MARKETING: Amazon SES for SMTP

Use Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)

Introduction

Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) is a reliable platform for delivering transactional email, promotional campaigns, and other quality content to your audience.

Emailling through SES offers exceptional affordability—you’ll spend just fractions of a cent per message. The cost breaks down to just $0.10 per thousand emails sent. Check current pricing

Setting up begins with an AWS account, which is simply your Amazon.com credentials extended to access AWS services. If you already have an Amazon.com login, you can use it immediately. Learn more about getting started

Step 1: Create SMTP credentials

To establish email delivery through the Amazon SES SMTP interface, you’ll first need to generate SMTP credentials—your username and password:

• Access the AWS Management Console
• Select the “SES Email Sending Service” option

• From the left sidebar, choose “Account Dashboard”

• Locate “Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) settings” by scrolling within the dashboard

• Continue scrolling to find “Create SMTP credentials” and select it

• You’ll be redirected to AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to complete your credential setup

• Record your IAM User Name in a text editor, then click Create
• Preserve your credentials by copying them or downloading the credential file—the password won’t be retrievable later

Step 2: Verify an email address

Confirm ownership of the email address you’ll use to send messages:

• Open the Amazon SES Console
• Click “Verify a New Email Address”
• In the dialog box, input your sending address and select “Verify This Email Address”

• Amazon SES will deliver a confirmation message—click the included verification link to validate ownership

Note: Verification links expire after 24 hours from the initial submission.

• Return to the Amazon SES Console to monitor your address status, which should transition from “pending verification” to “verified”

Once verified, your address is active for sending through Amazon SES. To validate functionality, mark the verified address and click “Send a Test Email”. See the Amazon SES documentation for additional details.

Step 3: Request removal of Amazon SES restrictions

Amazon SES enforces initial safeguards to prevent fraudulent activity. New accounts have limitations including:

• Sending capability limited to verified email addresses only
• A sending cap of 200 messages per 24-hour window

To expand recipient flexibility and boost your sending quota, submit an access upgrade request through the Amazon Support Center.

Step 4: Configure your application to use Amazon SES

The final stage involves updating your Unificus Marketing SMTP Settings to leverage Amazon SES. Setup steps differ by application, but generally require entering SMTP configuration details and authentication information. This might involve modifying config files directly or inputting settings through the application’s interface.

Below is a reference configuration for Amazon SES. Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD with your Step 1 credentials, and replace EMAIL_ADDRESS with any verified SES address:

SMTP hosts = email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com (check your SES settings for your region)
SMTP port = 465
SMTP security = SSL
SMTP username: USERNAME
SMTP password: PASSWORD
From address: EMAIL_ADDRESS