A custom marketing domain lets you use your company name in the URLs for Act-On content (forms, landing pages, etc.) instead of a generic Act-On-generated address. This must be combined with an SSL certificate for security purposes (many browsers will block content loaded without SSL).

Act-On's fast and free SSL certificates...

• Are Domain Validated (DV) certificates signed by Let's Encrypt
• Renew automatically every 90 days with no action required
• Use the signature algorithm SHA256withRSA
• Have certificate keys stored securely on Act-On's servers
• Are trusted in and compatible with all modern browsers

The technology that Act-On uses to support HTTPS when hosting a certificate is Transport Layer Security (TLS SNI). Below is a list of browsers that currently support TLS SNI:

• Opera 8.0 and later (the TLS 1.1 protocol must be enabled)
• Internet Explorer 7 or later (under Windows Vista and later only, not under Windows XP)
• Firefox 2.0 or later
• Curl 7.18.1 or later (when compiled against an SSL/TLS toolkit with SNI support)
• Chrome 6.0 or later (on all platforms – releases up to 5.0 only on specific OS versions)
• Safari 3.0 or later (under OS X 10.5.6 or later and under Windows Vista and later)

Instructions

Step 1: Choose Your Marketing Domain and Point It to Act-On

First, choose the domain to connect to Act-On. You can use a domain you already own or purchase a new one from a hosting provider.

Next, create a CNAME on this domain, which adds a new subdomain (eg. info.company.com) that "points" to the content in your Act-On account. This will be the domain that will be used in your URLs for all Act-On content (images, landing pages, "view in browser" emails, clickthrough links, etc).

To create your CNAME:

1. Login to your Act-On account and go to Content > Branding > Domain
2. Find your account's Current Marketing Domain and save this - you will use it for creating your CNAME record.
   
   • If you see two domains here, then you are probably changing domains. Choose the Default Marketing Domain
   • Example: a12345.actonsoftware.com
   
   
   
3. Work with your IT admin or domain host to:
   1. Create a CNAME for your chosen subdomain (e.g. "marketing" or "info")
   2. Point the CNAME to your account's current Marketing Domain

Step 2: Add an SSL Certificate

This certificate is required – without it, your content will be blocked by most web browsers. This also allows you to track visit data on web pages secured via HTTPS.

Option 1 (Preferred): Fast and Free SSL Process

This method is completely free to you, is very quick to implement, and is a one-time setup (does not need to be repeated unless you change your custom marketing domain).

Option 2 (Legacy): Purchase a Certificate

Step 3: Connect Your Custom Domain to Act-On

With all the required setup complete, you can now connect your custom domain to Act-On:

1. Login to your Act-On account 
2. Go to Content > Branding > Domain
3. Click Edit in the upper right corner
4. Add in your subdomain (e.g., info.company.com) and click Save
   • Do NOT include http:// or https:// protocol when adding in your subdomain address (e.g. http://info.company.com) 
   • Do NOT enter your Act-On account host here (e.g. ci35.actonsoftware.com)
5. You will now see your custom domain listed as the Current Marketing Domain and your Act-On content will be served over that URL.

FAQs

Our company is rebranding. Can we change our Custom Marketing Domain?

Yes. Please refer to the Re-Branding Guide for instructions.

Our company manages multiple brands/domains. Can we set up multiple Marketing Domains for our account?

Act-On can only use one marketing domain per account. To have multiple domains, you can set up multiple accounts that are linked. Contact your Account Manager for details.