How to set up email functionality in your uConnect platform

Your uConnect platform can send two types of emails — automated and custom — directly to your community, branded to your institution. To make sure these emails are delivered reliably and don't land in spam, they must be authenticated through your institution's domain using DNS records.

The uConnect team manages this process for you using our email partner, SendGrid. This guide explains what to expect and what you'll need to do.

Why use uConnect emails?

uConnect emails let you send branded, authenticated messages from your institution's own email address — with built-in deliverability, open and click analytics, and no manual list management for automated sends.

Your uConnect platform supports two types of emails: automated emails and custom emails. Both are branded to your institution and come from an institutional email address (e.g., careercenter@state.edu). Your emails look and feel like official institutional communication, and you get improved deliverability and analytics.

These emails also save your team time. Automated emails curate and deliver personalized content to your stakeholders, such as students, based on their preferred frequency and topics, so you don't have to spend hours creating individual messages. Custom emails let you send targeted, timely communication to any stakeholder group you upload as a subscriber list.

How to set up email in uConnect

Step 1: Submit a Support Ticket

To get started, submit a support ticket to the uConnect team requesting email setup for your platform. Select the "DNS - New or Updates" option from the ticket topic dropdown.

Important: When submitting this request, please include your IT contact's name and email address so we can work with them to complete your email setup.

Our team will:

Confirm your sending domain (e.g., client.edu or subdomain.client.edu)
Generate custom DNS instructions specific to your institution
Provide you with a document you can forward to your IT department

Step 2: Work with Your IT Department

Your IT department will need to add DNS records to your institution's domain. These records allow SendGrid to:

Authenticate that emails are coming from your domain
Improve deliverability so emails don't go to spam

The DNS changes typically include:

A return path (e.g., uctreturn.client.edu)
DKIM records for email security
An SPF record to authorize SendGrid's sending IP

Don't worry about the exact details. Your support ticket response will include a ready-to-send message you can forward directly to your IT contact.

Note: Link branding records (e.g., uctlinks.client.edu) are no longer part of the standard email setup. Learn more about email tracking links in this article.

Step 3: uConnect Completes the Backend Setup

Once your IT team confirms the DNS records have been added:

Typical turnaround for DNS propagation is 24–48 hours after your IT team makes the changes. Once propagation is confirmed, the uConnect team will proceed with backend configuration.

The uConnect team will verify the records.
We'll configure SendGrid (our email provider) on your behalf. You won't need to log in to SendGrid directly.

Step 4: Send a Test Email

After backend setup is complete, we'll send a test email to you and your IT contact to make sure everything is working correctly.

In your platform, navigate to Engage > Emails > Custom Emails to view the sent test email. (Navigation paths may vary depending on your platform version.)
Confirm the email was delivered to your inbox, not spam.
If the test email wasn't received, reply to your support ticket so the uConnect team can investigate.

About email tracking links

To power open and click reporting, links in your uConnect emails pass through a secure tracking address, links.gouconnect.com, before taking recipients to their destination. Every tracking link uses HTTPS, so your students land on the page they clicked without seeing a browser security warning.

As of October 1, 2026, this is the standard setup for all uConnect platforms. Here's what to know:

No action is needed. Nothing changes about how you send emails. Your emails deliver exactly as before, and open and click reporting work the same way.
Previously sent emails keep working. Links in emails sent before this change will continue to take recipients to the right place.
Keep your existing DNS records in place. If your IT team previously added link branding records for your platform (e.g., uctlinks.client.edu), please leave them as they are. Emails sent before this change still rely on those records, and removing them would break those links.
Prefer to keep links on your own domain? Some institutions prefer tracking links to use their own domain. If that's important to you, submit a support ticket and select "DNS - New or Updates." Setup requires three DNS records from your IT team, and we'll send you exactly what they need.

Why we made this change: Google Chrome introduced a default setting that shows a warning before opening any non-secure (HTTP) page. Some older uConnect tracking links used HTTP, so all tracking links have been moved to a secure HTTPS address to prevent students from seeing a browser warning when they click a link in your emails. Want more detail? Read this article.

Troubleshooting

If emails aren't delivering as expected, here are some common issues:

Emails going to spam
→ Your IT team may not have completed all DNS records, or your institution's email security system may require allowlisting SendGrid's IP addresses.
DNS verification failed
→ Even small typos (like w1 instead of wl) can cause errors. Our support team can recheck your DNS configuration.
Links show links.gouconnect.com when hovered over
→ This is expected. Email links pass through uConnect's secure tracking address before reaching their destination. If you'd prefer links to use your own domain, submit a support ticket.

Next Steps

Once email setup is complete, your platform will be ready to send both automated and custom emails. To get started, navigate to Engage > Emails in your uConnect platform.