What is a subdomain?

A subdomain is like a “child” of your main (root) domain. It’s identified by a prefix before your main domain name.

For example:

You can think of it like adding a specific section to a larger building — the building is the main domain, and the section is the subdomain.

In email marketing, subdomains let you send messages from a custom email address that’s linked to your root domain but treated as a separate sender by internet service providers (ISPs). This helps you manage deliverability more effectively.

When using a subdomain for email marketing, it appears immediately after the @ symbol.

Examples:

You can choose anything you want as your custom email subdomain, as well as a custom username, as long as it follows the format of: username@subdomain.yourdomain.com.

Note: "subdomain" is not what you would use, but is simply a placeholder for the subdomain you choose. Your domain would be your root domain that you have already secured and have access to the DNS settings for. In the example above, "yourdomain.com" is your root domain.

We recommend choosing something simple that represents your email sending, such as mail.example.com, events.example.com, or newsletter.example.com.

Using a subdomain in Hive helps protect and improve your sender reputation.

Consistently sending emails from a subdomain — with low spam complaints — increases the chances your messages land in inboxes instead of spam folders. ISPs are more likely to recognize you as a trusted sender.

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