Trouble Validating My Outlook Adddress as Sending Domain

[GRichards4]

Hi all, 

I'm a one-man band setting up my Hubspot Starter Account to experiment with Marketing Email. When I attempt to validate my email address (which is <name>@outlook.com) I get errors: 

There was a problem verifying your domain connection. Some DNS records are either missing or require changes before you can use your domain.

Under DKIM, 2 CNAME records are flagged "Record Not Found" and under SPF, I see the flag "This domain has existing SPF record..."

Until today, I had never heard of DKIM or SPF and frankly I don't understand what domain validation. I have read this article a few times:

https://knowledge.hubspot.com/marketing-email/manage-email-authentication-in-hubspot

But I have no idea how I am supposed to update Outlook's DNS settings. I only have Outlook email. I do not own any domains myself and do not have a website.

I'm stuck, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[JWingate2]

Hi @GRichards4 , 

Do you have an email domain purchased through Godaddy or another domain hosting site, or was it strictly created through Microsoft Outlook?

If it was created through Microsoft Outlook here is a knowledge base on updating the DNS for that:
Updating DNS Records 

Depending on the Hosting site you should be able to find the Knowledge Base for that with a quick google search. 

HubSpot Support might be able to help as well with helping you get your Email Domain connected.

[GRichards4]

Hi JW, 

My email domain is outlook.com purely through having created a standard, "Microsoft 365 Basic" consumer user account. This may be the rub, because when I went to the "Domains" link on the MS knowledge base article you linked, to get to my MS account Settings-->Domains, I was unable to log in because, in typical MS terse language,  "Login is not supported for consumer users without business presence."

Hmm. Do I need to have my OWN email domain to make Hubspot work? I think I see another expense coming! 😉 As noted, I don't own a domain currently.

[JWingate2 · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, I would say yes. When connecting the domain you are connecting the .com to the email sending, so it would make sense why an outlook.com wouldn't be able to be connected. 

When you do purchase the new domain, if you need further support with it let me know.

[GRichards4]

Hi JW, after your reply, I did purchase a .com domain from Cloudflare and am now "connecting an email sending domain" in Hubspot settings.

I love the Cloudflare DNS record add/edit tool, but very quickly I ran aground with the set-up, per my "new" Community post:

https://community.hubspot.com/t5/Email-Marketing-Tool/Stumped-by-DNS-Set-Up-for-Cloudflare/td-p/1054...

Any tips appreciated! Thanks much.