Setup checklist#
- ☐ Send transactional mail from a dedicated subdomain (for example mail.yourdomain.com) or separate stream.
- ☐ Send marketing from a different subdomain (news.yourdomain.com).
- ☐ Keep promotional content out of transactional messages to preserve their exemption.
- ☐ Apply DMARC to the organizational domain so both subdomains are covered.
Audit checklist#
- ☐ Confirm you are not: adding upsell banners to receipts, which reclassifies them as marketing under many laws.
- ☐ Confirm you are not: using one shared IP pool for both streams.
Ongoing monitoring#
- ☐ Weekly: review provider dashboards (Postmaster Tools, SNDS) and bounce logs
- ☐ Monthly: re-run the setup verification after any vendor or DNS change
- ☐ Quarterly: full audit against this checklist
Frequently asked questions#
Do transactional emails need an unsubscribe link?
Not under CAN-SPAM if purely transactional. Gmail's bulk-sender rules still expect one-click unsubscribe for anything sent at volume, so many senders include it anyway.