Amazon SES

Amazon SES is the cheapest way to send in volume. Rowsend sends through the SES API with an access key from your AWS account.

Before you start

• Verify a sending identity. In the SES console, add your domain (or at least your from address) as an identity in the region you’ll send from, and finish its DNS setup. See From address and domain.
• Leave the sandbox. New SES accounts can only send to verified addresses. Request production access in the SES console before sending to your contacts.

Create an access key

Create an IAM user for Rowsend and give it this policy. The first statement is for sending and Verify. The rest are for Set up bounce tracking, which creates the resources once and then reads from the queue.

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["ses:SendEmail", "ses:GetEmailIdentity"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ses:CreateConfigurationSet",
        "ses:CreateConfigurationSetEventDestination",
        "ses:UpdateConfigurationSetEventDestination",
        "sns:CreateTopic",
        "sns:Subscribe",
        "sqs:CreateQueue",
        "sqs:GetQueueAttributes",
        "sqs:SetQueueAttributes",
        "sqs:ReceiveMessage",
        "sqs:DeleteMessage"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Then create an access key for the user.

Set it up in Rowsend

1. Open Project settings → Sending and choose Amazon SES.
2. Fill in the from name, from email, Region (where your identity is), Access key ID and Secret access key.
3. Click Save, then Verify. Rowsend checks that your from address, or its domain, is a verified identity in that region.
4. Click Set up bounce tracking.

The key is stored on your computer, encrypted with your system keychain. Rowsend passes it to the companion only while a campaign sends.

Bounce tracking

Set up bounce tracking creates three things in your AWS account, named rowsend- plus the start of the project’s id:

• an SES configuration set that reports bounces, complaints and deliveries
• an SNS topic that the configuration set publishes to
• an SQS queue subscribed to the topic, which holds events for 14 days

Rowsend reads the queue while a campaign is sending and for 24 hours after. Hard bounces and complaints unsubscribe the contact from everything. Soft bounces are noted on the send but don’t unsubscribe anyone. Events that arrive while Rowsend is closed wait in the queue for next time.

Running it again is safe. It reuses what’s already there.

Rate limit

Rate limit is how many emails per second Rowsend sends through this sender, across all campaigns. It starts at 5. Your SES account has its own maximum send rate, shown in the SES console; keep Rowsend’s at or below it.