Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
When should you use an email subdomain?
If emails have different goals or audiences, it may be worth sending them from different subdomains. Here are some examples of scenarios that can benefit from an email subdomain:
Transactional emails
Password reset messages and other transactional emails have a higher engagement rate than newsletters. Since email deliverability is very important – if not critical – for transactional emails (no one wants a password reset message hidden in the spam folder), using a subdomain is helpful.
Promotional emails
We know you're doing your best to follow email marketing best practices, but you may experience spam complaints. If people don't like your promotional content and stop engaging with it or mark it as spam, the reputation will affect all other message types on the same domain or subdomain.
Global teams
Distributed teams may want to use subdomains if their email programs are separate or have widely varying send volumes and engagement rates.
Sales and outreach emails
People who work in sales, public relations, or PR at your company are likely sending messages from the root domain. It makes sense to separate marketing emails from the root domain so that each team's work doesn't interfere with each other.
Are there situations when you shouldn't use an email subdomain? Possibly. If you have a scenario where an email subdomain could be used, such as a specific type of promotional email, but you only send it infrequently, this may not be the best move. Since a relatively even and consistent send volume improves your deliverability, it's not worth setting up a new subdomain for occasional campaigns.
Do I need multiple subdomains?
If you want to maintain your root domain and separate email types such as promotional or transactional emails, you will need multiple subdomains. If you want to separate from the root domain, you would have one.
Can I just send messages from different names on the same domain?
Changing the name before the @ in the email address is not the same as using a subdomain. For example, marketing@website.com and reset@website.com use the same domain. The name before the @ is helpful to people, but reputation gets lumped together in the eyes of ISPs.
Some brands, like Amazon, go this route:
- reply@amazon.com
- store-news@amazon.com
- order-update@amazon.com
- account-update@amazon.com
- tracking@amazon.com
- digital-noreply@amazon.com
However, if you want to break up shipping to ensure deliverability, this tactic won't work. Changing the name before the @ helps you organize senders better. However, because it is not a separate subdomain, each individual's sending activity affects the rest.
Should I send completely from different domains?
Technically speaking, sending different types of emails from different domains would affect reputation and deliverability. The algorithms behind ISPs would like to value your domains as separate entities.
However, sending emails from completely different domains is not very user-friendly.
As a post from the Litmus community pointed out, the further you get away from the domain people expect to see in their inbox, the more problematic it seems. If you signed up to receive offers from nike.com, a message from nikeemails.com might seem like a scam.
How should I name subdomains?
You have complete creative freedom to name your email subdomains however you want. It's a good idea to choose something that makes sense for your business and the purpose of your subdomain, but ISPs won't force you to choose hello@purplealligator.website.com either.
All email subdomain sending addresses follow the same structure, and it's up to you to decide how many subdomains to use and how to name them.
The bit that distinguishes a subdomain comes after the @ and before your root domain. A dot separates the subdomain from the root domain.
Let's break it down for you real quick:
At Litmus we use hello@e.litmus.com because it's short and memorable. The subdomain “e” stands for “emails” and does not exceed our brand name.
Are you lacking inspiration? Here are examples of email subdomains from some brands:
Goal
- orders@oe.target.com
- TargetCircle@oe.target.com
- targetnews@em.target.com
Ticketmaster
- customer_support@email.ticketmaster.com
- Newsletter@email.ticketmaster.com
- support@reply.ticketmaster.com
Credit karma
- notifications@reminder3.creditkarma.com
- notifications@mail15.creditkarma.com
- mail@mail6.creditkarma.com
- notifications@mail13.creditkarma.com
- notifications@reminder2.creditkarma.com
- mail@mail5.creditkarma.com
- notifications@notifications4.creditkarma.com
- notifications@mail11.creditkarma.com
Southwest Airlines
- SouthwestAirlines@iluv.southwest.com
- southwestairlines@ifly.southwest.com
Taco Bell
- bellbuzz@email.tacobell.com
- noreply@info.tacobell.com
Paula's choice
- info@notification.paulaschoice.com
- paulaschoice@b.paulaschoice.com
How do I set up a subdomain?
