This guide aims to outline the process of setting up email services for WordPress installations on our platform, focusing on the differences between cPanel with WP Toolkit and WP Squared.
We will try to show you how to get your WordPress site's email up and running.
Don't worry, this is not as daunting as it might seem.
Your WordPress Hosting Choice on WebHostingM
When you're using WebHostingM as your platform of choice, you've got two main options for installing and managing your WordPress site. These two delivers everything you need to take control of your WordPress websites.
You can use either:
cPanel with WP Toolkit for your WordPress management with its bells and whistles, including built-in email services, or WP Squared, the newest kid on the block. Super fast (we're talking 90% faster server response times!) and great for handling lots of WordPress sites.
But here's the catch - it doesn't come with email services out of the box.
Yeah we know, you might be wondering, "Wait, how do I send emails when using WP Squared?"
The simple answer is that a third-party plugin is required for email functionality.
Let's see how to get this done and like we promised earlier, it doesn't require much technical know-how to get your email flowing.
More like a plug-and-play kind of thing.
There are several WordPress SMTP Plugins you can use including:
However, we like Postmark and recommend it for this job.
This is truer than true especially given that Postmark has its own home-build WordPress plugin.
Postmark for WordPress enables sites of any size to deliver and track WordPress notification emails reliably, with minimal setup time and zero maintenance.
It's like hiring a professional mail carrier for your WordPress site.
How To Install Postmark for WordPress
To start this process,
- Create a Postmark account, get one at https://postmarkapp.com if you don’t already have a Postmark account.
- Log into your WP Squared server at https://wptools.wp2panel.com:2083/ or https://wp2.example_domain.com
- Find your WordPress site and click on Plugins
- Search for "Postmark" (or "ActiveCampaign Postmark for WordPress")
- Install it and activate it. Don't forget to turn on auto-updates
- Now log in to your WP admin by clicking the WordPress icon.
- In WordPress admin, go to Settings then Postmark. You will then want to insert your Postmark details.
- Verify sending by entering a recipient email address you have access to and pressing the “Send Test Email” button.
Once verified, then check "Enable" to override wp_mail and send using the Postmark API instead.
Feeling more hands-on?
You can also install it manually.
Just download it from the WordPress plugin repository at https://wordpress.org/plugins/postmark-approved-wordpress-plugin/ and upload it to your site. Don't worry about the name ActiveCampaign Postmark for WordPress; it is the same plugin.
But honestly, the automatic way is usually easier.
Getting Postmark Up and Running
Once you've got Postmark installed, there are a few more steps to make sure everything's working smoothly:
1. Verify Your Domain: This is like proving to Postmark that you own your website. You'll need to add a special DNS record. You can do that by visiting https://account.postmarkapp.com/signature_domains
2. Set Up Your MX Record: This tells emails where to go. Postmark includes a simple way for you to configure your MX records to point to their mail servers so that Postmark processes all emails sent to a domain or sub-domain. Just add an MX record pointing to inbound.postmarkapp.com with a value of 10.
3. SPF Record: Setting up a valid SPF record is the first step of email authentication. This helps prevent others from pretending to be you (email-wise). There are some handy online tools to help you create this. When adding a domain, Postmark will work with you to ensure that records such as SPF, DMARC, and others are configured properly.
But if you want to do these yourself or if you are not using Postmark, you can use free online services such as the ones below to quickly and easily generate a valid SPF record:
- EasyDMARC’s SPF Record Generator: or
- MXToolbox SPF Record Generator: or
- ClouDNS SPF record generator:
4. DMARC: DMARC is like your email bouncer as it uses DKIM and SPF to give you visibility into your email authentication across all email sources. That is, its main job is to make sure only the right emails get through.
After adding your DMARC, use online tools to help you check if you've set everything up correctly:
If there is any error, you will be alerted to it.
Don't worry if this sounds like a lot - Postmark will guide you through most of it.
If all this seems too much, don't sweat it! We offer a full email integration service for $25 per hour. Sometimes it's nice to have an expert take care of things, right?
And there you have it! You're now on your way to having a fully functioning email system for your WordPress site. Remember, it might take a little time to set up, but once it's done, you'll be sending emails like a pro.
ActiveCampaign Postmark FAQ
Does this cost me money?
The ActiveCampaign Postmark service (and this plugin) are free to get started, for up to 100 emails a month. You can sign up at https://postmarkapp.com/. When you need to process more than 100 emails a month, ActiveCampaign Postmark offers monthly plans to fit your needs.
My emails are still not sending, or they are going to spam! HELP!?
First, enable logging in Settings and check your send attempts for any errors returned by the ActiveCampaign Postmark API. These errors can let you know why the send attempts are failing. If you aren't seeing log entries for your send attempts, then the plugin or contact form generating the emails is likely not using wp_mail and is not compatible with this plugin.
If you are still unsure how to proceed, just send an email to Link text or tweet @postmarkapp for help. Be sure to include as much detail as possible.
Why should I trust Postmark with my email sending?
Because we've been in this business for many years. The Postmark team has been running an email marketing service, Newsberry, for five years. Through trial and error, we already know what it takes to manage a large volume of email. We handle things like whitelisting, ISP throttling, reverse DNS, feedback loops, content scanning, and delivery monitoring to ensure your emails get to the inbox.
Most importantly, a great product requires great support and even better education. Our team is spread out across six time zones to offer fast support on everything from using ActiveCampaign Postmark to best practices on content and user engagement. A solid infrastructure only goes so far, that’s why improving our customers’ sending practices helps achieve incredible results.
How do I tag a message?
There are two ways to tag a message.
Set an X-PM-Tag message header, i.e.:
array_push( $headers, 'X-PM-Tag: PostmarkPluginTest' );where you are calling wp_mail().
Add a filter for
postmark_tag
that hooks into a function that returns the tag you desire.
Using the postmark_tag filter option will override a tag set via message headers.
Why aren't my HTML emails being sent?
This plugin detects HTML by checking the headers sent by other WordPress plugins. If a "text/html" content type isn't set then this plugin won't send the HTML to ActiveCampaign Postmark to be sent out only the plain text version of the email.
Why are password reset links not showing in emails sent with this plugin?
There are a couple of ways to resolve this issue.
Open the ActiveCampaign Postmark plugin settings uncheck Force HTML and click Save Changes. If the default WordPress password reset email is sent in Plain Text format, the link will render as expected.
Access your WordPress site directory and open the wp-login.php file.
Change this line:
$message .= ‘<‘ . network_site_url(“wp-login.php?action=rp&key=$key&login=” . rawurlencode($user_login), ‘login’) . “>\r\n”;Remove the brackets, so it becomes:
$message .= network_site_url(“wp-login.php?action=rp&key=$key&login=” . rawurlencode($user_login), ‘login’) . “\r\n”;And save the changes to the file.
How do I set the from name?
The plugin supports using the
wp_mail_from_name
filter for manually setting a name in the From header.
Got more questions? Feel free to check out the Postmark for WordPress FAQ or give us a shout.
The WebHostingM technical support team is always here to help.
References
- https://postmarkapp.com/support/article/1138-postmark-for-wordpress-faq
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/postmark-approved-wordpress-plugin/
- https://postmarkapp.com/developer/user-guide/inbound/inbound-domain-forwarding
- https://postmarkapp.com/developer/user-guide/send-email-with-smtp
- https://postmarkapp.com/blog/introducing-the-postmark-app-for-activecampaign
