Sub-domain and Email Setup in Marketo

Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo Page |1
Sub-Domain Setup

Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo

By Josh Hill © 2012 -13 Josh Hill. All Rights Reserved. http://www.marketingrockstarguides.com

Sub-Domain Setup

Chapter 1. Sub-Domain Setup

At a Glance
Overview 3

Landing Page Sub-Domain 3

Email Sub-domains and Authentication 6

Branded Tracking Links 14

Your Guide: Keeping Track of Sub Domain Technical Details 15

Chapter Review 16

Recommended Resources 16


Sub-Domain Setup

Overview
Choosing a sub-domain name for your Marketo pages to live on as well as a possible email sub-domain are key
setup steps which you should take the time to do well. The names you choose now will be around for a long time,
especially as search engines and your customers become used to them.

A good sub-domain name should be aligned with your brand name or consistent with its use. If you plan to host
news content on your landing pages, perhaps you should choose news.yourdomain.com. If your landing pages are
more action oriented, perhaps go.yoursolutionname.com is a better choice.

Landing Page Sub-Domain
Marketo Landing Pages for your company live in on Marketo’s servers. For your branding to be consistent and to
assure people that these pages are from your company, you will want to show a URL with your company’s domain
name in the address of any pages you create with Marketo.
Required: You need this REQUIRED: Marketo needs a special sub-domain called a CNAME, which tells the Internet to use
step to activate your yourname.yourcompany.com to point to a Marketo server.
landing pages on
Marketo. If you are using the CNAME for your landing pages, there should be zero effect on your corporate emails. If
someone inadvertently sends an email to “you@cname.domain.com” it should auto forward to
“you@domain.com” by default. Please check with your IT team to ensure this is the case for your systems.

The sub-domain you choose should be entirely new and not already in use for other purposes. Your IT team should
help you find existing CNAMEs. Fun and effective subdomains could include:
go.companyname.com
info.companyname.com
pages.companyname.com
news.companyname.com
email.companyname.com
get.marketingrockstarguides.com

How do you add a CNAME to your DNS record?
Please be sure to work with your web team and IT teams to make these changes as they appear deceptively simple,
yet deeply affect how people find your site on the internet. Mistakes will cost you. See the original instructions too.


Sub-Domain Setup

Step 1: Choose a sub-domain name.

Step 2: Speak with your IT Team or Network Administrator
The next step is to speak to your Network Administrator about adding the following to your DNS
record. This is relatively simple, but it must be approved.
Help your IT team with this code. Please fill in the correct domain names before entering this into your
DNS. This is an example only as your web host may use a slightly different method.
ADD:
Alias: pages
CNAME: pages.MYDOMAIN.com
POINTS TO: XXX.mktoweb.com

Step 3: Step 3: Login to Marketo.
Go to Marketo>Admin>Landing Page Settings>Account String and then enter in the
following details:
Domain Name: pages.MYDOMAIN.com
Domain Alias: pages
Fallback page: http://www.MYDOMAIN.com
Home Page: http://www.MYDOMAIN.com
Account String: XXXXthis is usually your domain without “.com”


Sub-Domain Setup

If you have questions, see the Marketo documentation.

How do you change your CNAME on Marketo?
If your firm merges with another Marketo user or you decide the sub-domain is not working for your brand, you can
easily change it with these instructions.

Short answer: go through the steps above to add the new CNAME, then change the CNAME in Marketo. Test it.
Remove the old CNAME or setup a 301 redirect using the URL Tools if you are concerned about SEO/SERP.

Longer Answer: This should work well and fairly quickly. Be warned that making this change could affect your
Google Analytics results. Marketo should work fine and no data will be lost. Again, make sure you understand the
SEO/SERP implications before making the change.

You will have to update any Visit(ed) Pages filters or triggers to update URLs that used the old CNAME. If
you used a Page Name pointer instead, there is nothing to change.


