Concepts & glossary

RadarSend has a few closely-related building blocks that are easy to mix up. This page defines each one and shows how they fit together. If you only read one reference page, make it this one.

The sending stack#

These four objects work together to get your email delivered:

• Sending service — your email provider account (Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Resend, or Mailjet) connected to RadarSend with your credentials. This is what actually delivers your mail. Manage under Settings → Sending → Sending services. → Provider guides
• Sender — a From identity: a from-address, display name, reply-to, the email types it’s used for, and a tracking domain. Manage under Settings → Sending → Senders. → Add and confirm a sender
• Sending domain — the domain in your from-address (e.g. acme.com in hi@acme.com). It appears automatically the first time you add a sender on it, and it’s where DMARC verification and warming live. Manage under Settings → Sending → Sending domains. → Authenticate your sending domain
• Tracking domain — a branded subdomain on your domain (e.g. track.acme.com) that powers open/click tracking and link rewriting. Manage under Settings → Developer → Web & tracking domains. → Set up your tracking domain

How they relate#

• A sender sends through one or more sending services. Each (sender × sending service) pairing is a lane, and each lane must be confirmed with a real test send before it can send.
• A sender’s from-address belongs to a sending domain, which is created automatically when you add the sender.
• Warming happens per (sending domain × sending service) — the same domain sent through two services warms each one independently.
• A sender also points at a tracking domain so its links and opens can be measured.

Authentication terms#

• SPF / DKIM — DNS records that prove your provider is allowed to send for your domain. You set these up at your provider, not in RadarSend.
• DMARC — a DNS record (_dmarc.yourdomain.com) that tells inboxes what to do with mail failing SPF/DKIM. RadarSend verifies it (read-only); you publish it. → Authenticate your sending domain

Audience terms#

• Contact — a person you can email, with their subscription status and any custom fields. → Import and manage contacts
• Segment — a dynamic group of contacts matching filter rules; membership updates automatically as contacts change. → Build a segment
• List — a static group with fixed membership (in the broadcast picker, static segments show a (list) label). Use a list when you want an exact, unchanging set.
• Custom field — an extra piece of data on a contact (e.g. plan, signup_date) you can filter and personalize by.

Subscription terms#

• Email category — the recipient-facing grouping people subscribe and unsubscribe by (e.g. “Newsletters”, “Product updates”). This is the opt-out unit shown on your preference center.
• Email type — an internal kind of email that lives under a category and drives sending and reporting. Recipients don’t see types directly; unsubscribing from a category stops every type under it. → Email types & subscriptions
• Preference center — the branded page where recipients manage which categories they’re subscribed to.

Sending & automation#

• Broadcast — a one-off email campaign sent to a segment or list. → Create and send a broadcast
• Sequence — an automated, multi-step email flow triggered by an event, with waits and branching. → Build an email sequence

Deliverability terms#

• Warming — gradually ramping how much you send from a new domain/service so inboxes learn to trust you. → Deliverability & warmup
• Bounce — a message an inbox rejected. A hard bounce is permanent (bad address); a soft bounce is temporary (mailbox full).
• Complaint — a recipient marked your mail as spam.
• Suppression — the list of addresses RadarSend won’t send to (hard bounces, complaints, and unsubscribes), so you protect your reputation automatically. → Bounces, complaints & suppression