Connect your own email service

Your marketing emails are your automation emails, the Send me a test copies from the automation editor, and offers you send with Send offer. Until you connect your own email service, TrainerStack sends them for you, up to 100 a month and 20 a day. Connect your own and they go out from your own address with no TrainerStack limit.

Account emails are separate and are always sent by TrainerStack: client app invites, payment links, failed payment and card update emails, booking confirmations and reminders, PAR-Q and terms requests. They never count towards the allowance.

See how much you have used

Open Settings and click the Integrations tab. The Email sending card shows how many marketing emails TrainerStack has sent for you this month and today, and the date the count resets (the 1st of each month, Sydney time). The same count shows above your list in Marketing → Automations.

You get a notification at 80% of the month's allowance and another when it is used up.

When the allowance is used up

Nothing is lost. Automation emails wait at the step they were on and go out:

• tomorrow, if it was the daily limit
• on the 1st, if it was the monthly allowance
• straight away, as soon as you connect your own email service.

The Email sending card says how many are waiting and why. Send me a test and Send offer show a message instead of sending until there is room again, or until you connect your own service.

Connect Resend

1. In your Resend account, add your domain under Domains and finish its DNS records until it shows Verified.
2. Under API Keys, create a key with Sending access.
3. In TrainerStack, open Settings → Integrations and click Connect your email service.
4. Choose Resend, enter the name and address your emails should come from (the address must be on your verified domain), and paste the key.
5. Click Save and send test.

Connect with SMTP

Use this for Gmail or Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or a sending service such as Mailgun, SendGrid, Postmark or Brevo.

1. Click Connect your email service and choose SMTP.
2. Enter the from name and address, then the server details from your provider:
3. Google Workspace or Gmail: server smtp.gmail.com, port 587, your full email address as the username, and an app password (create one in your Google account under Security). Your normal password will not work.
4. Microsoft 365: server smtp.office365.com, port 587, your email address and password. Your admin may need to turn on SMTP sending for your mailbox.
5. Mailgun, SendGrid, Postmark, Brevo: use the SMTP server, port, username and password from their settings page.
6. Click Save and send test.

The test email

TrainerStack sends a test to your account email through the service you entered. Your service is only used once the test goes through. Then the card shows Connected, and any automation emails that were waiting go out within a few minutes.

Your API key or password is stored encrypted. It is never shown again, not even to you: the card shows only the end of a Resend key. To change it, click Edit and enter a new one. Leave it blank to keep the saved one.

What you should see

• Connected: marketing emails go out through your service, from your address, with no TrainerStack limit. The card shows how many have gone this month.
• Needs a test: the settings are saved but not used yet. Click Send test.
• Not sending: your service returned an error, such as a changed password, an expired key or your own provider's limit. Emails wait. Fix the details with Edit, or tick Send through TrainerStack instead to use the TrainerStack allowance meanwhile.

Opens and clicks are still tracked when you use your own service, so automation branches such as "if they opened the last email" keep working.

If it is not working

• "Not a domain in your Resend account" or "not verified yet". The from address has to be on a domain that is verified in the same Resend account as the key.
• "Refused the login". For Gmail and Google Workspace use an app password, not your normal one. For Microsoft 365, ask your admin to allow SMTP authentication.
• "Could not set up a secure connection". Try port 587 with STARTTLS, or 465 with SSL/TLS, whichever your provider lists. Port 25 is not supported: use your provider's submission port and login.
• "Enter your SMTP password again". A saved password is only kept while the server, port and username stay the same. Changing any of them needs the password typed again.
• "Does not point to a public mail server". Enter the provider's server name, such as smtp.gmail.com, not an IP address or a name on your own network.
• Sending is paused on your account. TrainerStack pauses its own sending for an account when several people mark the emails as spam or many addresses bounce, so one list cannot hurt delivery for every coach. Your emails are waiting. Connecting your own service sends them now. Ask us through Help → Report a problem to look at the pause.