Sub-Domain Setup

Email Sub-domains and Authentication
One of the reasons you selected Marketo was its ability to send targeted emails to your existing database. To do that
well, and adhere to local laws, CANSPAM, and your firm’s privacy policies, requires careful setup at the start. Even
if you have been using Marketo for years, doing this process now will certainly improve your deliverability rates.

Authentication Methods
There are two common methods of telling other mail servers that Marketo’s servers are authorized senders of your
email. These two methods are SPF and DKIM.

The Sender Policy Framework validation system verifies that your email is from a server you authorized. Having the
SPF code in your DNS record helps to assure other mail servers your mail is coming from you.

DKIM is short for DomainKeys Identified Mail (pronounced “Dee Kim”). DKIM adds a special code to each email
helping target mail servers verify the message came from a server you authorized. Yahoo, Gmail, and AOL rely on
SPF and DKIM as part of their spam filtering process. Stay on their good side and use DKIM.

Please speak with your IT team to implement these important reputation tools, which will increase deliverability,
opens, clicks, and your pipeline. You should discuss the benefits of enhanced email reputation on the main email
servers. Remind your IT team that simple steps like this add up to real dollars later. They should be able to review
the impact on other systems. Be prepared to wait while they ensure these changes are made properly.
Warning: if your own
product is sending email on IMPORTANT: When your technology team completes the changes, call Marketo to ask them to add SPF/DKIM to
behalf of clients, SPF/DKIM your IP. Otherwise, other email servers will still see Marketo as an unverified sender for your domain.
will require detailed setup.

Step 1: SPF Setup
If your system has been in place awhile, see if you already have an SPF record.
No SPF Record: If you do not have an existing SPF record, add this line to your DNS Record using the
command:

yourdomain.com IN TXT v=spf1 mx ip4[your-corp-email-IP]
include:mktomail.com ~all


Sub-Domain Setup
A more likely scenario is having to enter it in a web hosting service’s dialog box. Let’s go through
those steps. To add an SPF record to your host, do the following:

Host Record: @

Text Line:v=spf1 include:mktomail.com ~all
Note the spaces are required.
Add this line for each subdomain you intend to email from. Technically, just “domain.com” will work
for all other subdomains below it, but you should be very clear on your DNS.

Step 2: Setup DKIM
DKIM setup requires a simple TXT record in your DNS record. Ask your IT team to insert the
following into your DNS record.
The original Marketo instructions are available online. You can also go straight to the DKIM text file.
Copy this code exactly as shown here.

Host Record:M1._domainkey.yourdomain.com

Caution: this key should Value:
be on a single line as is. v=DKIM1;
k=rsa;p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQDFUlNZvtGDlIGDRtzyRQyd
M9yRInD5YMx86QpgZ3v7pT+Mx4tGbjUxY41TXbsp7UH9hTREaKKGQKNM/B3FzcFVv4za
fZ09lUaXcbSdtD70iXyH0OXEGXLZI5gG0ZwjK5ptgQ18d+pUP9s8xMkJnZlubTk9MLvQ
nv3ZBzoL9FHFDQIDAQAB


Sub-Domain Setup
Example:
TXT Host Record Name Value (you may not need the quotes).

Step 3: Verify DKIM and SPF with free tools
Verifying that the insertions are correct can take from 10 minutes to 48 hours as the DNS servers
propagate the updates across the internet.
DKIM Test: the best way to test DKIM is to send an email from Marketo using the Send Email
function to just your email address. It’s best to use a Gmail.com address.


Sub-Domain Setup

Figure 1. Email Header with SPF and DKIM verified.

Step 4: Verifying SPF
To test your SPF record, you can use one of two tools.
1. Kitterman’s Quick Tool


Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo P a g e | 10
Sub-Domain Setup


Sub-Domain Setup

Figure 2. A successful SPF test.

2. MXToolBox. This allows you to view DNS record details in different ways. Here’s how your record might look
with Marketo’s SPF included:


Sub-Domain Setup

Look what fun things happened when I used my domain with jdavidhill.com in the lookup box.


