Setting up Branded URLs

Purpose:

The purpose of this article is to provide direction to Outreach Admins in configuring a branded URL.

Branded URLs allow users to personalize public calendar links, unsubscribe links, open- and click-tracking links, and can improve an organizations spam score by putting these services under a domain that matches the organization's brand.

Intended Audience: 

• Outreach Admins

Notes:

• Completing this process requires access to the organization's DNS provider. 
• Do not use Outreach as part of the domain name.  
• The process for adding a CNAME record varies depending on DNS provider and can take up to 20 minutes to generate. For more information regarding adding a CNAME record to a DNS provider, refer to the Additional Resources section in this article. 
• Newly added domains default to a Pending status.
• It can take up to 24 hours for a DNS change to propagate.
• When the status changes to Active, the Branded URL is active. 
• If the Branded URL is Queued, it suggests that it is waiting for a certificate creation.
• If the Branded URL is in a Queued status for more than 24 hours, please contact support.

Before Completing This Process, Users have:

• Purchased a domain name.
• Determined the domain name to use for the applicable Branded URLs (i.e. click-tracking links, unsubscribe links, public calendar links, etc.).

How To Set up Branded URLs

1. Access the Outreach Platform. 
2. Click the user's initials in the bottom left-hand corner of the navigation sidebar. 
3. Click Branded URLs under the System Config section of the Settings panel. 
4. Click Add.
   
5. Copy the CNAME value (blue field) and complete the required steps for the applicable DNS service provider.
   Note: Records may take up to 20 minutes to generate.

   Subdomain	Record Type	Value	TTL
   Subdomain chosen in step 1 [eg. sales.mycompany.com]	CNAME	[value obtained from Outreach]	Default/Automatic
6. Add the domain name to the Domain: field and click Save.
   
   Note: Input domain name and not the complete URL.
   Example: Domain: sales.mycompany.com; not http://sales.mycompany.com.
   
   The new domain has been added to the Branded URL list and all unsubscribe, email-open, public calendars, and click-tracking links delivered from Outreach will contain the Branded URL.

Additional Resources:

DNS providers may require the following information to complete the DNS change: 

• Subdomain
• Record Type
• Value

Instructions for adding a CNAME record for various DNS Providers:

• GoDaddy
• Namecheap
• Google Domains
• Amazon Route 53