How to Set Up a Custom Tracking Domain on Network Solutions

The tool you use to send emails contaminates your sender reputation!

How?

Your EPS uses a tracking domain to report opens and clicks.

The problem is that this domain is being used by most of their customers, which include spammers and other low-quality senders.

If you send emails with this tracking domain in their content, internet service providers may mark them as spam.

To prevent this, you must set up your own tracking domain, which you will only use.

Follow the steps below to set up a custom tracking domain on Network Solutions. ⬇️

Don’t Use Your Primary Domain! ⚠️

In any email marketing some of your emails may get marked as spam. Happens to anyone; it’s the nature of the beast.

If you use your main domain as the custom tracking domain these spam complaints may tarnish your domain’s reputation.

That’s why you should use a subdomain instead. It keeps the domain and subdomain’s reputations separate.

Setting Up a Custom Tracking Domain on Network Solutions 📝

Follow the steps below to configure a CTD on Network Solutions:

1. ➡️ Get the tracking domain from the tool you send emails with. For example, for lemlist, it’s custom.lemlist.com.
2. ➡️ Log in to your Network Solutions account
3. ➡️ Select Domain Names
4. ➡️ Click on the checkbox of your domain
5. ➡️ Select the three-dotted menu under Actions and click on Manage
6. ➡️ Select Advanced Tools
7. ➡️ Now click on Manage, found next to Advanced DNS Records
8. ➡️ If necessary, click Continue to advance to Manage Advanced DNS Records
9. ➡️ Click Add Record
10. ➡️ For Type, select CNAME
11. ➡️ For the Refers to field, choose Other Host. Now, under Host Name, add the name of your subdomain. It can be anything you want. To keep it simple, use tracking. This will result in your subdomain looking like this: tracking.yourdomain.com.
12. ➡️ In the Alias to field, enter the tracking domain of your EPS, for example, custom.lemlist.com.
13. ➡️ Click Add, and you’re done!

*It could take up to 72 hours for your CTD to be active. However, your record will usually propagate much sooner.

Adding Your Custom Tracking Domain Back to Your ESP

You’ve set up your CTD.

However, to use it with your ESP, you have to add it to their settings.

The steps below will differ slightly depending on your ESP, but since it’s a relatively straightforward process on any ESP, you should be able to figure it out.

1. ➡️ Log in to your email service provider
2. ➡️ Go to “Domain Settings,” “Service Settings,” or similar. Ask your ESP for guidance if you can’t find it.
3. ➡️ Now, look for a field to add your CTD. It could simply be named “custom tracking domain.”
4. ➡️ Add your CTD, e.g., tracking.yourdomain.com
5. ➡️ Save

Your Custom Tracking Domain is Ready!

Setting up a CTD is an excellent start toward avoiding the spam folder.

But by itself, it’s not enough to get great open rates.

You also have set up your email authentication DNS records. They help make your emails more secure, and internet service providers love it if you have them installed.

A good reputation with ESPs ensures better inbox placement and more ROI on your email outreach.

Here are the essential DNS records that you must set up:

• 👉 SPF
• 👉 DKIM
• 👉 DMARC
• 👉 MX

Once everything is in place, it’s to warm up your domain.

You don’t want to send out hundreds of daily emails from the get-go as this is behavior a spammer would exhibit, which could severely damage your sender reputation and deliverability rates.

Instead, you want to play it nice and slow by gradually increasing both your sending volume and frequency.

Additionally, you should get a healthy amount of replies to your warm-up emails to indicate to ISPs that you’re sending out real emails.

If that sounds like a lot of work, it’s because it is.

Fortunately, lemwarm, a domain warm-up service, can do this for you while you focus on other important tasks.

lemwarm will let you know once your email is warmed up via its deliverability score meter.

With your CTD configured, your email authentication records set up, and your domain warmed up, you’re now ready to start your email outreach. Expect great open rates!