Can I use my TLD for SAP with Marketing Cloud when it's also used for corporate email?
Summary
What email marketers say9Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum advises against using a TLD for SAP when it's already in use for corporate email. They highlight potential deliverability issues due to shared DNS records and suggest a dedicated subdomain for SAP as a best practice.
Email marketer from Reddit mentions that while technically feasible, using a subdomain is generally cleaner and avoids potential conflicts with existing MX records for corporate email. They recommend evaluating the complexity and potential risks before proceeding with the TLD.
Email marketer from EmailGeeks Forum advises against using the TLD due to potential damage to the brand's overall email reputation if marketing campaigns result in deliverability issues. Using a subdomain isolates these risks.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that while technically possible, using a subdomain is recommended for managing DNS records for authentication and is considered a best practice by M3AAWG and Spamhaus.
Email marketer from Litmus details that it is best practice to configure a subdomain as it helps keep marketing and transactional emails separate, and avoid potential conflicts with email authentication records.
Email marketer from StackExchange explains that it's better to use a subdomain for your SAP because it allows you to build a separate reputation for your marketing emails, without affecting your main domain's reputation.
Email marketer from EmailVendorSelection shares that properly setting up your deliverability configurations is critical, including SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. This is important when considering using a TLD vs subdomain as it can impact your email deliverability.
Email marketer from Mailjet's blog advises using a subdomain for email marketing. They explain it helps keep your main domain's reputation separate from your marketing efforts, which is crucial for deliverability and brand protection.
Email marketer from SendGrid details about dedicated sending domains. They state it is the best practice to setup subdomains to ensure there is no impact to the main domain.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks explains that using the TLD directly for SAP can cause conflicts with existing MX records for inbound corporate mail. Also Salesforce doesn’t host customised DNS.
Expert from Word to the Wise states that keeping your email marketing separate from your core business domain will improve deliverability.
Expert from Spamresource explains that using a subdomain for email marketing allows for clearer separation and management of reputation, as well as easier configuration of technical settings such as SPF and DKIM records.
Expert from Email Geeks shares experience with Marketing Cloud, stating that configuring the TLD for sending is possible by setting up the SAP domain as a subdomain and adding the TLD as a "private domain". This setup ensures DMARC compliance because the return path domain allows for relaxed alignment for SPF.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Salesforce Help explains that SAP involves branding your account with your domain. Although it doesn't explicitly prohibit using the TLD, it implies a dedicated setup for sending, suggesting a subdomain for clarity and to avoid email delivery issues with corporate email.
Documentation from Microsoft explains how to setup sending domains. They encourage the use of subdomains and dedicated IP addresses to seperate the corporate domain from marketing activities.
Documentation from DMARC.org details how SPF works and states you should use a subdomain for marketing activities to seperate it from your normal business emails.
Documentation from SparkPost details the process of subdomain delegation. This information is relevant because it helps users understand how to properly configure a subdomain for sending emails, which is often a recommended alternative to using the primary domain.
Documentation from RFC explains how MX records work in DNS. The TLD is expected to have these and could conflict with Marketing Cloud if you try to use the same domain.