Sub-Domain Setup

Step 5: Create a Marketo Support Ticket
Marketo needs to know you have established the DKIM and SPF records so they can crosscheck as
well as submit the SPF record to whitelists. Be sure to ask them to add you to the Yahoo and Hotmail
lists.

Step 6: Pro-Tip: Optional Step for Multiple Email Sub-Domains
You can have one or more sub-domains (CNAMES) for your marketing email. This is particularly
useful if you plan to use a dedicated IP to manage your own reputation. I recommend speaking in
detail about this with your IT team because corporate email servers will need some configuration so
that email boxes can be handled using the new sub-domain.
For instance josh@jdavidhill.com may not be the same as josh@news.jdavidhill.com.
I recommend that such a map be a forward or a proxy email box someone on your team can check for
bounce backs, unsubscribes, and replies.
SPF is easy: include:mktomail.com ~all to each sub-domain’s record.
For DKIM, you will need to add the same key to your sub-domain’s DNS record:


Sub-Domain Setup
M1._domainkey.sub-domain.yourdomain.com
k=rsa;p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQDFUlNZvtGDlIGDRtzyRQyd
M9yRInD5YMx86QpgZ3v7pT+Mx4tGbjUxY41TXbsp7UH9hTREaKKGQKNM/B3FzcFVv4za
fZ09lUaXcbSdtD70iXyH0OXEGXLZI5gG0ZwjK5ptgQ18d+pUP9s8xMkJnZlubTk9MLvQ
nv3ZBzoL9FHFDQIDAQAB

Branded Tracking Links
Branded tracking links are a neat way to shorten email and landing page links while still allowing Marketo to track a
Lead’s behavior. Branding the tracking link also helps reassure your target audience that the links in your emails are
legitimate. Branded links which use your domain in the URL may help your emails get through spam filters.

So instead of http://mkto-x####.com/track?type=click&enid=(really-long-string)

You would have http://go.yourdomain.com, which is much nicer looking and offers the email reader some
reassurance they are going to the right place.

Step 1: Select a Sub-Domain just for tracking
Marketo recommends you use a name that is simple and avoids any indications it is a tracking domain.
For instance, do not use something like tracking-you.mydomain.com. You will receive very
few click-throughs on that email!
Most firms choose go or t or mkt. Use something short.

Step 2: Find Your Marketo Tracking Domain
You may have to ask Marketo for your tracking domain or look at a Marketo email you sent to your
own email. Your tracking domain will look similar to this: mkto.a0244.com

Step 3: Add the CNAME to your DNS Record
You can ask your IT team to do this. The following insertion can be done with this code: (example
only)
mkt.yourdomain.com IN CNAME mkto-a0244.com

Step 4: Contact Marketo Support
Create a support ticket to ask Marketo to add your sub-domain to be used instead of the generic
Marketo domain.


Sub-Domain Setup
Step 5: Test
Once Marketo confirms the update on their side of the system, you should send your internal team a
test message with three links you know to be valid. Use both text and html versions so you can look at
the actual URL.

Your Guide: Keeping Track of Sub Domain Technical Details
Use this table to include your organization’s details for future reference.
Purpose Sub-Domain Current IP Shut Down Activation Date New IP
Date


Sub-Domain Setup

Chapter Review
Self-Quiz
Is DKIM and SPF enough to improve your email reputation?

How does DKIM authenticate your email messages from Marketo?

Why should you setup a tracking sub-domain?

Recommended Resources
Marketo Documentation
Updated Technical Startup Guide

Marketo’s Ultimate Deliverability slides

Marketo’s Email Deliverability Guide

Marketo DKIM Instructions

Marketo DKIM Text File

Changing Your CNAME


Sub-Domain Setup
Using Multiple Sub-domains with Marketo(not recommended)

Tools
DKIM Details for the technically inclined

MX Toolbox

Kitterman’s SPF Tester

DNS Queries

Experts
Eric Hollebone’s SFP-DKIM Setup Guide. This short guide offers fantastic technical detail that your network
administrator will love.


Sub-domain and Email Setup in Marketo

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Sub-domain and Email Setup in Marketo