Zoho Mail Tips
Make the most of your CRM with these useful tips.
How to set up my domain with Zoho Mail
If you already have a domain of your own and want to set it up with Zoho Mail, you will have to follow a simple five step procedure.
I. Add and verify your domain
Add domain
- Visit Zoho Mail's pricing page, select a plan that suits your business needs and click Sign up if you don't have an account with Zoho.
- Select Sign up with a domain I already own.
- Enter your domain and click Add. You can choose to buy a domain if you don't have one already.
- Enter the registration details as required. Click Proceed.
- Check if all your details are entered correctly and click Sign Up and fill in your information in the sign up form.
If you already have an account with Zoho, go to Zoho Mail and click Enable Email Hosting from the top of your page and follow the above steps to set up your domain.
Once you have successfully added your domain, you should verify your domain as the very first step.
You should have ownership over the domain you add and have access to its DNS. We have a verification process to ensure just this. Zoho Mail provides two methods for you to verify your domain.
- One-click verification
A one-click verification is available for 1 & 1 domain holders. You will just have to login to your DNS provider and authenticate Zoho Mail to use your DNS provider and add the DNS record. Your domain will thus be verified. Click to learn more.
- Manual verification
To manually verify your domain:
- Login to Zoho Mail with your Super Admin credentials.
- Click Control Panel and select Domains.
- Click the Validate icon next to your domain. This will open up the setup wizard for domain verification.
Here, verification can be done in one of the following methods:
- CNAME method - Get a unique CNAME code generated and add it in your DNS Manager. You can view there the step-wise instructions to add the code for your specific provider.
- TXT Record method - Create a TXT Record in your DNS in the format zoho-verification=zb*****.zmverify.zoho.com, where the zb code is autogenerated. After adding the record, click Verify in the Domains page of the Control Panel.
- HTML method - Upload the given HTML file to a folder called zohoverify that you should create in root of your website. Now when you click Verify, your domain will be verified based on this file.
Click here to learn how to troubleshoot domain verification.
II. Add users and groups
You can add users in one of the following ways:
- Add manually
Login to Zoho Mail's control panel as an Admin, select User Details from the Control Panel and click Add User. Click Create User and enter the user details as required. You will have to set a password for the user and share it with them for their first login.
You can also invite users through their existing email address. From the Add Users select Invite User and enter the email address of the user you want to invite. An invitation to join your organization will be sent to them.
- Import using .csv file
Login to Zoho Mail's control panel as an Admin, select User Details from the Control Panel and click Add User. Select Import from CSV option. Download the sample CSV file provided and fill in the user details along with a password for each user. Upload this file and select the domain to which you want to add these accounts to.
If you want to import multiple users through their existing email address, enter their email address separated by commas in a .txt file and upload it. These users will be sent an invitation to join your organization.
You can also import users from other Zoho Services. Learn more.
Click here to learn how to troubleshoot user addition.
III. Update MX record
To start receiving emails after setting up your domain with Zoho Mail, you will have to update your M record. MX record is a source record in the DNS that specifies the server responsible for receiving emails sent to a particular domain.
To update MX record:
- Launch the DNS manager from your domain registrar's web portal.
- Remove the existing entries from your MX records and select Add Record.
- Enter the following details in their respective fields:
Host/ Domain
Address/ Mail Server/ MX Entries/ Value
Priority
@/ Blank/ Domain name
mx.zoho.com.
10
@/ Blank/ Domain name
mx2.zoho.com.
20
@/ Blank/ Domain name
mx3.zoho.com.
50
- Save your entries.
If you 1 & 1 domain holder, you can follow this simple one-step method to add MX records.
Click here to learn how to troubleshoot MX record addition.
IV. Migrate your emails
Once you have set up your domain and added users, you can migrate your data from your previous provider to Zoho Mail.
Migrating from G Suite, Office 365, and Microsoft Exchange Server
Migrating emails, contacts, and calendar events from G Suite, Office 365, and Microsoft Exchange Server can be done from the Zoho Mail Control Panel.
Choose the relevant application that you're migrating from, and fill in the server details (as shown in the screenshots below) to add migration.
You should then add users, either manually or by uploading a CSV file with their details. You can also choose to fetch user accounts from the source server and then select the user accounts you want to run the migration for.
Now you're all set to start the migration. Once the migration is complete you'll be shown a detailed report about the data that was migrated, and what failed, along with the reasons for the failure.
IMAP/POP migration
If your email is hosted with any cloud email servers other than G Suite and Office 365, migrating emails through IMAP and POP protocols is recommended. The migration is set up in the Admin Control Panel.
Fill in the server details (as shown in the screenshots below) to add migration.
You should then add users, either manually or by uploading a CSV file with their details.
You can now start the migration. You will be able to view a detailed report after it's finished.
If your email is run with Microsoft Exchange on premises, or if the user data is stored as an EML or PST file, migration can be done using the Zoho Exchange Migration Wizard. Learn here how to migrate data using this migration tool.
V. Configure SPF and DKIM
The Sender Policy Framework is a record in the domain's DNS that specifies the email server that is allowed to send emails using a particular domain's name. This is important for the recipient server to know if the email comes in from an authorized server and prevent spamming using your domain name.
In the DNS Provider, you will have to publish the following SPF as TXT record.
v=spf1 include:zoho.com -all
Here,
zoho.com is the host name that includes all of our IP addresses our service uses to send emails.
-all indicates that no email server other than zoho.com will be used to send emails using your domain.
Learn here to troubleshoot SPF record addition.
DomainKeys Identified Mail is an authentication technique where every email that goes out of a server is given a digital signature so the recipient server can check if the emails were sent and authorized by the owner of the domain.
To add DKIM signature for your domain:
- Generate unique domain key in Zoho Mail.
- Login to Zoho Mail's Control Panel using your admin credentials. Select Email Authentication and choose DKIM.
- Click Edit next to the domain you want to configure DKIM and click Add Selector.
- Provide the selector name and click Save.
- A TXT record value with public DKIM value will be generated. Copy the value.
- Create TXT record in the DNS manager
- Login to your domain's DNS manager.
- Create a TXT record with the title <selector>._domainkey.<yourdomainname.com>.
- In the TXT record value field, paste the content of TXT record value you've copied and save it.
- Enable DKIM for your domain
Once you've added DKIM, validate it using this third party site. Then, from Zoho Mail's Control Panel, click Verify next to the specific selector. Once verified, you can enable DKIM by clicking Enable DKIM immediately or choose a later time.
Learn here to troubleshoot DKIM configuration.