivated)
2. Click the menu icon
3. Click Reactivate
4. You may need to re-verify if DNS records changed

Troubleshooting

Common issues and how to resolve them.

Domain Won’t Verify

DNS not propagated yet: Wait longer. Some providers take up to 48 hours, though most are much faster.

Records not added correctly: Double-check each record in your DNS provider. Values must match exactly.

Wrong record type: SPF and DKIM are TXT records. Make sure you didn’t accidentally create the wrong type.

Added to wrong location: Records should be on your subdomain, not your root domain or a different subdomain.

DNS provider limitations: Some providers have restrictions on certain record formats. Check their documentation or contact their support.

Test Email Doesn’t Arrive

Check spam: Test emails sometimes trigger spam filters, especially early on before you have sending history.

Domain not verified: Confirm your domain shows Active status.

Sender issues: Make sure the sender is active and properly configured.

Email delays: Sometimes there’s a delay. Wait a few minutes and check again.

Wrong email address: Verify your Rizer account email is correct.

Emails Going to Spam

New domain reputation: New sending domains don’t have established reputation. Start with small volumes and good content to build trust.

Missing DNS records: Verify SPF, DKIM, and CNAME are all in place and correct.

Content issues: Spam filters look at content too. Avoid spam trigger words, excessive links, or suspicious patterns.

Sending too much too fast: Ramp up slowly. Don’t send thousands of emails on day one.

Replies Not Arriving

Reply-to not monitored: Make sure someone checks the reply-to address.

Reply-to misconfigured: Verify the reply-to address is correct and can receive email.

Replies going to spam: Check spam folders on your reply-to inbox.

Subdomain can’t receive email: If your sending subdomain (mail.yourcompany.com) isn’t set up to receive email, make sure reply-to points to an address that can (like a main domain address).

Best Practices

Some recommendations for domain and sender setup.

Domain Practices

Use a dedicated subdomain. Keep nurturing separate from your main business email. Problems with one don’t affect the other.

Set up multiple domains for high volume. If you’re sending thousands of emails, consider multiple sending domains to spread volume and isolate reputation.

Document your DNS changes. Keep a record of what records you added and why. Helpful if you need to troubleshoot later or if someone else manages DNS.

Monitor domain health. Periodically check that your DNS records are still correct and your domain shows Active status.

Sender Practices

Use real people when possible. Emails from actual humans get better response than generic team addresses.

Make sure reply-to is monitored. Replies to nurturing emails are buying signals. Don’t miss them.

Keep sender names consistent. If Sarah sends the first email, Sarah should probably send subsequent ones too. Switching senders mid-flow can feel disjointed.

Test before going live. Always send test emails when creating new senders. Catch problems before they affect real prospects.

Maintenance Practices

Review sender status periodically. Deactivate senders for people who’ve left. Reactivate if needed.

Keep DNS records stable. Don’t change DNS records unless necessary. Changes can temporarily disrupt delivery while re-verification happens.

Monitor deliverability. Watch open rates and bounce rates. Declining numbers might indicate deliverability problems.

What’s Next

With your domain verified and senders created, you’re ready to build nurturing flows:

• Creating and Managing Flows — Build your first email sequence
• Building Audience Segments — Define who receives which flows
• Designing Email Templates — Create compelling email content
• Tracking Performance — Monitor how your nurturing performs

Start with one simple flow to get comfortable with the system. You can always add more sophistication later.