LC Email in HighLevel

Updated: February 6, 2026  | 
Author: Bill Stilwell

This post covers what LC Email is, how it differs from connected email accounts, how to configure a sending domain, what SPF/DKIM/DMARC mean and why they matter, how to warm up a new domain, and the deliverability practices that keep emails reaching the inbox over time.

Reading time: about 7 minutes.

What Is LC Email in HighLevel?

LC Email – LeadConnector Email – is HighLevel’s native email sending infrastructure. It is the system that delivers all bulk and automated emails sent from a HighLevel sub-account: email campaigns, workflow automated sequences, appointment confirmations, and any other email that goes out at volume.

LC Email is not a feature users interact with directly during email creation. It is the underlying sending layer.

The Email Builder creates the email templates. The Email Campaign Automation or Workflow Builder handles when and to whom emails are sent.

LC Email is what actually delivers those emails to recipients’ inboxes.

Configure it at Settings, then Email Services in the sub-account.

LC Email vs. Connected Email Accounts

HighLevel supports two distinct email modes: LC Email for bulk and automated sends, and connected email accounts (Gmail, Google Workspace, Outlook, etc.) for individual correspondence in the Conversations Inbox.

LC Email is the right tool for campaigns, automated sequences, and any email that goes to a list or to multiple contacts. It handles volume sends efficiently and is designed for the deliverability requirements of bulk email.

A connected email account (like Google Workspace) is the right tool for individual replies in the Conversations Inbox – when a team member is having a one-on-one email conversation with a specific contact. The connected account sends those replies from the team member’s actual email address, which is more appropriate for individual correspondence than a system-generated sending address.

The two modes coexist within HighLevel. Automated workflow emails use LC Email.

Individual Conversations Inbox replies use the connected account. Both contribute to the contact’s complete communication history in HighLevel.

The Sending Domain

The sending domain is the domain from which emails appear to come – the part after the @ in the From address. Using a properly configured custom sending domain ([email protected]) is fundamentally different from sending from a generic shared domain.

A custom sending domain tied to the business’s actual domain builds a sending reputation specific to that domain. Major inbox providers – Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo – track reputation by sending domain.

When a domain consistently sends emails that recipients open and engage with, that domain builds a positive reputation. When a domain sends emails that recipients mark as spam or ignore, that reputation suffers.

Using the business’s own domain for email sends means the sending reputation is the business’s asset – built over time through good sending practices. Using a shared generic domain means the reputation is shared with every other user on that domain, including those who may have damaged it.

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC Explained

These three DNS records form the authentication foundation for email deliverability. Each serves a distinct purpose in verifying that emails from a domain are legitimate.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a DNS record that specifies which servers are authorized to send email from a domain. When HighLevel sends an email on behalf of businessname.com, receiving email servers check the SPF record to confirm HighLevel’s servers are on the authorized list.

Without a valid SPF record, many email providers treat the email with increased suspicion.

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a cryptographic digital signature to every outgoing email. The receiving server can verify the signature using the public key in the DKIM DNS record – confirming the email was not altered in transit and that it genuinely came from an authorized sender.

DKIM is a strong signal that the email is legitimate.

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) is a policy record that tells receiving servers what to do when an email fails SPF or DKIM – quarantine it, reject it, or do nothing (monitoring mode). DMARC also enables reporting so the domain owner can see authentication failures.

Configuring DMARC properly protects the sending domain from being used in phishing attacks.

All three records are required for strong email deliverability. HighLevel generates the specific values for each record when a sending domain is configured – the values are provided in the Email Services settings for the agency to add to their DNS.

Configuring LC Email

Configuring LC Email starts in Settings, then Email Services. Add the sending domain.

HighLevel generates the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC record values for that domain. These values need to be added as DNS records in the domain registrar where the domain is managed (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, etc.).

Adding DNS records requires access to the domain’s DNS management. The SPF record is a TXT record on the root domain.

The DKIM record is a TXT or CNAME record on a subdomain prefixed with a specific selector. The DMARC record is a TXT record on the _dmarc subdomain.

