SES Deliverability: The Setup Checklist I Now Follow

Email deliverability is not a single setting. It is a stack of small things that must all be right. I have watched two clients launch newsletters that went straight to spam because one link in the chain was broken. Here is my full pre-send checklist.

DNS Foundations

Before SES sees a single message, the domain needs SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. SES will set up DKIM for you with the verification records it provides. SPF needs a TXT record that authorizes amazonses.com. DMARC needs a policy record at _dmarc.yourdomain.com.

The DMARC policy I start with is p=none with rua reporting to an address I actually check. This gives me visibility without blocking legitimate mail. After two weeks of clean reports I move to p=quarantine.

SES Configuration

Out of the sandbox, that is step one. New SES accounts are sandboxed and can only send to verified addresses. Request production access early because AWS can take a day or two to approve.

Configure a configuration set with event publishing to SNS. This is how you get bounce and complaint events into your own systems. Without this, you cannot clean your list and your reputation degrades fast.

Pre-launch checklist:
[ ] Domain verified in SES
[ ] SPF TXT record includes amazonses.com
[ ] DKIM CNAMEs published
[ ] DMARC policy at _dmarc subdomain
[ ] Production access granted
[ ] Configuration set with SNS events
[ ] Bounce and complaint handler subscribed
[ ] Test send to mail-tester.com, score > 9/10

The Mail-Tester Benchmark

Before any real send I run one test through mail-tester.com. They give you a score out of 10 with specific issues. The first time I ran this for a client we scored 6.5 out of 10. An hour of fixes got us to 9.8. The same campaign went from spam folder to inbox overnight.

Content Discipline

Technical setup is half the battle. The other half is content. No all-caps subject lines, a plain text version alongside HTML, a real physical address in the footer, and a working unsubscribe link. These are legal requirements in most jurisdictions and filter signals everywhere.

Deliverability is won and lost before anyone reads your email. See the SES Best Practices guide for the AWS-specific guidance.