Connecting your email accounts

Email is set up for you from day one, so you can send to customers without configuring anything. Connecting your own account is optional, and this article explains what you get by default, what the limits are, and how to connect your own mailbox when you outgrow them.

The system mailer

By default, everything sends through the system mailer.

You get your own email address carrying your business name, and when a customer replies, their reply comes straight back in rather than landing in a mailbox somewhere else. Nothing needs setting up for this to work.

System mailer sending limits

The system mailer has daily limits.

Until you verify your email address, you can send 25 outbound emails. Once verified, the limit rises to 250 emails a day.

These limits exist to protect against spam and abuse. A shared sending service only stays reliable for everybody if nobody can flood it, and the limits are what keep delivery rates high for every account using it.

Verifying your email address is quick and takes you from 25 to 250, so do it early rather than discovering the lower limit mid campaign.

When to connect your own email account

Two reasons to move off the system mailer.

You need to send more than 250 emails a day. Or you want your own email address and branding on everything that goes out, so customers see your domain rather than an address provided for you.

Where to connect an account

Open your Profile at the bottom left, go to Settings, then Connected accounts, then the email tab.

Connecting a Google account

Click add account with Google and you will be taken through Google's own sign in.

Sign in with the account you want to send from, choose the aliases you want to add and send from, then agree to the permissions being requested. Once you have accepted, the account is added and ready to use.

The permissions screen is Google's, not ours, and the scopes listed are what we need in order to send on your behalf and read replies back into your conversations.

Connecting a Microsoft account

Microsoft works the same way. Click to add the account, sign in through Microsoft, choose the aliases you want to send from, accept the permissions, and the account is added.

Use this rather than configuring Microsoft by SMTP. It authenticates properly, there is no password stored anywhere, and it will keep working when older methods stop.

Connecting SendGrid

For SendGrid you need two things from your SendGrid account.

An API key, which SendGrid generates for you, and a from address. The from address has to be one of the sender emails you have already verified in SendGrid, since SendGrid will not send from an address it has not verified.

You can also set your from name and reply to address here, which control the name a customer sees in their inbox and where their replies go.

Connecting with SMTP

SMTP is what sends your outbound email. Use it when your provider is not Google, Microsoft or SendGrid.

You will need the following from your email host:

• Host

• Encryption

• Port

• Username

• Password

There are also optional advanced settings for the reply to header and the from name.

Connecting with IMAP

IMAP lets us read your inbox and bring those emails into the conversations area, so customer replies sit alongside everything else rather than in a separate mail client.

You will need the same set of details, on the IMAP side:

• Host

• Encryption

• Port

• Username

• Password

Adding more than one account

You are not limited to one account, or to one of each type. Add as many as you need, including several SMTP accounts, several Google accounts or several SendGrid connections side by side.

When you send an email manually or set up an automation, you choose which connected account it sends from.

That is what makes multiple accounts useful. Sales enquiries can go out from one address, accounts and invoicing from another, and a second brand or trading name from its own. Customers reply to the address that makes sense for what they are replying about, and everything still comes back into one place.

Where to get your SMTP and IMAP settings

Your email host is the only reliable source for these details. Not us, and not a settings list you found online.

Every host runs its own servers on its own ports, and providers change them. If you cannot find the details, search your host's help documentation for SMTP and IMAP settings, or ask their support team. They will have a page for exactly this, because every customer they have needs it eventually.

Get the details from your host first and use anything else only to sanity check what they have told you.

Passwords and two factor authentication

Your normal email password often will not work with SMTP or IMAP.

Most providers now require an app password for anything connecting outside their own apps, and app passwords are usually only available once two factor authentication is switched on.

If your details look correct and the connection is still rejected, an app password is the first thing to try.

If the connection will not work

Work through these in order.

Check the password first, and try an app password if your provider issues them. Then check the port and encryption pair, since these have to match each other and hosts differ on which combination they expect. Then check whether your username is your full email address or just the part before the at sign, which varies by provider.

If it still fails, your host may need to enable external access on the mailbox. Some disable it by default, and only their support team can switch it on.

Which method should I use?

Stay on the system mailer while it covers what you need. It works out of the box, has nothing to maintain, and replies still come back in.

If you are on Google or Microsoft, use those connections. They are the least work to set up and the least likely to break.

Use SendGrid if you send at volume and want a service built for it, and SMTP with IMAP when your provider is none of the above.