Each registrar’s DNS interface has a slightly different layout, but the record type and value are the same regardless of registrar.

After adding the records, return to HighLevel’s Email Services and run the verification check. DNS propagation can take up to 48 hours – if the records do not verify immediately, wait and check again.

Once verified, the sending domain is authenticated and ready for production use.

From Name and From Address

The From name is what recipients see in their email client as the sender – “Johnson Plumbing,” “Dr. Sarah Chen,” or “The Fitness Studio.” The From address is the actual email address in the From field – [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected].

The From name significantly affects open rates. A recognizable name – the business name or a person the recipient knows – produces higher open rates than a generic or unfamiliar name.

For a local service business, using the business name as the From name is typically more effective than using a generic “Marketing Team” label.

The From address should be on the authenticated sending domain. Using an address on a different domain than the one with SPF/DKIM configured – sending “from” a Gmail address while the authentication is on businessname.com – can create authentication mismatches that hurt deliverability.

Domain Warm-Up

A newly configured sending domain starts with no sending history and no established reputation with inbox providers. Sending a large volume of emails immediately from a new domain is a reliable way to trigger spam filters – the sudden volume from an unknown domain is a red flag for spam detection systems.

Domain warm-up is the process of gradually establishing a sending reputation by starting with low volumes and increasing over time. A typical warm-up schedule: week 1, a few hundred emails per day to the most engaged contacts.

Week 2 to 3, a few thousand per day. Week 4 to 6, increasing toward the target send volume.

The engagement signals from the initial sends – opens, clicks, replies – build a positive reputation before the volume increases.

Always start warm-up with the most engaged segment of the contact list – people who have recently opened or clicked emails. Their engagement signals matter most for establishing the domain’s reputation.

Sending to low-engagement contacts early in the warm-up risks poor engagement signals that slow the reputation building.

Ongoing Deliverability Practices

Email deliverability is not a configuration problem that gets solved once – it is an ongoing health metric that requires consistent attention. Several practices maintain deliverability over time.

Send to engaged contacts. The most powerful deliverability signal is recipient engagement – opening, clicking, and replying.

Regularly segmenting the list to focus sends on engaged contacts, and reducing sends to contacts who have not opened in 6 or more months, maintains better average engagement rates and protects the sending reputation.

Monitor bounce and spam complaint rates. High bounce rates (sending to invalid addresses) and high spam complaint rates both damage sending reputation quickly.

Keep hard bounce rates below 2% and spam complaint rates below 0.1%. HighLevel tracks these metrics in the campaign and email reporting.

Always include a functional unsubscribe mechanism. CAN-SPAM requires an unsubscribe option in all commercial emails.

HighLevel’s email templates include an unsubscribe link variable for this purpose – include it in every bulk email footer. When a contact unsubscribes, HighLevel sets email DND automatically, preventing future bulk sends to that contact.

List Hygiene

List hygiene is the practice of regularly cleaning the email contact list to remove invalid addresses, unengaged contacts, and contacts who have explicitly opted out. Clean lists produce better deliverability because a higher percentage of recipients are likely to open and engage with emails.

Common list hygiene actions: removing hard bounced addresses immediately after they bounce, setting up a Smart List to identify contacts who have not opened any email in 6 or more months and either running a re-engagement campaign to that segment or removing them from the active sending list, removing anyone who has unsubscribed (HighLevel handles this automatically with DND), and avoiding adding purchased or scraped lists to the contact database.

A list that is cleaned regularly maintains a higher engagement rate, which directly supports inbox placement. A list that is never cleaned accumulates more and more unengaged contacts – driving down the average open rate, hurting the sender reputation, and making it progressively harder for even engaged contacts to receive the emails.

What Can You Do With It?

