Help-A-Noob...

Kymberlee Medina Here is a step-by-step for AWS SES setup - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fLrdlXoiVE

We applied for AWS SES 50000 emails per day at 14 per sec last year. Got rejected and then I returned a response with the below (after working it out with AI) and now we are good with 1 500 000 Emails per month. Feel free to try, can't say for sure it'll work for ya.

I basically took their response and asked Chat GPT to help me answer to get approved. It took one try and a few minutes of editing.

Subject: Comprehensive Description of Company's Email Complaint and Bounce Handling for AWS SES Approval

Dear AWS SES Team,

I am writing to provide a detailed overview of our company's email delivery handling process, complaint and bounce handling processes to request approval for sending transactional emails through Amazon SES.

Firstly, we want to increase the quotas for the identity verified as arn:aws:ses:
REGION-1:PLACE YOUR AWS IDENTITY NUMBER ETC HERE

There seems to have been a fault in our applications due to an external consultant submitting the request without clearance and full understanding. We hope you can assist us in making sure we can make the correct adjustment to our application for the production environment.

The company strictly follows GDPR and CAN-SPAM regulations in handling their email list for transactional emails to customers and leads. This includes:

1. Explicit Consent:

All individuals on our email list have provided explicit consent to receive transactional emails and specific communication from the company regarding our services, products and how to best use them to provide value to the customer.. Consent is and has been obtained through clear opt-in mechanisms, and the purpose of collecting their email addresses is and was transparently communicated.

2. Data Minimization:

The company only collects necessary data for sending transactional emails and ensures that the email list is regularly reviewed and updated to include only relevant contacts.

3. Data Security:

Robust security measures are in place to protect the email list from unauthorized access, data breaches, or misuse. Data encryption, access controls, and regular security audits are conducted to safeguard the information. To ensure this onwards is the main reason we want to move and expand our use of AWS.

3. Individual Rights:

Individuals on the email list are informed of their rights under GDPR, including the right to access their data, rectify inaccuracies, and request deletion of their information. Processes are in place to promptly address such requests.

5. Retention and Deletion:

The company adheres to GDPR guidelines on data retention and deletion. Email addresses are retained only for the necessary duration and are securely deleted when no longer needed or upon request from the individual. The individual can also delete their details at will through their customer profile.

4. Opt-Out Mechanism:

We provide easy and visible unsubscribe options in all emails to comply with CAN-SPAM requirements. Customers have direct access to handling their email notifications and settings though their account profiles, and can in any given time change, subscribe or unsubscribe and delete their settings or profiles according to GDPR regulations.

6. Data Processing Agreements:
We are not using any third-party service providers in our email delivery service except AWS SES, should we be approved. Our CRM system is hosted on our own servers.

5. Compliance Monitoring:

Regularly reviewing and updating email practices to align with GDPR and CAN-SPAM regulations, maintaining a high standard of data protection and email communication.

Complaint Handling:

- Our process for handling complaints involves monitoring feedback loops provided by AWS SES to promptly address any received complaints.

- Upon receiving a complaint, we conduct a thorough investigation and take immediate action, including removing the complainant from our email list to ensure compliance and recipient satisfaction.

- We are committed to minimizing complaints by delivering relevant and valuable content to recipients who have explicitly opted in to receive our emails.

Bounce Handling:

- We have a robust strategy for handling both hard and soft bounces, including regular monitoring and management of bounce rates.

- Our email list undergoes regular cleaning to remove invalid or non-existent email addresses that may result in bounces.

- We have implemented automated mechanisms to suppress sending emails to addresses that have repeatedly bounced, ensuring optimal deliverability rates.

Proactive Measures:

- In addition to complaint and bounce handling, we proactively engage in list hygiene practices and audience segmentation to target engaged recipients and minimize issues.

- We aim to use AWS SES and AWS services to utilize advanced tools and technologies to monitor and optimize email deliverability and engagement rates, ensuring a positive sender reputation.

Compliance and Best Practices:

- Our company is fully committed to complying with AWS SES policies and guidelines, as well as industry best practices for email deliverability.

We believe that our comprehensive approach to email delivery, complaint and bounce handling aligns with AWS SES requirements and industry standards. We are dedicated to delivering high-quality transactional emails while prioritizing recipient satisfaction and compliance with best practices.

Thank you for considering our application. 

We look forward to the opportunity to utilize AWS SES for our transactional email needs.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[Your Company Name]

I had the same issue and had to opt for Zeptomail by Zoho. Deep down its AWS SES I wanted. I will follow the shared steps and reapply too.

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge here.

Hi Everyone,

Do I have any recourse here? I was denied and used the same template and honestly said I had a typo with 50K because I only needed 5K per day...but is there no way around this?

Dear AWS SES Team, I am writing to formally request the removal of our AWS SES account from sandbox mode and to apply for production access. Below is a detailed description of our email handling process, including compliance measures, complaint and bounce handling, and email list hygiene protocols.

1. Email Sending Use Case
   We operate a professional training and consulting business. Our primary use cases for AWS SES include:

-- Transactional Emails: Order confirmations, user account notifications, course enrollment confirmations, and password resets for students and customers.

-- Marketing Emails: Educational content, training program announcements, and engagement emails for our list of over 12,000 students who have taken courses over the past five years.

-- Bounce & Complaint Handling: We will utilize AWS SNS for automated bounce and complaint handling via FluentCRM to ensure a clean, high-quality email list. A

dditionally, we use Google Workspace for inbound email handling and only AWS SES for outbound email sending to maintain separation between marketing and business-critical emails.

1. Domain & Identity Verification

-- Our primary sending domain is greatfishagility.com, with a dedicated subdomain for marketing emails: emails.greatfishagility.com.

