What is white-labeling?

White-labeling is the functionality that shows Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that zistemo has your permission to send emails on your behalf. This permission is given by the act of pointing very specific DNS entries from your domain registrar to zistemo. Once these DNS records are entered and propagated, the recipient email servers and services will read the headers on the emails you send and check the DNS records to verify if the email was initiated by a trusted source. This drastically increases your ability to deliver emails and allows you to begin building a sender reputation for your domain and your IP addresses.

The zistemo domain white label allows you to white label your domain. You can start to build your domain’s email reputation and explicitly show all your recipients that you actually sent these emails. This should help increase your deliverability rates and reduce the risk of spam reports.

White-labeling is critical to your reputation as a sender. Inbox providers distrust messages that are not properly white-labeled and you will not be able to begin building your reputation until you complete the white-labeling process.

There are a few quick points worth highlighting before you dive into the white-labeling process:
– You can only create one white label per account.
– The domain white-labeling process requires you to create a subdomain of your root domain to white-label and send email from.
– Your reputation is always attributed to your root domain, regardless of the subdomain you white-label, or even if you switch subdomains.
– All white labels must be verified before they can be used.
We provide all the information about every step of the process below so that you can set up your white label quickly and easily.

Domain White Label Settings

Subdomain

This is the “prefix” of the domain that you are actually white labeling. Historically, we have suggested prefixes like “em,” “em1,” etc. However, you can use whatever subdomain you wish.
We do not recommend using the word “mail” as your subdomain name because this is a subdomain that many registrars or hosting companies will automatically set up for personal email usage. This can cause conflicts that may impact your email reputation.

The subdomain that you choose for your domain white label must be different from the subdomain for your link white label because each white label must have their own unique CNAME records!

Even though your domain white label and email link white label use different subdomains, the reputation of your root domain and your IP address are what recipient servers and spam filters use to determine whether or not your email is delivered.

Domain

If you add a new default domain white label for a domain that is already white-labeled on your account, you risk invalidating and removing the default status of the previously set up white-label.
Your domain white label will not affect your email link white label and vice versa.

The domain is the root domain for your subdomain and will receive the email reputation from the white label. Your root domain should match your “FROM” email address. If you are sending from newsletteexampexample@example.com, then you should white-label subdomain.example.com, so the root domains match.

Where to set the White Label Domain on zistemo?

You can find it in User Menu -> Whitelabel domain, as shown in the print screen below:

Note: the Whitelabel option is accessible only for paid accounts

Now enter the subdomain and the domain, then click ‘Create’:

… and you will get the following data (see attachment):

How to use the received data?

You can use the received data only in your Domain Name System (DNS). As an example, we used Namecheap:
1. the first step – you need to open the Domain list -> Advanced DNS

2. The second step – you need to add a new record and select the CNAME record:

You have to copy the Host and IP Address from zistemo and fill the fields ‘Host’ and ‘Target’ so you need to create 3 new records:
… then save the data in your Domain Name System (DNS). As usual, the data validation process can take some time, depending on your Domain Name System (DNS), for instance, it can be completed within 24 hrs.

How to make sure everything is ok?

Go to the Whitelabel domain tab in zistemo and press the green button ‘Validate’.

If all settings are fine, you’ll see the following notification:

NOTE: Since DNS servers have to update other servers around the world with the new information, propagation can take a long time and is not instant. The general rule is propagation takes 24 hours to complete worldwide. However, in some cases, this can take up to 48 hours, depending on DNS record TTLs

That’s it!