Verify your Amazon Route 53 domain to improve your Buzzshot email deliverability

Does Amazon Route 53 manage your domain's DNS?

Buzzshot sends emails to your players for you, such as your "Thanks for playing" emails. Verifying your domain tells other email servers that Buzzshot may send email for you, so fewer of those emails end up in spam.

If Buzzshot shows "uses Amazon Route 53 for DNS" on your domain's page, follow the steps below.

Step 1. Find your records in Buzzshot

Log in to your Buzzshot Admin account. Go to Settings → Emails → Verify Sending Domains and click Setup next to your domain. You will see three records: DKIM (a TXT record), Return-Path (a CNAME record) and DMARC (a TXT record). Steps 2 and 3 cover the first two, and Step 4 covers DMARC. Click the copy button next to a value to copy it.

Step 2. Open your hosted zone in Route 53

Sign in to the Route 53 console and choose Hosted zones. Click the name of your domain, then click Create record.

Add the DKIM record

  1. In Record name, paste the DKIM hostname from Buzzshot, leaving off the end part that matches your domain. Route 53 adds your domain for you.
  2. Set Record type to TXT.
  3. In Value, paste the DKIM text value from Buzzshot, then add a double quote (") at the start and at the end. Route 53 needs TXT values wrapped in quotes.
  4. Leave TTL as it is, and check Routing policy is set to Simple routing.
  5. Click Create records.

Add the Return-Path record

  1. Click Create record again.
  2. In Record name, paste the Return-Path hostname from Buzzshot, leaving off the end part that matches your domain.
  3. Set Record type to CNAME.
  4. In Value, enter pm.mtasv.net.
  5. Leave TTL as it is, and check Routing policy is set to Simple routing.
  6. Click Create records.

Step 3. Verify in Buzzshot

Go back to your domain's page in Buzzshot and click Re-Verify. Once DKIM and Return-Path show a green tick, go on to Step 4. Status on the Verify Sending Domains page shows Missing DMARC until you have.

Step 4. Add a DMARC record

DMARC tells mail providers that email from your domain is genuine. Your domain needs a DMARC record: Microsoft requires one, so without it emails to Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live and MSN addresses may not be delivered. Set up DMARC explains why. The DMARC row on your domain's page in Buzzshot shows what we found, with a button to copy the value you need.

First, check whether it is already there

A domain can have only one DMARC record, and a second one could make both stop working. Before you add anything, open your DNS records as you did in Step 2 and look through the list for a TXT record named _dmarc.

  • You find one: do not add another. Click Re-Verify in Buzzshot. If the DMARC row shows Verified, you are finished. If it shows Invalid, follow the warning on the page, or see Fix a record that does not work.
  • You do not find one: add it as shown below.

Add the DMARC record

  1. Click Create record.
  2. In Record name, enter _dmarc.
  3. Set Record type to TXT.
  4. In Value, enter "v=DMARC1; p=none;" with the double quotes included. Route 53 needs TXT values wrapped in quotes.
  5. Leave TTL as it is, and check Routing policy is set to Simple routing.
  6. Click Create records.

Then go to your domain's page in Buzzshot and click Re-Verify. The DMARC row now shows a green tick. On the Verify Sending Domains page, Status shows Verified and DMARC policy shows None with a green tick. None is the policy you just set, so you are done.

Troubleshooting

  • Route 53 says changes generally reach its name servers within 60 seconds, but other servers can take longer to see them.
  • If DKIM stays unverified, open the record in Route 53 and check the value starts and ends with a double quote.
  • If the hostname in Route 53 shows your domain twice (for example buzzbounces.example.com.example.com), edit the record name so it holds only the first part.
  • If the DMARC row still shows Missing after you click Re-Verify, check that the record's type is TXT and its name is _dmarc, then try again later.
  • If it shows Invalid, the warning below it says what is wrong with the record.
  • If you still can't get things to verify, book a call with the Buzzshot team and we'll go through it with you.

Any questions or feedback are gratefully received. Please use the message button on the bottom right of the screen or the "Help & Support" option within the app. Or feel free to email or call.