-- We have implemented SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication to maximize email deliverability.

-- The Custom MAIL FROM domain is configured for emails.greatfishagility.com for proper domain alignment.

1. Email List Management & Compliance We strictly adhere to GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and Amazon SES policies:

• Explicit Consent & Opt-In Process
  -- All recipients on our mailing list have explicitly opted in to receive emails from us.
  -- Subscribers can manage preferences via FluentCRM and have full control over their email settings. * Bounce & Complaint Handling
  -- Amazon SNS is configured to track bounces and complaints, automatically unsubscribing problematic addresses.
  -- Hard bounces are immediately removed, and soft bounces are handled via a tiered suppression strategy.
  -- Complaints are logged and recipients are removed from future campaigns.

• Opt-Out & Unsubscribe
  -- Every email contains a clearly visible unsubscribe link, ensuring compliance with CAN-SPAM.
  -- Users can self-manage email subscriptions via our CRM platform.

• Data Retention & Security
  -- Email addresses are securely stored and periodically cleaned.
  -- We do not share data with third parties, and all emails are sent exclusively via AWS SES.

1. Sending Volume & Request for Quota Increase To start, we are requesting a sending quota of:
   -- 50,000 emails per day
   -- 14 emails per second

These limits align with our estimated gradual ramp-up strategy to ensure proper IP warming and sender reputation.

1. Commitment to Compliance & Best Practices
   -- We strictly follow AWS SES policies and maintain list hygiene best practices to prevent abuse.
   -- We are committed to gradual volume increases to maintain a healthy sending reputation.
   -- Our marketing emails are segmented and personalized to avoid spam complaints and ensure engagement.

Conclusion We believe our controlled, compliant approach aligns with AWS SES requirements. Our transactional and marketing emails serve an educational purpose, and we are committed to high deliverability standards for clients, customers, and students.

Thank you for reviewing our request. We look forward to using AWS SES for our outbound email communications.

Hello, Thank you for providing us with additional information regarding your sending limits. We are unable to grant your request at this time. We reviewed your request and determined that your use of Amazon SES could have a negative impact on our service.

We are denying this request to prevent other Amazon SES customers from experiencing interruptions in service. For security purposes, we are unable to provide specific details. For more information about our policies, please review the AWS Acceptable Use Policy ( http://aws.amazon.com/aup/  ) and AWS Service Terms ( http://aws.amazon.com/serviceterms/  ).

Thank you for contacting Amazon Web Services. We value your feedback. Please share your experience by rating this and other correspondences in the AWS Support Center. You can rate a correspondence by selecting the stars in the top right corner of the correspondence. Best regards, Trust and Safety

My response:

Dear AWS SES Trust and Safety Team, Thank you for reviewing my request for SES production access. I appreciate AWS’s commitment to maintaining high deliverability standards and protecting the SES service for all customers. However, I’d like to clarify a typo in my original request that may have impacted your review.

In my initial submission, I mistakenly requested 50,000 emails per day, but my intended request was 5,000 emails per day with a gradual ramp-up approach. If this caused any concern about high-volume sending, I sincerely apologize for the oversight. My priority is to grow email volume responsibly while adhering to AWS SES best practices for sender reputation and compliance.

We operate a professional training and consulting business. We only send emails to recipients who have explicitly opted in, and our email list consists of students and customers who have engaged with our courses over the past five years. Our email communication is split into two categories:

-- Transactional emails – Order confirmations, course enrollment notices, and password resets—critical communications that students rely on.

-- Marketing emails – Training announcements and educational content, only sent to subscribers who have opted in and have full control over their preferences.

We strictly follow AWS SES policies, CAN-SPAM, and GDPR regulations to maintain compliance. To ensure high deliverability, we have implemented SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication for secure email sending. Our bounce and complaint handling is fully automated using AWS SNS and FluentCRM, where hard bounces are immediately removed, and soft bounces are managed via a tiered suppression strategy. Every email contains a clearly visible unsubscribe link, and we actively monitor engagement metrics to maintain a clean, high-quality email list.

Given that our actual request is for 5,000 emails per day, I hope this aligns with AWS SES’s expectations for responsible scaling. We are also open to starting at an even lower limit if necessary and following AWS’s recommended warm-up strategies.

We are committed to AWS as our cloud provider and prefer to use AWS SES for email sending rather than seeking alternative services. If there are any remaining concerns, I would greatly appreciate any guidance on adjustments that would allow us to meet AWS SES requirements.

Thank you for your time and consideration—I look forward to your response.

There last response:

Hello, Thank you for providing us with additional information about your Amazon SES account in the US East (Ohio) region. We reviewed this information, but we are still unable to grant your request. We made this decision because we believe that your use case would impact the deliverability of our service and would affect your reputation as a sender. We also want to ensure that other Amazon SES users can continue to use the service without experiencing service interruptions. We appreciate your understanding in this matter. We value your feedback. Please share your experience by rating this and other correspondences in the AWS Support Center. You can rate a correspondence by selecting the stars in the top right corner of the correspondence. Best regards, Trust and Safety

What did I do wrong? Maybe I shouldn't have followed this template exactly? So I will never be able to use SES for SMTP? If not for my use case, then what would they approve? I have 12K emails of students I've taught and I just want to interact with them and use FluentCRM and bounce handling.

It's truly obnoxious when Amazon and Google (Ads) just summarily refuse to let you use their services and give zero reason as to why, citing "security". It would be simple enough to let you use the service and then just monitor things and see how it goes.

I think you're probabably stuck for now using one of the other SMTP services, as I mentioned in my reply in another thread. Once you've got a successful track record with one another service, maybe you could reapply to Amazon, but not sure they'd take the time to check it out or even care.