Talk to our team

Documentation

✉️ Email Delivery

Documentation, reference material and tutorials for CRM-NG SMTP Email: setup guides for every mail service, troubleshooting, and one article per error message.

Mandrill (Mailchimp Transactional)

Updated

By Duane GarnerChief Executive Officer (CEO)
Summarize: Claude ChatGPT View Markdown
On this page

Connect CRM-NG SMTP to Mandrill, Mailchimp's transactional email service, with an API key and a verified sending domain.

This guide shows you how to send your WordPress email through Mandrill, the transactional email service that Mailchimp now calls Mailchimp Transactional Email. It suits businesses that already use Mailchimp for newsletters and want their website mail in the same family. Mandrill is an add-on to a paid Mailchimp account and has no free plan.

The Mandrill mailer sends through Mandrill's API with an API key. Mandrill refuses mail from domains you have not verified, so domain setup is part of the job.

Before you start

  • A Mailchimp account with the Transactional Email (Mandrill) add-on turned on. You sign in to Mandrill with your Mailchimp login.
  • A domain you control, with access to its DNS records.
  • Administrator access to your WordPress site.

Step 1: Add and verify your sending domain

  1. Sign in to Mandrill

    Go to https://mandrillapp.com/ and sign in with your Mailchimp account. (In Mailchimp, the add-on is under the transactional email section of your account.)

  2. Open Sending Domains

    Open Settings → Domains → Sending Domains.

  3. Add your domain

    Enter the domain you send from and add it.

  4. Prove ownership

    Mandrill asks you to verify that you own the domain, usually by adding a TXT record or by clicking a link sent to an address at that domain.

  5. Publish DKIM and SPF

    Mandrill shows the DKIM and SPF details for the domain. Add them at your DNS provider, then press the test button next to each one until both show as valid.

See Adding DNS records for help with DNS.

Step 2: Create an API key

  1. Open SMTP & API Info

    In Mandrill, open Settings → SMTP & API Info (the plugin's Get API Key link goes to https://mandrillapp.com/settings/index/).

  2. Add a key

    Choose + New API Key and give it a description such as your site name.

  3. Copy it

    Copy the key. You can limit what the key may do, but it must be allowed to send messages.

Test keys

Mandrill can create test keys that accept mail without delivering it. Make sure you use a normal key for the live site, or nothing will arrive.

Step 3: Connect in CRM-NG SMTP

  1. Choose the mailer

    In WordPress, open CRM-NG SMTP → Settings → General and set Mailer to Mandrill.

  2. Paste the key

    Paste the key into API Key.

  3. Set the sender

    Set From Email to an address on your verified sending domain and set From Name. Tick Force From Email so other plugins cannot use an unverified domain.

  4. Save

    Press Save Settings.

Send a test email

Open CRM-NG SMTP → Tools → Email Test, enter your address in Send To, and press Send Email. Mandrill's Outbound → Activity page shows the message and whether it was sent, rejected or bounced. See Sending a test email.

The domain check on the test page looks for spf.mandrillapp.com in your SPF record.

Troubleshooting

Go to Top