Set Up, Configure, and Troubleshoot Your SendGrid Account

Article author
Matthew Charles
Updated

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.

 
More on Sending Limits

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.

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SendGrid Setup

 
SendGrid Account

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.

 
IP Whitelisting

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.

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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.

Auth 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.

Link Branding

Fill in your From Domain. For example, jane.doe@company.com and then click Next.

Email Domain

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.

 
Tutorial Videos

For more information on how to add your CNAME to some popular DNS service providers, check out these videos.

CNAME

Once you add the CNAME records to your DNS host, return to the Sender Authentication Page and click Verify.

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Troubleshoot SendGrid Domain Authentication

You may encounter an authentication error when you try to link SendGrid to Apollo.

Error

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.

Verified

Check out the "Sender Identity" article on the SendGrid knowledge base for more information.

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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.

API Keys

Click Create API Key.

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.

API Key Name

To customize your SendGrid access permissions, choose Restricted Access. From there, you can choose the access details for SendGrid.

API Key Access

 
Settings You'll Need if You Want to Succeed!

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 Mail send setting
  • Event Notifications Event notifications setting
  • Click Tracking and Open Tracking Open tracking setting

After you make your access selection, click Create & View.

Create & View

In the modal, click the API Key to copy it to your clipboard and then click Done.

Done

 
API Key

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.

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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.

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