Emails can be sent to your clients directly from Inform Direct, but you first need to configure how you want the sender of these emails to appear to the recipient.


Sender email addresses are required for the automated process to send approval documents to clients via email. For full details of the process please see How to email confirmation statement approval documents to clients


To set these up, please click the Account tab at the top of the page and select Sender email settings.




Inform Direct gives you three choices:

   

1. Authenticate your domain - See DNS (Domain Name System) record changes

  • With permission from your domain, emails can appear to have come from your email address (e.g. Joe Bloggs <joebloggs@xyzaccounting.com>)
    • This is the best option for your customers in terms of familiarity and deliverability
    • This option can't be used for public domain email addresses (e.g. gmail.com, yahoo.com etc.)

  

2. Verify a single 'From' email address

  • By verifying a single email address it will appear to have been sent by you with a 'via' tag (e.g. Joe Bloggs <joebloggs@xyzaccounting.comvia pm.mtasv.net>) 
    • This option can't be used for public domain email addresses (e.g. gmail.com, yahoo.com etc.)

  

3. Custom 'From' name

  • With a personalised 'From name' name but sent from our email domain (e.g. Joe Bloggs <support@informdirect.co.uk>)
    • This option can be used for public domain email addresses (e.g. gmail.com, yahoo.com etc.)

  


While you can use any of these three options, option 1 is the best method for both you and your customer, but it does require two records to be added to the DNS (Domain Name System) records for the domain you want to send email from. This may seem like a small hurdle, but it is easy to do and worth persevering for.


If you do not have access to the DNS records for this domain it will be worth seeking out the person that does and getting them to update the records for you.


If that option is not possible, then it will be worth considering the other options.


1. Authenticate your domain

Benefits:

  • The email will appear to have been sent to your client from your email address, so they will be more likely to recognise and respond to it
  • It will have the best deliverability possible
  • Once you authenticate your domain (once) you can add as many email addresses in that domain as you want without further work

Drawbacks:

  • Two entries are required to be added to the domain's DNS, while this is simple to do, you will need to find someone with access to your domain (could be your IT team/provider) to do this



2. Verify a single 'From' email address

Benefits:

  • A slightly simpler process than option 1, it requires only that you click a link in an email to provide verification to use this email address

Drawbacks:

  • The sender will look mostly familiar to the recipient, but they may be sceptical due to the 'via' tag (e.g. via pm.mtasv.net
  • The deliverability of such emails will be lesser than option 1

    

3. Custom 'From' name

  • The simplest process, it requires only that you enter the name you want to be shown with the email address, no further configuration changes or email validation required

Drawbacks:

  • The sender will look less familiar to the recipient than the other two options due to the email address being  unfamiliar to them (i.e. support@informdierct.co.uk)
  • The deliverability of such emails will likely be lesser than option 1