What are MX records and why are they essential for outreach?

MX records are essential for email outreach.

You can’t do email outreach without MX records!

Why?

We’ll explain all below. ⬇️

What are MX records?

Email traffic is a communication between the sending and receiving servers.

When an email is sent to a domain, the sending server needs to know where to route the email.

To find that out, the sending server checks the receiving domain’s MX records.

An MX record is a DNS record containing information on what server to route the email to.

If MX records are found, the email is sent to the corresponding server.

Without MX records, your hard-earned replies would get lost in cyberspace!

With the average cold email reply rate sitting at less than 10%, why make email outreach even more challenging (impossible!) by not setting up your MX records?!

Here’s what an MX record looks like:

At first sight, the record may seem complicated, but it’s pretty straightforward once you know what it means.

• ➡️ The name field refers to the domain or subdomain for which you are configuring the mail server. If you’re configuring an MX record for your main domain, then the contents of the name field should always be “@”. However, if the MX record is for a subdomain, for example, mail.yourdomain.com, then you should enter “mail” here.
• ➡️ The type field determines the type of DNS record to use. It can be either TXT or MX. The type will depend on your domain or hosting provider.
• ➡️ The priority field is critical. You see, you can have multiple MX records for the same domain in case any mail server fails. The server with the lowest priority number will be tried first, then the server with the next lowest priority number, and so on. So, to give a server the highest priority, you would enter a 0 in the priority field. You can balance the load between servers by giving multiple servers the same priority number. This helps prevent overwhelming a single server and causing issues.
• ➡️ The value field, sometimes called mail server, holds the receiving mail server. In other words, this is the mail server to which the sending server must route the email.
• ➡️ The TTL field determines the time in seconds that the server caches your record.

MX records FAQ ⁉️

How can I set up my domain’s MX records?

You can set up your MX records through your domain provider or hosting company.

We have a dedicated page on how to set up MX records, which explains all the steps.

How do I check my current MX records?

A cool and easy way to check the MX records of any domain is to use the command prompt on your computer.

1. Open the command prompt or terminal
2. Type or paste the following command and hit enter: “nslookup -type=MX yourdomain.com” Make sure to change the domain name to your domain.
3. If you already have your MX records set up, you should now see them on your screen.

Can I have multiple MX records for a domain?

Absolutely! That’s what the priority setting is for.

Setting up multiple MX records allows you to have backup servers in case any server experiences issues.

How long does it take for MX record changes to propagate?

Anywhere between 1 and 72 hours. Usually, you’re good after a few hours.

The importance of MX records can’t be overstated!

MX records are an absolute necessity for email outreach.

The goal of outreach is to book meetings and generate sales.

Well, without receiving replies, that is impossible.

Since you can’t receive replies without MX records, it’s safe to say that these records are the most important part of your technical setup.