If you have recently activated the Clastic Email Add-on on your Cloudways server and you are using that to send the emails submitted by forms on your WordPress website and then you noticed that all the emails are landing on the spam folder instead of the inbox, here are the tips to fix it.
What is Elastic Email?
Elastic Email is a fast and reliable email delivery service for sending marketing and transactional emails. Transactional emails are automated emails triggered by user actions, including shipping confirmation, password reset link, etc. Marketing emails are used to promote services or products you offer while developing relationships with potential clients. It can include sales promotions, exclusive deals, newsletters, etc.
These emails are usually in bulk dispatching from your server/application to your customers or subscribers. The external SMTP service like Elastic Email maximizes the deliverability of emails. In this step-by-step guide, you will learn how to integrate the Elastic Email add-on on your server.
Activate Elastic Email — Bind Elastic Email to Server
Now, you need to bind the Elastic Email add-on to your desired server where you wish to configure the SMTP service. Here’s how to do it.
- From the top menu bar, open Servers.
- Then, choose your desired server.
- Under Server Management, select SMTP.
- Select Elastic Email from the dropdown.
- Click Enable.
That’s it! You have successfully configured the Elastic Email Add-on on your server; therefore, you do not need to activate Elastic Email separately for each application. Let’s move to the next step of verifying your domain(s) for the improved email delivery rate.
Avoid emails landing in spam folder
If you are getting emails and it’s landing in spam folder, there is something wrong or missing in settings. The most common reason is you are not using correct sender’s email address. If your domain name which you are hosting on Cloudways server and from which you are sending emails, is yourdomain.com then the sender’s email address should also belongs to this domain name. For example, the sender’s correct email address can be info@yourdomain.com or john@yourdomain.com etc. So please check the email address of sender if your emails are landing in spam. If you are using correct email address and still email are going inside spam folder then keep reading.
Another reason is the missing SPF records on your DNS settings. Lets login to domain registrar check this. Login to your domain registrar and go to DNS settings.
SPF records
SPF stands for “Sender Policy Framework”. SPF is an email authentication method. SPF helps servers authenticate that messages appearing to come from a specific domain are sent from servers authorized by the domain owner. It helps protect your domain from phishing and spoofing, and it also ensures that your messages are delivered correctly.
You will need the following information while pointing SPF record.
| Type | TXT |
| Name/Host/Alias | @ |
| Value/Answer/Destination | v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.elasticemail.com ~all |
| TTL | Automatic or the lowest allowed |
Please note that there can only be one SPF record per domain, so if there is an existing record, add “include:_spf.elasticemail.com” at the end of that record. For instance, if your domain already has the SPF record for Rackspace mail addon as “v=spf1 a mx include:emailsrvr.com include:_spf.elasticemail.com ~all”, after updating your final record should look like “v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.google.com include:_spf.elasticemail.com ~all”. Similarly, if you have an SPF record for Gsuite, the record should look like “v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.google.com ~all”.
After adding the SPF records, please wait for sometimes and check if the emails are still landing in spam folder. If yes, you need to add DKIM records also.
DKIM Records
DKIM stands for “DomainKeys Identified Mail”. It is also an email authentication method that adds a digital signature to every message. DKIM allows receiving servers to confirm that the domain’s owners have authorized mail coming from a domain and that these messages aren’t altered during transit.
You will need the following information while pointing DKIM record.
| Type | TXT |
| Name/Host/Alias | api._domainkey |
| Value/Answer/Destination | k=rsa;t=s;p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQCbmGbQMzYeMvxwtNQoXN0waGYaciuKx8mtMh5czguT4EZlJXuCt6V+l56mmt3t68FEX5JJ0q4ijG71BGoFRkl87uJi7LrQt1ZZmZCvrEII0YO4mp8sDLXC8g1aUAoi8TJgxq2MJqCaMyj5kAm3Fdy2tzftPCV/lbdiJqmBnWKjtwIDAQAB |
| TTL | Automatic or the lowest allowed |
After adding the DKIM records, please wait for sometimes and and send submit the contact form to test it. Email must be landing in your inbox now.