SendGrid
Getting started
Create your SendGrid account
- Create an account with SendGrid. SendGrid offers 40,000 emails for 30 days, then 100 emails/day. Beyond that, you'll need to upgrade to $14.95/mo plan that offers about 40,000 emails per month.
- Activate your SendGrid account. Open the SendGrid activation email you received in the email account you used for signup and follow the instructions provided.
Adding your domain name to SendGrid
- First, we need to set up Domain Authentication that includes SPF and DKIM to ensure our emails are delivered to recipients. Go to Settings > Sender Authentication > click the Get Started button – or click here.
Getting Started with Sender Authentication
- Add your domain. If your email is bob@mycompany.com, then your domain name is everything after the "@" symbol - mycompany.com. We will leave Advanced Settings as-is.
Entering domain name
- Select your DNS host (e.g. GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.) and for now, we won't be using brand links so we will leave the second question to No. Instead, our emails will have Close's email tracking enabled.
Selecting DNS host for your domain
Link Branding
Link Branding is used for open email tracking images and click-tracking links so that links are pointing to your domain instead of using default SendGrid's. That way email's reputation is higher so is deliverability. See more info on SendGrid.
- Depending on your DNS host selection this page might differ. The image below shows when you select Other host (not listed) which is an option for manual configuration. Keep this tab open for easy copy-paste for the next step.
SendGrid's DNS records
Adding the DNS entries
- Log into your domain registrar/host and navigate to the DNS settings
Pro Tip: Follow the links to see guidance on adding new DNS records
Revisit the You'll Need Your Domain Host Credentials section above and click on the various domain hosts listed for examples of modifying DNS entries.
- Create the first CNAME record - in our case, that's em1361.mycompany.com with value u15641312.wl063.sendgrid.net.
- Create the s1._domainkey and s2._domainkey CNAME records.
- Save your DNS changes.
- Back in SendGrid, click the Verify button and you should be greeted with It worked! confirmation.
Completed DNS verification
DNS changes take 24-48 hours
After you save your DNS records, it will take approximately 24-48 hours to propagate them globally.
Configuring Close to work with SendGrid's SMTP
- Once your DNS settings are verified (usually 24-48 hours later), log into your SendGrid account in your web browser
- Go to Email API > Integration Guide > SMTP Relay - Choose to set up SMTP relay
Setting up SMTP Relay
- Enter the name for your API key and click Create Key which will act as your Password when connecting the email account in Close.
Generating an API key
- Make sure you keep info from this page saved as we will need it on the next step. Click on Next: Verify Integration.
SMTP relay with generated API key
- Open the Close app and navigate to Settings > Connected Accounts > + Add account > Custom Configuration, enter your Login email, press Continue, and on the screen below toggle off Enable email syncing option
Click "Custom Configuration" and toggle off "Enable email syncing"
- Enter the SMTP details you noted in step #4 and then click Save:
- SMTP Host - smtp.sendgrid.net
- SMTP Username - apikey
- SMTP Password - your API key from step #3
- To verify that everything is working as expected we will need to add SendGrid's SMTP server in Close and send an email to someone. Click on Verify Integration and follow the next steps from Testing it out section.
Testing it out
You should have a Custom server in your Connected Accounts:
Custom SMTP Server in Connected Accounts
Go to a lead and try to send a new email using your SendGrid custom server by changing the From field:
Changing From email address
If needed, you can change the name/email from which you are sending by going to Close app > Settings > Connected Accounts > Custom server > Add a From Address....
Send an email and go back to SendGrid's verification and you should see It worked! confirmation after a few minutes.
Working SendGrid integration
Now you can use your SendGrid connected account while sending emails from Close.
Adding Unsubscribe Links
Most countries have specific laws that specify how you may utilize bulk email. You're responsible to abide within the applicable regulations, but an honorable (and recommend!) first step is to enable the option to unsubscribe from future emails. This will also help with keeping your email domain off of globally-monitored black lists.
To enable unsubscribe links in SendGrid go to Settings > Tracking > Subscription Tracking and enable it. By default, SendGrid will place the link at the bottom of your emails, but you are allowed to customize it and move it wherever you like via the Replacement Tag option.
SendGrid will manage the process of not sending emails to people who have opted-out. More details at SendGrid Subscription Tracking.
