SendGrid Setup Experience

[GTServices]

(This drove us crazy so I figured I would share with the community. I'm sure others may experience the same thing. Or maybe it was just a stupid oversight on our end.)

Some Background...

We use both Sendgrid (for transactional emails) and Salesforce > Marketing Cloud (for newsletters and eblasts). 

Our goal is to move away from Marketing Cloud (cost cutting).

We figured with SendGrid and IPS, we can build exactly what we need. A robust system that will allow us to create campaigns based on filters. (IPS is more than halfway there. YEA!)

Thank You IPS And SendGrid...

The IPS Sendgrid option was a check ✓ (among many) in our comparison sheet when we were researching modern forum platforms. We were happy to see that. It was all the "extra features/addons" that really made a difference for us.

Prior to IPS, we used Sendgrid SMTP. So we used the same settings when we converted over to IPS.

We entered the appropriate SMTP info in the Email Settings page (view attachment).



Everything worked perfectly. 

Switching To SendGrid Web API

Now, we want to switch over to Web API. 

For those not aware the main points for using Sendgrid Web API vs Sendgrid SMTP are:

1. Less points of failure (vs more checks)
2. Less latency (vs slower delivery)
3. More control over delivery reputation (if one fails you can easily switch)

Read More: Web API or SMTP Relay: How Should You Send Your Email?

As soon as we got everything set up we ran a Bulk Email test and got the following error (Email Error Logs)...

{"message":[{"message":"Invalid type. Expected: string, given: boolean.","field":"ip_pool_name","help":"http:\/\/sendgrid.com\/docs\/API_Reference\/Web_API_v3\/Mail\/errors.html#message.ip_pool_name"}]}

As you can imagine, we panicked. We just scheduled our first Bulk Email campaign to go out right away and we got an error. 

So we made the call to send the email campaign through Marketing Cloud instead. 

Plus, I was ready to head out the door. It was late. My wife was going to show up soon ready to go jogging.

First Thing In The Morning... 

We started looking into this...

We were leaning to something that we missed on SendGrid. All these years, we were using SMTP and just recently switched over to their dedicated IP option. So, the error has to be there...

Yes, the boolean error was changed to a string check on IPS.

With that said, we started looking around our SendGrid account ... we couldn't find anything regarding 'ip pool name'. We look through their Knowledgebase - found a few pages but nothing really helpful.

Zoom! Crash! Bang! Boom! (Cut to the point.) 

Ok, so here's the thing...

When we first enabled SendGrid on IPS, it was the first time we moved to a dedicated IP address. This was when we were using Sendgrid SMTP. In the IP Pool field, we had entered our SendGrid dedicated IP address. YES, WE DID THAT. 🤦‍♂️

As usual, we ignored the help text. Or maybe we just didn't get it for we were SendGrid newbies. 

So don't do the same mistake!

Anyway, it turns out that if you have just one dedicated IP address you can leave this field empty. But the only way to do that with IPS is to click the 'Do not use a dedicated IP address' option.

THIS IS MISLEADING!



According to SendGrid...
 

Quote

If an IP pool is NOT specified for an email, it will use any IP available, including ones in pools. 

https://sendgrid.com/docs/API_Reference/Web_API_v3/IP_Management/ip_pools.html#

Lesson Learned And Lesson Shared...

If you have just one dedicated IP address, you can leave the IP Pool field empty. 

I hope somebody finds this helpful. 💖

[Joy Rex]

I just switched on SendGrid - is there anything else beyond setting up the API key that needs to be done (on the IPS ACP side of things, or on the SendGrid side of things?

[GTServices]

Follow the above instructions.

Be aware that SendGrid has different options.