Background
Email is a necessity when running a website, whether it’s used with a simple contact form or to manage subscription based services, odds are you’re going to need it. Users may want to receive notices of content updates, have sales receipts sent to them, update their password or membership information, and more. Email is the most effective way of communicating with a site’s user base, but it does no good if it isn't sent or received properly.
Why Does WordPress Send Emails?
WordPress emails are crucial for resetting passwords, sending notification emails, running an online store, getting contact form notifications, and more. If WordPress can’t send emails, you could get locked out of your site or lose customers by missing out on important notifications.
By default, WordPress uses the PHP mail function to send out emails. Many WordPress hosting providers do not have this function configured properly. Some even block it to make sure that their servers aren’t used to send spam.
This becomes problematic for site owners because their WordPress site fails to send some or all emails.
To ensure problem free website email deliverability, Skunkworks requires our clients utilize either a specialized SMTP service provider like SendGrid, or using your own email server's SMTP service.
What is SendGrid?
SendGrid is a mail-delivery service that provides email infrastructure to support any outbound messages from your app, such as transactional emails, online purchase receipts, sign-up verifications, and password reminders.
SendGrid is a system that acts as a middle-man to make sure your messages are sent correctly. The company uses its own servers to relay your content
Along with a free trial, SendGrid offers a WordPress plugin so you can view real-time metrics for your outgoing mail. These metrics include unique clicks, spam reports, unsubscribers, and bounces.
Sending messages from the website itself is a vital part of keeping it functional and efficient. WordPress relies on the ability to access and send email for many of its features. You want to make sure recipients are getting the messages they need whether it’s to reset a password or being notified a new comment is available on a post. You don’t want a website to fail simply because WordPress is not sending email.
SendGrid spends significant resources to improve deliverability. This ensures that your WordPress emails land in your users’ inboxes, instead of being marked as spam. SendGrid’s customers include eBay, Meetup, Yelp, Tumblr, Uber, Airbnb, Snapchat, Spotify, Quora, Hootsuite, Foursquare, Kickstarter, Slack, etc. etc.
Giving Skunkworks Access to SendGrid
Someone logged in to the client-owned SendGrid account will need to invite Skunkworks to become a Teammate on their SendGrid account.
Step 1.
If an account at SendGrid doesn't already exist for the client, it will need to be created first. During that process 2FA will need to be setup with Authy which will be tied to a cell phone number belonging to the client. Login will not be possible without that cellphone and the use of the Authy App.
Detailed instructions on creating an initial account for the client can be found here [Insert Link].
Step 2.
After logging into the client-owned SendGrid account, Skunkworks can be invited to be a Teammate on this screen located at: https://app.sendgrid.com/settings/teammates
- Click the Add Teammate button
- Enter
technical@skunkworks.caas the email address to send the invite to. - Select the option Invite as Admin to ensure Skunkworks' has the neccesary permission levels to do what needs to be done.
- Click the Invite button
An invitation will be sent for Skunkworks to accept and Skunkworks will then be able to administer the account using Skunkwork’s own SendGrid login until access is revoked.