• Send campaigns and automated emails from a professional, authenticated domain: A properly configured LC Email setup sends emails from the business’s own domain with full authentication – appearing more professional to recipients and producing better deliverability than unauthenticated or generic domain sends.
• Build a sending reputation over time that improves inbox placement: A consistently well-managed sending domain builds reputation credit with inbox providers – making it progressively easier for emails to reach the inbox rather than spam over time.
• Maintain compliance with CAN-SPAM and similar regulations: LC Email’s unsubscribe handling and DND automation help maintain compliance with legal requirements for commercial email – protecting the business from the legal risk of non-compliant bulk sending.
• Diagnose and fix deliverability issues proactively: The Email Services configuration shows the authentication status of DNS records – making it possible to identify and fix authentication issues before they cause large-scale deliverability problems.

Key Definitions

Use Cases by Industry

Home Services – New Account Email Setup

A roofing company sets up HighLevel for the first time. Their domain is texasroofingpros.com.

They add the sending domain in Email Services, copy the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC record values provided by HighLevel, and add them to their GoDaddy DNS settings. After 24 hours, all three records verify in HighLevel.

The From name is set to “Texas Roofing Pros” and the From address is set to [email protected]. The first email campaigns start small – a few hundred emails to recent customers.

Open rates are solid from the start because the list is fresh and engaged. The domain warm-up over the first month produces no deliverability issues.

Result: A properly configured sending domain from day one prevents the deliverability problems that plague poorly set-up accounts. The authentication records are in place, the From address is professional, and the gradual warm-up establishes the domain reputation before high-volume sends begin.

Marketing Agency – Client Domain Setup

An agency onboards a dental practice as a new client. Part of the standard onboarding checklist is setting up the client’s sending domain in the sub-account’s Email Services.

The agency walks the client through the DNS record additions or handles the DNS changes directly if they manage the client’s domain.

The agency uses a standardized email setup checklist: add sending domain, verify SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, set professional From name and address, send three test emails to personal addresses using different email clients, check spam score with Mail-Tester.com, confirm all tests pass before activating any automated campaigns.

Result: Every new client account has a professionally configured email sending setup from the start. The agency’s standardized onboarding process prevents the “why are emails going to spam?” support issues that arise from skipped or incomplete email configuration.

Real Estate – Re-Engagement Campaign After Poor Deliverability

A real estate agent’s email campaigns have been going to spam for several months. Investigation reveals: the DKIM record was never added, the list contains several hundred invalid email addresses accumulated over three years, and the last 12 months of campaigns were sent to the entire list without segmenting for engagement.

The fix: add the missing DKIM record, run a hard bounce cleanup (removing all addresses that have bounced), create a Smart List of contacts who opened at least one email in the last 6 months, and restart sends only to that engaged segment at low volume for 4 weeks before expanding back to the broader list.

Result: Deliverability recovers within 6 to 8 weeks of the corrective actions. The engaged-segment-only sends produce high open rates that rebuild the domain’s reputation with inbox providers. The list hygiene removes the invalid addresses that were generating hard bounces and damaging the sender score.

Who Is This For?

How to Set Up LC Email

Step 1: Navigate to Email Services

In the sub-account, go to Settings, then Email Services.

Step 2: Add the sending domain

Enter the domain for email sending. HighLevel generates the required SPF, DKIM, and DMARC record values.

Step 3: Add DNS records to the registrar

Log in to the domain registrar. Add the SPF TXT record to the root domain.

Add the DKIM record (TXT or CNAME) to the specified subdomain. Add the DMARC TXT record to _dmarc.domain.com.

Save all records.

Step 4: Verify the records in HighLevel

Return to Email Services in HighLevel. Run the DNS verification check.

If records do not verify immediately, wait up to 48 hours for DNS propagation and check again.

Step 5: Configure From name and From address

Set the From name (business name or person name) and the From address (an email address on the authenticated sending domain).

Step 6: Send a test email

Send a test email to a personal address. Confirm it arrives in the inbox (not spam) and the From information appears correctly.

Step 7: Check spam score

Use Mail-Tester.com or a similar tool – send a test email to the tool’s test address and review the deliverability score. Address any flagged issues.

Step 8: Warm up the domain

Start with low-volume sends (a few hundred emails per day to the most engaged contacts) and increase gradually over 4 to 6 weeks before sending at full campaign volume.

Step 9: Implement list hygiene practices

Set up a regular process for removing hard bounced addresses and creating Smart Lists to identify unengaged contacts before each major campaign send.

