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Setting Up Branded URLs

NoteAll domains on this page are just examples. You will pick the specific subdomain for your implementation during your launch.
Set up your domain so that links generated and shared are branded with your identity. There are two places where branded links are important:
  • Promotion Links: These are the links you create to promote your program through outbound promotions via email, social media, and other marketing channels (e.g., refer.mycompany.com/newsletter).
  • Share Links: These are the links your advocates share with their friends (e.g., refer.mycompany.com/s/lbarnett).
The most common option is to use subdomains of your main brand domain. For example, If your company website is at mycompany.com then the most common branded domains are:
  • Promotion Links: share.mycompany.com
  • Share Links: share.mycompany.com/s/
Important NoteYour branded domain must be a domain that points to the Extole servers directly, such as share.mycompany.com. It cannot be a path like www.mycompany.com/share.

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Create CNAMEs for Your Domains

Setting up a branded domain will require your IT organization to create CNAMEs for your domains and generate certificates. To set up your CNAME, complete the following steps:
  1. Get your current Extole Program Domain. You can find this in the My Extole Tech Center. It will be listed in the Program Domains section. Typically your unbranded domain will look like “mycompany.extole.io”. If you cannot locate your domain, contact your CSM.
  2. Log into your domain registrar’s control panel and create a CNAME record from your Branded Program URL to the Extole Program Domain. The UI and terminology may vary depending on your registrar. You will point refer.mycompany.com to mycompany.extole.io.
  3. Once you have created your branded domains, go back into Tech Center and create a New Domain.
Example DNS update:
Corporate DNS versus Public DNSMany companies have a separate DNS server that runs inside the company to help support things like a corporate intranet. If this is the case, the CNAME needs to be applied to both the public DNS and the corporate DNS.If you find your program works correctly on your phone and over public WiFi, but does not work when you are at the office, then this is probably the case.
Replacing a Branded DomainIf you are moving an existing program to a new branded domain, create the new CNAME and leave the old one in place. Extole forwards the old domain so that links your advocates already shared keep working. See Migrating to a New Program Domain.

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Certificates for Your Branded Domain

Once your CNAME is set up, Extole will automatically generate a certificate for your domain from Let’s Encrypt. These certificates expire every three months so Extole will the automatically renew the certificate each quarter and keep it active for your campaign.

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Setting Up Your Own SSL Certificate (Optional)

If you’d like to create your own certificate, you may do this by fully creating and uploading your own. After purchasing an SSL certificate from a Certificate Authority, in most cases they’ll send you an email or direct you to a location where you can download your certificate. The email or download location may contain a single SSL certificate or multiple SSL certificates. The following information must be provided to Extole:
  • Private Key (as PKCS#8)
  • Public Certificate
  • Intermediary Chain
To upload your information, go to the My Extole Tech Center and click on Program Domains. Here you will be able to paste in the files required for your certificate. Tap Save to publish the files. If your private key is provided in a different format, you may use OpenSSL to convert your private key into PKCS#8. Please refer to the [OpenSSL Documentation].(https://www.openssl.org/docs/apps/pkcs8.html) It is your responsibility to maintain and renew your certificate. If your certificate in Extole is ever allowed to expire, Extole will automatically generate a new certificate using Let’s Encrypt Certificate Authority.
Certificate Signing Request (CSR)If you would like to use a Certificate Signing Request please email our Support Team at support@extole.com and ask us to provide a CSR for your branded domain.

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Adding Extole to your SPF Records

A referral program sends two types of emails:
  • Referral Emails: Messages sent from the advocate’s email address to the friend’s email address.
  • Program Emails: Welcome email, reward email, stats emails, etc. are sent from your program to the advocate. These will typically be sent from do-not-reply@mycompany.com using your branded URL.
In the My Extole Tech Center you will see an Email Domains section where you can add your email domain. Here, we display if emails will send from that domain or if there is an SPF/DMARC error to be corrected:
Screenshot showing In the My Extole Tech Center you will see an Email Domains section where you can add your email domain. Here, we display if emails will send from that domain...

Example of Passing Email DNS

To ensure your emails are delivered, you can add the Extole mail server IP address to your SPF records. You can add spf.extole.io. Example SPF record update:
Full

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Adding DKIM Keys

DKIM lets Extole sign program emails with your own domain so that receiving mail servers accept them. Each sending domain needs three CNAME records, and the host names are specific to that domain. To get the records, go to the My Extole Tech Center, select Domains, and open your domain under Email Domains. Click Generate DKIM records to produce the exact host and value pairs, then give those pairs to your DNS administrator. Once they resolve, Extole validates and approves them, and the domain’s DKIM Status changes to Pass. The domain’s CNAME records table lists the same pairs at any time, so you can copy them again without regenerating. The Generate DKIM records control appears while a domain has no DKIM records yet, or while one of them is failing. Example DNS update:
Use the records Extole generated, not the exampleThe lines above show the shape of the records. The host prefix differs for every domain, so publish the values from your own domain’s page.
Program Sending DomainIf you do not add the records and your SPF or DMARC is set to reject mails from unknown providers, your program emails will be sent from email.referral-mail.com.

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Checking an Email Domain

Go to the My Extole Tech Center and select Domains. Email Domains holds the domains your program emails send from; Program Domains, on the same page, holds the branded link domains covered earlier on this page. The two are configured separately. The Email Domains table carries one column per DNS check — SPF Status, DMARC Status, DKIM Status, MX Status, and A Status — plus Overall send status. Select a domain to open its page, which repeats each check with the record Extole found and lists the DKIM CNAME records to publish. Overall send status answers the question that decides delivery: Validation requires a passing DMARC record and either a resolving A record or a resolving MX record. SPF Status is reported alongside them and does not by itself change the overall status, but a failing SPF record still costs you deliverability — add spf.extole.io to your existing SPF record rather than publishing a second one.
Adding a domain to the listUse + New Domain to add a sending domain. If you do not see that control, ask your CSM or Support to add the domain for you; you can generate its DKIM records and check its status yourself afterwards.

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Force Send From Email Domain

Every email domain carries a Force Send From Email Domain switch, shown on the + New Domain form when the domain is created and on the edit form afterwards. The domain’s own page shows its state as Force send. With the switch off, Extole checks the From domain on every send and rewrites the From address to email.referral-mail.com when that domain does not pass. With it on, Extole skips those checks for this domain and sends from the address you configured, whatever the DNS checks report. The domain’s validation then reports as passing and its overall send status reads Overridden. Turn it on only when a seed test has confirmed that mail from the domain reaches the inbox and Extole’s automatic checks reject a configuration you know works.
An override changes Extole, not the receiving mail serverForcing the send domain bypasses Extole’s checks. It does not change how receiving mail servers treat your messages, and some providers may consider mail from an unverified domain invalid and quarantine or reject it.
It is not a step in DKIM setupAdding a domain, publishing its DKIM records, and validating it are separate from this switch. Leave it off for a normal setup and fix the underlying DNS records instead.
For what Extole does when a domain is not verified, including the From address advocates’ friends see on share emails, see Why Is the From Address @email.referral-mail.com?.