The Amazon SES playbook

SES delivers the mail. Your domain still has to earn the inbox.

SES can warm dedicated IPs for you, but a new sending domain starts with no history, and on SES’s default shared IPs the domain is the only reputation that is yours. Keep sending through the SES API or SMTP exactly as you do now. Add your brand domain here and we build its reputation while SES keeps sending.

Start warming my domainSee guided DNS
The Amazon SES playbook

Keep sending from Amazon SES. Warm the domain here.

Step 1

Verify the domain and request production access

SES will not send from an unverified identity, and identities are per AWS Region, so a domain used in two regions is verified twice. New accounts also start in the SES sandbox, which only delivers to verified addresses and caps sending at 200 messages a day, until AWS grants production access. AWS says verifying the domain first helps that request.

Step 2

Set a custom MAIL FROM domain

Without one, the envelope sender is a subdomain of amazonses.com, so SPF passes for Amazon but does not align with your From domain and DMARC rests on DKIM alone. A custom MAIL FROM subdomain, one you do not otherwise send or receive on, with its own MX and SPF records, brings SPF into line.

Step 3

Know what SES warms, and what it does not

Standard dedicated IPs are warmed automatically by default, and managed dedicated IPs use an adaptive warmup per mailbox provider. That warms the IP, not the sending domain. On the default shared IPs, which SES manages across customers, there is no IP of yours to warm at all: the domain is the reputation you own.

Step 4

Add your brand domain to Inbox Boost

Use the domain in your From address, such as yourapp.com. The custom MAIL FROM subdomain SES uses, such as mail.yourapp.com, stays with SES. We set up what the domain needs and build its sender reputation for you. Nothing to connect to AWS: no access keys, no IAM role, no change to your SES configuration. Keep calling the SES API or SMTP interface as you do now; mailbox providers score the domain in your From address, so the reputation built here counts for every SES send from yourapp.com.

Step 5

Check where SES mail lands

Inbox placement tests show whether your password resets and receipts reach the inbox or Spam across the major mailbox providers, and blacklist monitoring keeps watching the domain once it is warm.

  • Nothing to connect: no AWS credentials, IAM role or integration
  • Nothing to change: your code, SMTP settings and SES configuration stay exactly as they are
  • Shared or dedicated IP: it works either way, because the reputation belongs to the domain
  • Watched after warmup: blacklist and authentication monitoring on your brand domain
Features Amazon SES senders lean on

The parts of the platform this plan leans on.

Feature

Inbox Boost

Add a domain. We provision the sending server and publish your DNS.

Learn more Feature

Guided DNS setup

We write SPF, DKIM and return-path into your zone, not you.

Learn more Feature

Inbox placement testing

See whether you land in Primary, Promotions or Spam across providers.

Learn more
See it play out

A Amazon SES domain, warmed without pausing a single send.

Four checkpoints, in order. Click any step or let it play.

ses · mail.yourapp.com
DKIM (Easy DKIM)verified
MAIL FROMaligned
sending historynone yet
Questions

Amazon SES questions, answered.

Does Inbox Boost need access to my AWS account?
No. There are no AWS credentials, IAM roles or integrations to set up. Inbox Boost works on your brand domain, and SES keeps sending your application mail exactly as it does now.
SES already warms dedicated IPs. Why warm the domain too?
SES’s automatic warmup gradually moves your traffic onto a dedicated IP, with the shared pool carrying the rest. Your sending domain carries its own reputation with Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo, and a new domain starts with no history whichever IPs carry its mail.
I am on SES’s default shared IPs. Does this still help?
Yes. Shared-IP reputation is managed by SES across its customers and cannot be isolated to your account, so the domain is the reputation that is actually yours. Building it here helps everything SES sends from it.
Does this get my account out of the SES sandbox?
No. Production access is granted by AWS when you request it, and Inbox Boost does not touch your SES account or quotas. AWS says verifying your domain before you ask helps the request, so do that first, then add your brand domain, the one in your From address, here.
Can I see whether it is working?
Yes. Inbox placement tests show where your SES mail lands, inbox or Spam, across the major mailbox providers, and blacklist monitoring keeps watching the domain afterwards.
About the Amazon SES facts on this page

Checked against Amazon SES's own documentation on 12 October 2026. Amazon SES is a trademark of its owner; SenderSignal is not affiliated with it.

Other transactional & smtp: Mailgun, Postmark, SparkPost, Resend, Mailjet. All use cases.

SES keeps sending

Warm the domain behind your SES mail.

Start free, add your brand domain, and keep every API call going to SES while its reputation builds.

Start freeHow Inbox Boost works