The exact steps for setting up a new email subdomain may vary slightly depending on your email service provider (ESP). Therefore, first contact your account manager, customer support team or the platform's help documents.
Best practices for email subdomains
How you name your email subdomains is a personal decision. Every brand makes its own decisions. However, there are subdomain best practices that everyone must follow equally.
Set up the correct email authentication protocols
Your email subdomain should follow standard email deliverability best practices, including authentication. Email authentication verifies that emails actually come from the domain they claim to use. There are three main protocols you should set up with your ESP:
- Sender Policy Framework (SPF) Specifies which IP addresses or domains can send email on your behalf
- DomainKeys Identified Message (DKIM) is a digital signature that confirms that an email comes from you (and not from an impersonator).
- Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Compliance (DMARC) Align your SPF and DKIM records. It describes how mailbox providers should handle an email that fails an authentication check
- Brand Message Identification Indicators (BIMI) Adds a verified sender logo next to your message in your inbox
These email authentication protocols have been the standard for some time. Since the beginning of 2024, they have also been part of the new sender rules for Gmail and Yahoo. If you send more than 5,000 emails per day to Gmail and Yahoo accounts, here's what you need to do:
- Authenticate your emails with DKIM, SPF and DMARC
- Implement list unsubscription with one click
- Honor will log out within two days
- Maintain a spam complaint rate below 0.3% (no more than three spam reports per 1,000 messages).
Get your new subdomains going
While your email subdomain is under the umbrella of your root domain, inbox providers view the subdomain as a new and unknown sender. Therefore, you need to prepare new subdomains in the same way you would a new IP address. Here are a few tips to get your new subdomain up and running:
- Prioritize sending your best emails to your most engaged subscribers. You want your email activity to behave at its best to impress inbox providers. When setting up a subdomain for content that was previously under your root domain, you should focus on the messages with the highest open and click-to-open (CTOR) rates. Similarly, start sending to subscribers who have opened your recent messages.
- Take your time. If you don't warm up your new subdomain slowly, deliverability could drop. Warming up a new IP typically takes 4 to 8 weeks. So you can assume that this is also the case with a new subdomain. Also try to avoid large spikes in sending volume.
- Watch email performance like a hawk. Keep an eye on deliverability, open rates, and click-through rates. Compare performance between ISPs. And plan to stop and assess if something goes wrong.
Wondering if you need an email warm-up? Answer the questions in this quiz:
Link to your root domain in your emails…
Your emails may come from a unique subdomain, but all links in your email should point to your root domain.
Let’s say your promotional emails come from @deals.website.com. The link in your email that directs subscribers to your product page should be the default URL at website.com.
An email testing tool like Litmus will help you find and fix broken links so you're always sending traffic to the right place.
But redirect subdomains to your root domain just in case
While you can control the links in your emails, you can't stop subscribers from typing your subdomain into their web browser's address bar. This is why it's a good idea to set up a redirect from your various email subdomains to your actual website.
Create rules for subdomain replies sent to monitored inboxes
When a subscriber replies to a message sent from an email subdomain, you need a way to view and respond to it. You can create rules in your ESP to route replies to a monitored inbox so no one falls through the cracks.
Check deliverability and performance
By separating email sending between subdomains, delivery problems can be avoided. Still, you need to monitor performance closely to troubleshoot problems quickly.
If you're not sure how to check email performance, check out our email health checklist. As you review the overall health of your email program, also take some time to isolate the performance of email subdomains.
You can also use Litmus Email Guardian to monitor your emails for issues such as broken links and changes in email rendering that could damage your sender's reputation.
Domain reputation is one piece of your deliverability puzzle
By intentionally designing your email subdomain strategy, you can monitor your sender reputation and mitigate any problems that arise. However, your domain reputation is only one factor that affects your deliverability, so your work doesn't stop there.
It's best to take steps both before and after sending to ensure your messages don't end up in the spam folder. Learn more about how to keep your deliverability in top shape here.
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
