Overview
SendGrid allows you to send a higher volume of emails that can bypass the regular sending limits that major email providers have in place. Your ability to send more emails increases when you set up and integrate a SendGrid account with Apollo.
For more information on sending limits, please see the "Email Sending Limits Overview" article.
Refer to the sections below for information about how to prepare your SendGrid account to integrate with Apollo.
SendGrid Setup
Please note, if you do not have a SendGrid account, visit the "Getting started with the SendGrid API" article on the SendGrid knowledge base for more information on account creation.
Wondering what plan to sign up for? The Apollo integration works with all SendGrid plans, so the world is your oyster! This includes free or paid Email API or Marketing Campaigns plans. However, please note that SendGrid limits the number of emails you can send per day and month if you are on one of their free plans. For more information about SendGrid pricing, sneak a peek at the SendGrid pricing page.
Please note, Apollo does not support IP whitelisting in SendGrid. If you enable IP whitelisting, you cannot deliver SendGrid messages through Apollo. For more information on IP whitelisting, please read this SendGrid article.
Domain Authentication
Domain authentication shows email providers that SendGrid has your permission to send emails on your behalf. In the SendGrid application, you can provide the necessary information to point your DNS entries from your DNS provider to SendGrid. In SendGrid, under Settings, click Sender Authentication and then click Authenticate Your Domain.
Use the drop-down to identify your DNS host. Click Yes or No to answer if you would like link branding. For more information on link branding, refer to the "What is Link Branding" article on the SendGrid knowledge base. Click Next.
Fill in your From Domain. For example, jane.doe@company.com and then click Next.
You must manually install the CNAME records that SendGrid provides. If you don't have access to your company's DNS records, you can email the CNAME records to a coworker.
For more information on how to add your CNAME to some popular DNS service providers, check out these videos.
Once you add the CNAME records to your DNS host, return to the Sender Authentication Page and click Verify.
Troubleshoot SendGrid Domain Authentication
You may encounter an authentication error when you try to link SendGrid to Apollo.
You must verify all domains that are used as both mailboxes and as user logins over Apollo before completing the integration. You must authenticate through SendGrid:
- All domains you're using for user logins
- All domains you're using for multiple mailboxes linked to Apollo, as well as aliases.
If you have multiple mailboxes linked to Apollo, they must all be verified through SendGrid.
You won't be able to link your SendGrid account to Apollo until you complete this. The Sender Authentication section in SendGrid shows your domains as Verified if your setup was successful.
Check out the "Sender Identity" article on the SendGrid knowledge base for more information.
Generate a SendGrid API Key
You must generate a SendGrid API key before you can integrate with Apollo. To generate an API key, load SendGrid and expand the Settings accordion. Then, click API Keys.
Click Create API Key.
Type a name in the API Key Name field. Then, choose the level of access you want to give SendGrid in the API Key Permissions section.
To customize your SendGrid access permissions, choose Restricted Access. From there, you can choose the access details for SendGrid.
Please note, although you can use a full-access API key without issues, Apollo strongly recommends restricting the permission set of the API and only enabling full access to the necessary API settings that give you full functionality of the SendGrid-Apollo integration. The API settings you must enable in SenGrid before moving forward are:
- Mail Send
- Event Notifications
- Click Tracking and Open Tracking
After you make your access selection, click Create & View.
In the modal, click the API Key to copy it to your clipboard and then click Done.
Please note, you should place a copy of your API Key in a safe place. Once you have closed the API Key window, you cannot return for a copy of it from SendGrid again.
Next Steps
Now that you've set up your SendGrid account, you're ready to integrate it with Apollo. Follow the steps in the Set Up Apollo's Integration with SendGrid article to connect and configure the settings in Apollo.