Your First Week

Setting up email and SMS sending

Quick answer: For email, authenticate your school's domain by adding DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). For SMS, purchase a phone number and start A2P 10DLC registration immediately — it takes 1–4 weeks to approve.

Why this is a Day 1 task

Email and SMS setup have long lead times. Email authentication needs DNS records to propagate (a few hours). SMS registration needs carrier review (1–4 weeks). Start both on Day 1, so they're ready when you actually need them.

Email setup

1. Find your DNS records

1. Click Settings → Email Services.
2. Look for the sending domain or authentication section.
3. Growth Suite displays the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records you need to add to your school's domain.

2. Add the records to your DNS

Log into your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, etc.) and add each record as a TXT record. Each registrar has slightly different controls, but the pattern is the same — add a TXT record with the exact name and value Growth Suite gave you.

3. Verify

Wait 15 minutes to a few hours for DNS to propagate, then go back to Growth Suite and click Verify. Each record should show a green checkmark.

See the email authentication article in the Communications module for the full walkthrough.

SMS setup

1. Buy a phone number

1. Click Settings → Phone System.
2. Click Add Number.
3. Pick a local number in your area code (recommended for schools).
4. Confirm purchase.

2. Start A2P 10DLC registration immediately

To text from a 10-digit local number, you need carrier registration. This is a one-time process but takes 1–4 weeks.

1. In the Phone System area, find the Trust Center or A2P registration section.
2. Register your Brand (your school's business identity) using your legal name and EIN.
3. Once Brand is approved, register a Campaign with sample messages your school will send.

See the A2P 10DLC article in the Communications module for the full walkthrough.

3. Configure compliance settings

While waiting for A2P approval, configure compliance:

1. Go to Settings → Phone System → Messaging.
2. Enable opt-out language, sender identification, and periodic re-insertion.
3. Save.

While you wait

Email authentication should be working within a day. SMS registration takes longer. Don't let SMS being pending block other setup steps — keep going with calendar, pipeline, and funnel work in the meantime.

Verifying everything works

Once everything's configured:

• Send a test email from inside Growth Suite to your personal Gmail. Confirm it arrives in the inbox (not spam).
• Once SMS is approved, send a test text to your own phone.

Tips

• Use a real From address, not noreply@. Recipients should be able to reply meaningfully.
• Don't disable compliance settings. Carriers can block messages if compliance is off.
• If you have multiple staff sending email, configure each user's profile with their school address. Emails from alice@oakmontessori.org feel more personal than from a generic school address.

Related articles

• Setting up automatic follow-up for new inquiries
• Sending your first email campaign