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Setup guide

Set up EMLCNTR, step by step.

Plain language, every click. Plan on about an hour of work spread over a day or two, because Amazon reviews new accounts.

1 · Install2 · Amazon account3 · Sending keys4 · Your details5 · Prove your domain6 · Leave test mode7 · Bounces8 · Your list9 · First send
What you need before you start
  • A WordPress website you can sign in to as an administrator.
  • Access to your domain’s settings (DNS). That’s usually wherever you bought the domain.
  • A credit card for Amazon. Sending costs about ten cents per thousand emails.
  • Your EMLCNTR license key.

1 · Install EMLCNTR

  1. In WordPress, go to Plugins › Add New Plugin › Upload Plugin.
  2. Choose the EMLCNTR zip file, click Install Now, then Activate.
  3. A new EML menu appears on the left. Open EML › License, paste your key and click Save.

Until the key is in, you can still set everything up and send tests to yourself.

2 · Open your Amazon account

  1. Go to aws.amazon.com and click Create an AWS Account. Use your business email and a card.
  2. Sign in to the console. At the top right, next to your account name, set the region to United States (N. Virginia). Keep it there for every step below.
Keep your Amazon password and keys private. Never email them, and never paste them anywhere except your own EMLCNTR settings.

3 · Make a sending key for your website

This is a separate login just for your website. It can send email and nothing else you’d care about, and you can switch it off any time.

  1. In the search bar at the top of Amazon, type IAM and open it.
  2. Click Users, then Create user. Name it after your site, for example eml-mysite. Leave console access off. Click Next.
  3. Click Attach policies directly, search for SES, tick AmazonSESFullAccess, click Next, then Create user.
  4. Click the new user, open Security credentials, and click Create access key.
  5. Choose Application running outside AWS, then Next, then Create access key.
  6. Leave that page open. In WordPress, go to EML › Settings and paste the Access key and the Secret access key into the Amazon section. Leave the region as us-east-1. Click Save.
  7. Back in Amazon, click Done. Amazon never shows the secret key again, and that’s fine: it’s saved in your site.

Running several sites? Make one user per site. Then if one site ever has a problem, you switch off just that one key.

4 · Fill in your details

Still in EML › Settings, fill in:

SettingWhat to put
From nameYour business name, the way people know it.
From emailAn address on your own domain, such as news@yourdomain.com. It doesn’t need to be a real mailbox.
Reply-toThe inbox where you want replies to land.
Mailing addressYour business’s postal address. The law requires it in every marketing email.
Logo and brand colorOptional. They go at the top of every email.

5 · Prove the mail is really from you

  1. In EML › Settings, click Set up my domain in Amazon.
  2. EMLCNTR shows a short list of records. Each one has a Type, a Name and a Value, each in its own box with a Copy button.
  3. Open your domain’s DNS settings in a new tab. For each record, click Add record, pick the same Type, and paste the Name and Value exactly, one box at a time.
  4. Come back to EMLCNTR and click Check again. Most records show up within an hour; some take up to a day.
RecordWhat it does
3 × CNAME (DKIM)Your domain’s signature on every email. This is the big one.
MX + TXT on mail.yourdomainLets bounces come back to Amazon and keeps your domain lined up with your sending.
TXT on _dmarcTells inboxes what to do with mail that fails the checks. Start gentle.
Paste only the value. Not the explanation, not the quote marks around it, and not your domain name twice. If your DNS host adds your domain to the end of the Name by itself, leave your domain off.

6 · Ask Amazon to let you send to everyone

New Amazon accounts start in test mode: you can only send to addresses you’ve verified. To leave test mode:

  1. In Amazon, search for SES and open Amazon Simple Email Service.
  2. Open Account dashboard and click Request production access.
  3. Mail type: Marketing. Website: your website address.
  4. Describe how you collect addresses (your sign-up forms and your customers), how often you send, and that every email has one-click unsubscribe and bounce and complaint handling. Be honest and specific.
  5. Submit. Amazon usually answers within a day. When it does, the EMLCNTR checklist turns green.

7 · Hook up bounces and spam reports

This lets EMLCNTR take bad addresses and spam reports off your list on its own. EML › Settings › Bounces and spam reports shows your site’s own address to paste and every click. In short: in Amazon, make a notification topic (SNS), subscribe your site’s address to it, and point your domain’s bounce and complaint notices at that topic. EMLCNTR confirms the subscription by itself.

8 · Bring your list

  1. Export your contacts from your old email service as a CSV spreadsheet.
  2. In EML › Lists, make a list (for example “Newsletter”).
  3. In EML › Import / Export, choose the file and the list, tick the box confirming these people agreed to hear from you, and click Import.
  4. EMLCNTR reads the usual column names and keeps unsubscribes, bounces and spam reports blocked.

Only import people who signed up or bought from you. Never buy a list.

9 · Your first send

  1. EML › Campaigns › New. Write a subject and your email, then pick the list.
  2. Click Send test and check it on your phone and computer.
  3. Start small. The daily limit in Settings (2,000 a day to begin with) lets your domain warm up over two or three weeks. Raise it as opens stay healthy.
  4. Click Send now or schedule it. Watch the report: opens, clicks, unsubscribes and bounces.
Healthy numbers to watch. Keep bounces under 2% and spam reports under 0.1%. If either climbs, stop, clean the list, and send to your most engaged people first.

Want us to do it with you?

Pick “Set it up for me” in the early-access form and we’ll walk through it together.