How Does It Connect to HighLevel?

• Email Campaign Automation: Email Campaign Automation is the campaign creation and management layer. LC Email is the delivery infrastructure. Campaigns are created in Email Campaign Automation and delivered through LC Email.
• Workflow Builder: Automated email actions in Workflow Builder send through LC Email. Every automated email in a HighLevel workflow uses the LC Email sending infrastructure configured in Email Services.
• Email Builder: The Email Builder creates the templates – LC Email delivers them. The builder handles design; LC Email handles delivery.
• Contact Management: Email DND status in Contact Management is respected by LC Email – contacts with email DND active do not receive bulk emails from LC Email regardless of what workflow or campaign they are enrolled in.
• Smart Lists: Smart Lists are the segmentation tool for targeting engaged contacts in campaigns. Building sending lists from Smart Lists that filter for recent engagement is one of the most effective ongoing deliverability maintenance practices.

Common Questions

What is LC Email in HighLevel?

HighLevel’s native email sending infrastructure for all campaign and automated workflow email delivery. Configured at Settings, then Email Services.

Requires a sending domain with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication records.

How do I set up email sending in HighLevel?

Settings, then Email Services. Add sending domain.

Add SPF, DKIM, and DMARC DNS records to the domain registrar. Verify in HighLevel.

Configure From name and From address.

What is a sending domain in HighLevel?

The domain from which emails appear to come – the part after @ in the From address. A custom sending domain tied to the business’s domain builds a sender reputation specific to that domain.

What are SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records and why are they important?

DNS authentication records that verify email legitimacy. SPF specifies authorized sending servers.

DKIM adds cryptographic signatures. DMARC defines handling of authentication failures.

All three are required for reliable inbox delivery.

Can I use my existing email address (like Gmail) to send from HighLevel?

Connected email accounts (Gmail, Outlook) are used for individual Conversations Inbox replies. LC Email handles bulk campaign and automated sends.

Both coexist – they serve different purposes.

What affects email deliverability in HighLevel?

DNS authentication (SPF/DKIM/DMARC), sending domain reputation, list quality (invalid/unengaged addresses), email content, and sending volume patterns. All affect whether emails reach the inbox or spam.

What is LC Email vs connecting a Gmail or Outlook account in HighLevel?

LC Email is for bulk/automated sends. Connected Gmail or Outlook is for individual email correspondence in the Conversations Inbox.

Different purposes, both available within HighLevel.

To Wrap It Up

LC Email is the unglamorous but essential foundation of HighLevel’s email capabilities. No email campaign, no automated sequence, no appointment confirmation lands in a recipient’s inbox without a properly configured sending domain.

Getting this setup right at the start of a HighLevel implementation prevents the deliverability headaches that plague accounts that skip or rush through it.

The three DNS records – SPF, DKIM, DMARC – are not optional technical details. They are the authentication credentials that inbox providers use to decide whether to deliver an email or filter it.

An account without these records configured correctly is sending unauthenticated email in an era when major inbox providers are aggressively filtering exactly that.

Domain warm-up and list hygiene are the ongoing practices that maintain the deliverability foundation after it is established. The setup gets emails to the inbox on day one.

The practices keep them there on day 365. Both matter equally – a well-configured domain that is sent to a poor-quality list will degrade over time just as surely as a poorly configured one.

Here is how to get started:

1. Navigate to Settings, then Email Services in the sub-account
2. Add the sending domain – the business’s primary domain
3. Copy the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC record values provided by HighLevel
4. Log into the domain registrar and add all three DNS records
5. Wait up to 48 hours and verify all records in HighLevel
6. Configure the From name and From address on the authenticated domain
7. Send test emails and check spam score with Mail-Tester.com
8. Begin warm-up: start with the most engaged contacts, low volume, increasing weekly
9. Establish a monthly list hygiene routine – remove bounced and unengaged contacts

Set up the DNS records before writing a single email campaign. DNS propagation takes up to 48 hours, and authentication records must be verified before reliable bulk sending is possible.

Always.