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How To Set Up Your Own Email Server Using Gmail
How To Set Up Your Own Email Server Using Gmail

By default, Referral Factory takes care of your email delivery. However, you can send mail through your Gmail SMTP server if you’ prefer.

Updated this week

To send emails from your own mail provider and not through Referral Factory you can connect your own Gmail server to send your emails.

Pros And Cons Of Using Your Gmail Server

Pros of Using Your Own Email Server

  • You’re in full control of your email deliverability.

  • You can send as many emails as you want: emails sent through your custom SMTP server don’t count against your email rate limits.

  • If your email server has additional encryption you will be able to use their encryption to further secure your own emails

Cons of Using Your Own Email Server

  • Referral Factory will not be able to track your email performance as part of your referral program analytics.

  • This feature is recommended for customers with dedicated email servers. If your company uses Google Workspace as an email server, for example, you might face SMTP rate limits.

❗️ Please note that Google has a rate limit of 100 emails per day for emails sent via SMTP.

Step 1: Set Your Outbound Email Address

→ Navigate to Settings and click the tab Emails And Domains.

→ Scroll down to Outbound Email Address and set the email address.

❗️ Your outbound email address must match the email address that you add as your mail server (typically, this is the “username” in your SMTP credentials).

Step 2: Enable IMAP in Gmail

From your Gmail account, go to Settings and select the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" settings.

Under the 'IMAP access' section, toggle on the option to "Enable IMAP".

→ Click "Save Changes".

Step 3: Enable 2-Step Verification and Add An App Password

From your Gmail, click your profile picture in the top right hand corner and select Manage your Google Account.

→ Go to Security and turn on 2-step verification.

→ Once activated, click on App Passwords and click Create to generate a unique password. This is the password you will use in your SMTP credentials.

Step 4: Enter Your SMTP Credentials in Referral Factory

→ Return to Referral Factory's Settings tab, click Emails and Domains, scroll down to Own Email Server, and click Manage Email.

→ Enter the following details:

Host = smtp.gmail.com / smtp.yourwebsite.com

Port = 587

Username = your full email address e.g. [email protected]

Password = the password you generated in Step 3.

Encryption = TLS

→ Click Verify Credentials.

Step 5: Test Your Emails

→ Navigate to the Campaigns tab and click Edit Campaign to enter the campaign builder.

→ From the Email Notifications step, click Send Test Email.

→ Check the email account to which your Referral Factory account is registered for the test email.

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