This article is meant for those who already successfully registered a domain with Cloudflare.
How to add a domain to MailerLite
Head to the Account settings page and click the Domains tab.
Under Sending domains, click Add domain.
Enter an email address that includes your paid domain, which will be used to send campaigns. Click Save.
Note: It is not necessary to have a website attached to your domain, but you will need to have an email address that uses that domain, as this will be ideal for sending. If your domain is example.com, your email may look something like newsletter@example.com
Does MailerLite provide an email address?
It is not currently an option to purchase an email address or host a domain in MailerLite. To connect a domain and matching email address for sending, they will first need to be set up with a hosting provider.
Some trustworthy hosting providers are Godaddy, Cloudflare, and Bluehost. For an email address, we highly recommend using Google Workspace, which allows you to create an email address with your own domain.
Check your inbox for the verification email and follow the steps to verify the email address.
Once the domain has been added, click on the Authenticate button. A window will appear containing Name and Value fields your DKIM and SPF records. Copy these fields and keep this page open.
How to access the DNS zone page on Cloudflare
Log in to the Cloudflare dashboard and select an account and domain.
Navigate to the DNS tab.
How to add the DKIM record
Click on + Add record.
Select the type as CNAME. You will see the record type indicated in your account.
In the Name field, add
ml._domainkey(don’t include your domain).In the Content box, paste the Value text that is given to you in your MailerLite account.
Click Save.
Proxy status - make sure that MailerLite records are set to “DNS only” and NOT “proxied” as they will only be accepted by MailerLite if they are set to DNS only.
How to add the SPF record
Within the same DNS page, click on + Add record again.
Choose record type. For the SPF record, make sure to use the “TXT” type.
In the Name field, enter @ and paste the record in the Content box.
Click Save.
Head back to your MailerLite Domains page and click on the green Check DNS records button on the domain authentication window. Once both records are approved, your new domain will be displayed as Authenticated ✅.
Troubleshooting authentication errors
Important: It can take the servers up to 24 hours to completely update this information, and it is common to see errors appear before the records are accepted. Most of the time, however, the DKIM record is approved and updated in a matter of minutes. If the records both have not been approved after 24 hours, check the following:
DKIM record is not approved
If the DKIM record fails:
• Check the Host field value: The Host field may only accept either litesrv._domainkey (without your domain) or litesrv._domainkey.yourdomain.com, so try both.
• Check the record type: The DKIM record should be CNAME type.
SPF record is not approved
There are 3 reasons why an SPF record may not be approved:
SPF records don’t match
Check the Host field.
Check if the Value field on your DNS page is exactly the same as the one on your MailerLite Domains page. They have to be identical as they are case-sensitive. The record won’t be approved otherwise.
You can use this site to compare both texts.
SPF Name/Host record field must be left empty
Some hosting providers have settings that don’t allow the domain as the Name or Host field for any record.
Use ‘@’ as the Name or Host field for the TXT record or leave it empty.
If you see that there is a common Name or Host field being used for the rest of the records in the DNS page of your domain, try using that one.
More than one SPF record was found
It’s only possible to have one SPF record on your DNS zone. If you have more than one, they need to be merged.
In the image below, there are two different TXT records for SPF. Both of these need to be merged into one single record.
Fortunately, MailerLite does this for you after you click once on the green Check DNS records button. This allows the site to check and update the SPF record’s Value with the merged version after clicking on it. The updated SPF value will be available on the same pop-up page.
At first, you will notice that the SPF value record will look something like this:
v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.mlsend.com ?all
After clicking on the green Check DNS records button and receiving the error message that more than 1 SPF record has been found, refresh the page, click on the Authenticate button, will likely see that there is a new merged value for the SPF record.
You can confirm this by examining it. The merge was successful if the text includes more than one include.
An example of a merged SPF record from MailerLite and Outlook:
v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.mlsend.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all
For additional troubleshooting steps, see our guide on how to verify, authenticate and align your domain.
If you have any questions, contact our friendly support team and we will gladly assist you.
Please note: While we’re happy to help with any issues taking place on our end, our expertise may be limited when it comes to third party apps since we cannot access your accounts with those tools, even if they are connected to your MailerLite account. This limits the support we can offer, so we encourage reaching out directly to the support team of those third-party tools for better assistance.
In this case, Cloudflare support page can be found here.
