Connect your own email so platform emails are sent from your brand, not from Climbo.
Where to Find It
Brand, Then the SMTP Tab
Go to Brand, then open the SMTP tab (the page is titled SMTP Settings). An Owner and an Admin can both open it and change what's in it; Staff members don't see Brand at all. It stays locked until you've finished the initial onboarding.
SMTP requires a paid Climbo agency plan. On a free plan, pressing Save opens the Upgrade Your Climbo Plan dialog instead of connecting.
Why It Matters
Connecting SMTP is essential: without it, system emails are sent from a platform fallback address (`noreply@mylocalbusiness.io`) with your brand name as the display name, which breaks the white-label experience for your clients. The page warns you directly: "Without SMTP, clients won't receive magic link emails from your branded email. Connect it now."
Two Separate Email Connections
Notifications and Review Requests
At the top right of the page you'll find two tabs, Notifications and Review Requests. Each holds a separate email connection, because the two serve different purposes, and switching tabs switches which connection you're editing.
What Each Email Is Used For
Notifications
The Notifications email is used for communications from your agency to the clients who use your platform. That includes the welcome email for new clients, password resets, trial-ending and trial-ended messages, sign-up follow-ups, payment succeeded and payment failed notices, commission notifications, the event notifications your clients receive about their reviews and their plan, and the magic login link your clients receive when they sign in.
Review Requests
The Review Requests email is used by your clients (the local businesses) to send review requests to their own customers — the people who actually visit that local business.
For review requests, the connected email is only used as the sender address. If an end customer replies to a review request, their reply automatically goes to the local business's own registered email — never directly to your agency.
How the Two Fall Back
If Review Requests isn't connected, review invitations are sent through the Notifications connection instead. If neither is connected, they go out from the platform fallback address (`noreply@mylocalbusiness.io`), with your brand name as the display name. This is why it's worth filling in both. A connection that exists but isn't active counts as not connected: the fallback takes over rather than sending through a broken channel.
Your SMTP and Your Clients' Own SMTP
Two Different Things
The connection on this page is your agency's, and it covers the whole platform. Separately, a client can connect their own SMTP server for one of their locations, so that location's review request emails go out from their own address instead of yours. Whether they're allowed to is up to you: it's the Own SMTP server option in the plan's Integrations & Features tab (see the Plan Features article).
The two don't conflict. A location with its own SMTP connected uses it for its review requests; everything else, and every location without one, keeps using your agency connection. Switch the plan option off and those emails go back to your agency SMTP.
Connecting an SMTP Account
The Fields
The form is split into three sections — Server, Auth and Sender — with five fields in total:
- SMTP Host
- TLS Port — a dropdown with 587, 465 and 2525
- Username
- Password
- From Address
In most cases, the username is the same as the From Address. You can usually find these details in your email provider's own documentation. A few common examples:
- Gmail / Google Workspace — Host: smtp.gmail.com, Port: 587 (TLS). Use a Google App Password instead of your regular account password.
- Outlook / Office 365 — Host: smtp.office365.com, Port: 587.
- SendGrid — Host: smtp.sendgrid.net, Port: 587, Username: apikey, Password: your SendGrid API key.
- Mailgun — Host: smtp.mailgun.org, Port: 587.
Save
Enter your details and click Save (Clear wipes what you typed). Your credentials are tested straight away. On success you'll see "SMTP connection successful" and the tab switches to the connected view. If the test fails, you'll see "Error connecting to SMTP. Please check your credentials." and nothing is stored, so a failed attempt never leaves you half-connected.
Repeat this for both the Notifications and the Review Requests tab — each needs its own connection.
Each From Address can be used by only one connection across the whole platform. If it's already taken, you'll see "Email address already in use" and need to pick a different sender address.
Checking the Connection Later
The Status Light
Once a tab is connected it shows a status light next to the sender address — green when the connection is healthy, red when it isn't. The check runs automatically every time you open the tab, so you don't need to press anything.
Underneath, a read-only SMTP Configuration section shows the SMTP Host, TLS Port and From Address currently in use, plus a Disconnect button.
Getting Your SMTP Credentials
If You Can't Find Your Host and Port
If your provider's documentation doesn't help, you can ask an AI assistant such as ChatGPT: "I need to connect SMTP, my email provider is [your provider, e.g. Outlook or Gmail]. What are the SMTP host and TLS port I should use?" Then enter the values it gives you into the platform.
Keeping the Connection Working
Check Here First
If review requests or notification emails stop arriving, always check this section first and confirm both tabs still show a green light.
The connection relies on your email account's own authentication credentials. If you change your email password, or deactivate that email address, you'll need to reconnect SMTP with the new password or new email.
Changing Details Means Disconnecting
You can't edit a live connection in place. Click Disconnect, confirm in the Confirm SMTP Disconnection dialog, then enter the new details and save again.