Use your own domain for client feedback

Put review links, invitations and the snippet on a subdomain of your own site, such as feedback.youragency.com, so your client never sees ClickNote in an address. It takes one DNS record, and no link breaks while you set it up.

Before you start

• Plan. Your own domain is part of the Agency and Scale plans. The free trial is the Agency plan, so you can set it up during the trial. On Starter your links use your workspace’s private address on clicknote.io.
• Role. Brands are managed by the workspace’s owner and its admins.
• DNS. You need to be able to add a record where your agency’s domain is managed: your registrar or your DNS host.

The address belongs to a brand. A workspace has one brand to begin with, made from your agency’s name when you signed up. On Scale you can have several, each with its own address.

1. Enter the address on the brand page

1. In your dashboard go to Settings, then Brands, and open the brand.
2. Find the section called Your own address.
3. Type the subdomain you want into the Subdomain field, for example feedback.youragency.com. Use a subdomain of a domain you control.

2. Add one CNAME record

The same section of the brand page shows the record to add, in a small table: its type, its name and what it points to.

• Name is the first part of your address: feedback for feedback.youragency.com.
• Points to is a value that is your workspace’s own. It ends in .hosts.clicknote.io. Press Copy what it points to on the brand page and paste it into your DNS host. Do not type it from memory or copy it from another agency’s set-up.

That value is how ClickNote knows the address is yours and nobody else’s. Only someone who controls a domain’s DNS can point it at a workspace, so entering a domain you do not own achieves nothing, and nobody else can take yours by typing it in first.

On Cloudflare, set the record to “DNS only”

If your DNS is on Cloudflare, add the record there as you would any other, and switch the proxy off for it: “DNS only”, the grey cloud. With the proxy on, the CNAME cannot be seen from outside, and the check cannot tell which workspace the address belongs to.

If the brand page offers to add the record for you

Some DNS providers can add a record for a service you use, on a page of their own, once they have switched that on for the service. Where your DNS provider has switched it on for ClickNote, the brand page shows a button in the same section, above the steps for doing it by hand, once you have saved the brand with your address in it. The button takes you to your DNS provider’s own page, where you sign in if you are not signed in already, see the one CNAME record and approve it. Your provider then sends you back to the brand page. Nothing else in your DNS is changed, and there is nothing to copy or paste.

If there is no button, your provider has not switched this on for ClickNote: add the record yourself, as above. Either way the record is the same, and so is the check that follows.

If your DNS host will not let you add a CNAME there

Some DNS hosts flatten a CNAME, or will not allow one on the name you chose. On the brand page, open My DNS provider will not let me add a CNAME there. Then:

1. Point the name at ClickNote in whatever way your provider allows.
2. Add a second record, of type TXT, that says the address is yours. The page shows its name and its value, each with a copy button.

3. Save, then check DNS

Press Save brand. ClickNote looks at the record when you save, and again whenever you press Check DNS again on the brand page. New records can take a few minutes to show up, so if the first check fails, wait and press it again.

If the record is not right, the page says what it found:

• No record for the address yet. Add the CNAME, or wait a few minutes if you have.
• The address points somewhere else. Change the record to the CNAME above. On Cloudflare, switch it to “DNS only”.
• The address reaches ClickNote, but its DNS does not say which workspace it belongs to. Point the CNAME at the value from your brand page, or add the TXT record.

When the check passes, the page says your address is live, and snippets, review links and invitations for that brand use it from then on.

The certificate

There is nothing to buy or upload. The secure certificate is issued by itself the first time the address is visited. Open the address once yourself after it goes live, so that first visit is yours and not a client’s: you should see a short page with your brand’s name on it.

What happens to links you have already sent

• Until your address is live, the brand keeps using your workspace’s address on clicknote.io. You can send review links while you wait for DNS.
• Once it is live, your workspace’s address stays. It never changes, so review links you sent before keep opening, and a snippet already on a client’s site keeps working.
• The snippet on each project’s Install and settings page carries your own domain from then on. If a client’s site sends a strict Content-Security-Policy, allow your own domain in it.
• Your dashboard stays where it is. Your own domain is for what clients see: the review link and the review tools.

If it is not set up within 14 days

An address that has been entered but not proven within 14 days is removed from the brand page. Nothing else changes: the brand goes on using your workspace’s address, and you can enter the address again at any time.

If you delete the brand

A brand that no project uses can be deleted from the foot of its page. Its address goes with it: the address stops answering and no new certificate is issued for it, so you can remove the DNS record. A workspace’s first brand cannot be deleted, and neither can a brand a project still runs under, archived projects included: give those projects another brand first, on each project’s Install and settings page.

If you change plan

If your workspace moves to a plan without your own domain, the address is kept but no longer used for new links, which go back to your workspace’s address. Links you already sent on your own domain keep opening. Move back up and the address is used again.

Email from your own domain is a separate setting

Your own domain here is about links. Who your clients’ emails come from is set under Email sender on the same brand page, and it is part of the Agency and Scale plans too.

To begin with, ClickNote sends your clients’ emails for you. They go out under your sender name from ClickNote’s address, and replies go to your support address. To send them from an address on your own domain instead, choose your email service under How email is sent and enter its details:

• Resend: an API key.
• Postmark: a server API token.
• SendGrid: an API key.
• Mailgun: an API key, your sending domain and its region.
• SMTP, for any other email service, such as Amazon SES, Brevo, Mailjet, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or Zoho: the server, port, username and password it gives you. The connection is always encrypted.

The sender address has to be on a domain you have verified with that service. When you save, ClickNote first sends a short test message through the service to your own address. If the service refuses it, the page tells you what it said and nothing is saved, so a mistyped key never stops your clients’ emails. What you enter is kept encrypted and is never shown again, and you can go back to ClickNote sending for you at any time.