Setting Up Resend for WiFi Marketing Transactional Emails

Transactional vs Marketing Email: Why They Need Different Providers

Transactional emails are triggered by user actions: the welcome email sent immediately after WiFi login, the NPS survey 24 hours post-visit, the birthday email on the right day. Marketing emails are campaign sends: your monthly newsletter, your Valentine's Day promotion, your seasonal menu announcement.

The distinction matters for deliverability. Email service providers optimise their infrastructure for one mode or the other. Mailchimp is excellent for campaign sends — its sending infrastructure, audience management, and A/B testing tools are built for scheduled, high-volume marketing emails. But its transactional send performance (latency, deliverability, API reliability for automated triggers) is not class-leading.

Resend is a developer-focused transactional email API built specifically for automated, triggered sends. It has sub-second latency, excellent deliverability, clean API documentation, and straightforward domain verification. For WiFi marketing's automated triggers (welcome email, re-engagement, birthday, NPS survey), Resend consistently outperforms Mailchimp on deliverability.

Domain Verification in Resend

Before sending any email via Resend, verify your sending domain. This is a DKIM and SPF setup in your DNS provider.

1. Log in to Resend (resend.com) and navigate to Domains > Add Domain
2. Enter your venue domain (e.g., yourvenue.com — the domain of your email address)
3. Resend generates DNS records: SPF TXT record, DKIM CNAME records (typically 3), and a DMARC TXT record
4. Add these records in your DNS provider (Cloudflare, Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc.)
5. DNS propagation: 5–60 minutes typically
6. Return to Resend > Domains and click Verify — green status indicates successful verification

Sending from a verified domain significantly improves deliverability. Emails sent from an unverified domain are treated with suspicion by receiving mail servers and often land in spam.

Getting Your API Key

Navigate to Resend > API Keys > Create API Key. Give it a name ("VoqadoWiFi Production") and set permission to "Sending Access" only — you do not need full access for sending emails.

Copy the API key immediately — Resend only displays it once.

Configuring Resend in VoqadoWiFi

1. In VoqadoWiFi: Settings > Email > Email Provider
2. Select "Resend" from the provider dropdown
3. Paste your API key
4. Enter your "From" email address (must match your verified domain: e.g., hi@yourvenue.com)
5. Enter a "From" name (your venue name)
6. Save and send a test email

The test email arrives in your inbox within seconds if the configuration is correct. If it does not arrive, check your spam folder and verify that the API key has sending permission.

Resend vs Mailchimp: When to Use Each

Use Resend for: - Welcome email (immediate trigger at login) - Birthday email (day-of trigger) - NPS survey (24-hour post-visit trigger) - Re-engagement emails (automated, behaviour-triggered) - Any email where delivery timing precision matters

Use Mailchimp for: - Monthly campaign newsletters - Event announcements (scheduled sends) - Promotional campaigns - Any email where audience segmentation, A/B testing, or Mailchimp's campaign analytics are needed

The two-provider approach adds minor complexity but produces meaningfully better deliverability for automated triggers. Resend's pricing starts at $20/month for 50,000 sends — negligible relative to campaign revenue.

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC Explained Simply

SPF (Sender Policy Framework): A DNS record that lists which mail servers are authorised to send email on behalf of your domain. Prevents spoofing. Resend requires you to include their servers in your SPF record.

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Adds a cryptographic signature to outgoing emails that the receiving server can verify. Proves the email was sent by you and was not modified in transit.

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication): A policy that tells receiving servers what to do with emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks (quarantine, reject, or report). A DMARC record in "p=none" mode (monitoring only) is the safest starting point.

All three are configured in your DNS provider with records provided by Resend. Resend's verification check will confirm all three are correctly in place before allowing you to send.