What is AWS SES? Setup, Pricing and Uses

AWS SES are some of the most critical services that are being extensively used in various organizations. Learn what is Amazon SES in AWS tutorial, you will be taken into the depths of AWS SES. You will get to know how SES works, its use cases, benefits and more.

The topics which we will in this AWS SES tutorial section are given below:

• What is SES in AWS?
• How does AWS SES work?
• AWS SES Pricing
• AWS SES Setup
• AWS SES with WordPress
• Benefits of Amazon SES
• Use Cases of Amazon SES

Watch this Amazon SES Overview video

Amazon Simple Email Service is a email sending service via cloud. This is mainly developed for marketers and developers to send business and transactional emails.

AWS SES can be used by businesses of any size that needs to send emails to its customers on a daily basis. It is also reliable because of AWS’s proven infrastructure. Using AWS SDKs you can implement SES into your application or existing application.

Do you want to know how does SES work ?

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AWS SES working is very similar to that of normal Email sending applications. Now let us see how it works.

1. Sender (an application) sends a request to the Amazon SES to send emails to one or more recipients
2. Then if AWS SES accepts the request, the mail will be sent to the specific ISPs of the recipients.
3. Then the ISP checks whether the email address is available or not. If it is available then the email is sent to the recipient.
   • If the email address is not found, a bounce request will be sent back to AWS SES which goes all the way to the Sender stating it is wrong
   • Also, if the Recipient identifies the mail as a Spam, virus or phishing then the recipient can fail a complaint to the ISP which transfers it to SES. If found as spam, the policies will restrict the sender.

This is the extended version of sending emails using SES. The working is the same but the process of sending the email which first goes through the SNS topic and AWS Lambda. Finally reaching the email address of any Email providers.

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Before starting your email marketing journey with Amazon SES, it’s important to understand the pricing structure to ensure it matches your budget and email volume. This section looks into the various pricing tiers and factors that influence your overall expenses.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers an efficient cloud-based email sending solution called Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES). It’s an excellent choice for companies of all kinds because it enables safe and dependable email sending.

Setting up Amazon SES is a straightforward process that involves a few key steps.

• Create an AWS Account: If you don’t have an AWS account already, you’ll need to create one. Go to the AWS website and set up your account.

• Access the Amazon SES Console: Once your account is set up, log in to the AWS Management Console.

• Verify Your Email Address or Domain: Before sending emails through Amazon SES, you need to verify the email addresses or domains you’ll be using. This helps ensure the legitimacy of your emails and improves deliverability. Follow the instructions in the SES console to complete the verification process.

• Create SMTP Credentials: To send emails using Amazon SES, you’ll need to set up Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) credentials. These credentials act as a secure way for your applications or devices to connect to the Amazon SES SMTP interface. Generate these credentials in the SES console and securely store them for future use.

• Configure Your Email Sending: Now that your email addresses or domains are verified, and you have SMTP credentials, you can start configuring your email sending settings. This includes defining the sender’s email address, setting up recipient lists, and customizing your emails.

• Integrate Amazon SES with Your Applications: To fully utilize Amazon SES, integrate it with your applications, websites, or services. Amazon SES provides SDKs and APIs for popular programming languages, making integration seamless. Utilize the documentation and code samples to ensure a smooth integration process.

• Monitor and Analyze Your Email Sending: After setup, regularly monitor your email sending through the SES console. Track delivery, bounce, and complaint rates to identify any issues and optimize your email campaigns. AWS provides detailed metrics and reporting tools to help you make informed decisions.

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If you’re running a WordPress website, ensuring reliable email delivery is crucial for communication with your audience. Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) seamlessly integrates with WordPress, providing an effective platform for sending emails. Let’s walk through the steps to set up Amazon SES with your WordPress site.

• Create an Amazon SES Account: If you haven’t already, sign up for an Amazon SES account through the AWS Management Console. Once logged in, navigate to the SES dashboard.

• Verify Your Domain: Before using Amazon SES with your WordPress site, you need to verify your domain. This involves confirming that you own the domain you want to send emails from. In the SES console, navigate to “Domains” and follow the instructions to complete the verification process.

• Generate SMTP Credentials: To integrate Amazon SES with WordPress, you’ll need SMTP credentials. In the SES console, go to “SMTP Settings” and create a set of credentials. These will be used to securely connect your WordPress site with Amazon SES.

• Install an SMTP Plugin on WordPress: To easily configure Amazon SES with WordPress, install an SMTP plugin. Popular choices include “WP Mail SMTP” or “Easy WP SMTP.” Activate your chosen plugin and enter the SMTP credentials generated in the previous step.

• Configure the Plugin Settings: Once the plugin is activated, navigate to its settings. Enter the SMTP details, including the server, port, and authentication information. Some plugins may also provide options for advanced settings such as encryption and sending methods. Refer to the Amazon SES documentation for recommended settings.

• Test Email Delivery: After configuring the plugin, send a test email from your WordPress site to ensure that Amazon SES is successfully handling your email delivery. Check both the sender and recipient email addresses for any issues.

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Send Transactional Messages

You can send automated messages for orders’ confirmation, order arriving, or a subscription end date.

Send Notifications

Also, Amazon SES users receive constant notification on their Sender reputation, health, and metrics of it. Also, you can set that your users receive notification whenever a mail is sent.

Receive Incoming Email

You can use Amazon SES to receive emails. Or you can programmatically direct the incoming emails to a S3 bucket.

Send Marketing Communication

Send promotional content, offers, discounts, and new product information using Amazon SES and its high-quality in sending emails.

The benefits of using AWS SES are

• High Deliverability
• Cost-effective
• Configurable

High Deliverability

There are a lot of features in Amazon SES such as content filtering, IP addresses which are dedicated for only sending, and also a reputation dashboard for a sender which he could maintain the sender reputation. The higher the sender reputation, the higher the number of messages your customers’ inboxes.

Cost-effective

You can use pay as you go model of AWS and only pay for the services and resources you use. No upfront costs or fixed costs, the cost varies on your monthly usage of the service. Also your first 62,000 emails are free when sent from an application which is hosted on Amazon EC2 and there is no end for this free offer.

Configurable

You can use configuration sets to create rules that can be applied on the emails you send using Amazon EC2. Also, using Amazon CloudWatch you could do a detailed analysis of your email metrics and also receive notifications using Amazon SNS.

Hope this tutorial on what is Amazon SES helps. If you would like to pursue AWS in more depth then do check out our AWS Master Certification.