How To Send WordPress Emails Using Amazon SES?

There are many different options for setting SMTP on your site. But the problem with most is that they will restrict the number of emails that you can send. This issue can be solved if you send WordPress emails using Amazon SES service.

Amazon SES can help you resolve this problem because it will not put any restrictions on the number of emails you can send. It is built on the network that Amazon has developed, which makes it very reliable. Another advantage is that you can improve the quality of your email marketing with the tools provided.

Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) is a really amazing tool for sending emails and ensuring that they get delivered. This service can be used with WordPress through the use of the WP Mail SMTP plugin.

Amazon SES has been designed predominately for business use. Using this tool helps you improve the deliverability of emails that have been sent from your site. It also provides you with tools that can help you create effective marketing emails to send to your customers.

It is free to use Amazon SES for the first year. When you do need to start paying, the amount charged will depend on the amount of emails that you send. The price can also be affected by the size of the attachments that you send. Current pricing structures can be found on the official Amazon SES site.

 

How To Send WordPress Emails Using Amazon SES Service?

To set up Amazon SES, you will need to have an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account. There is no cost to set this up, but you will be required to provide your credit card details when opening an account.

Once you sign, AWS will try to determine your region based on your address. If it can’t find your exact location, then you will need to select it yourself from the options that you will be given.

You will need an SSL certificate installed (see how to add SSL to WordPress website) on your site to use Amazon SES. It is recommended to use a domain-specific email when you are setting up SMTP on your website as this will look more professional to your customers.

The first step is to install and activate the WP Mail SMTP plugin on your site. You will need a PRO version if you want to use Amazon SES. If you would rather use a free version of the plugin, then you can check my tutorial where I show how to set up that your WordPress site sends emails free using SendGrid and WP Mail SMTP plugin.

Once you have installed and activated the plugin, go to the plugin settings. At the top of the settings page, you will see an option to enter the From Email. This will be the email account that you want your customers to receive emails from.

 

 

You can use any valid email address. However, for best results, I recommend using a domain-specific email address (i.e., example@yourwebsite.com).

Below the From Email, you can set the From Name. This is the name associated with emails sent out and will be set to your site’s name by default.

You can adjust this to any value you’d like and check the Force From Name option if you’d like to apply this setting site-wide. After this, you can scroll to the mailer field and select the option for Amazon SES.

There is a checkbox for Return Path, which is recommended that you check. You should also make sure that you have set the return email to match the address that you are sending emails from. This will ensure that you get notifications if your email is not delivered for any reason.

Once you choose the Amazon SES mailer, a new menu will appear. This is where you will need to enter the access keys that you were given when you created your AWS account. There will be two keys that you need to enter – the Access Key ID and the Secret Access Key.

 

 

Once you have entered both keys, you will need to check the Region field. This should already be filled based on the location of the hosting service for your site. It should also match the location you set when you signed up to Amazon SES. If you are happy with settings, then you can click Save Settings.

Another setting should appear as soon as you have clicked save, which will be titled Verified Emails. This is the place where you can set up the email that you wish to use as the From Email on your site.

If you click on Add Email Address, you will see an overlay appear where you can add an email address.

When you have entered the email address that you would like to use, you need to click on the Send Email Verification button. You will then get a notification that will tell you to check your inbox for a verification email.

 

 

Then you will get an email from Amazon Web Services with a verification link. You will need to make sure that you click this link within 24 hours, so it is probably a good idea to do it straight away so you can carry on with the setting process.

When you have verified the email, you can return to your site WP Mail SMTP settings. Refresh the page, and you will see that you are now verified.

By this stage, you have your WP Mail SMTP set up, and the email that you want to use has been verified as your From Email. The next step is to send a test email to make sure that everything is working as it should.

Go back to the Settings page and open the Email Test tab. The Send To field will already be filled in with your admin email, but you can change this to another email address if you wish.

 

 

If you want to send the email in plain text mode, then you can toggle the HTML off. However, in most cases, it will make sense to test that all aspects of the email are working, so it is smart to leave the default HTML setting as it is.

Once you have everything ready on this page, click the Send Email button. You will get a pop-up telling you that email was successfully sent. The final step will be to log into the account that you have sent the test email to and check that everything looks OK.

 

Send Emails From WordPress Site With Amazon SES SMTP Conclusion

No matter if you send transactional emails, follow-up emails (check paid & free WooCommerce follow up email plugins), order updates, welcome messages, etc. when you send any email, you expect it to be delivered.

But this is sometimes not the case when you send it from your WordPress site. Sometimes you dont receive contact form emails or your WooCommerce store emails are not delivered. There’s always uncertainty, whether or not emails will be delivered.

The main reason behind this is that WordPress, by default, uses PHP mail() function to send emails. But most WordPress hosting servers are not configured to use this functionality properly.

In most cases, PHP mail() Function doesn’t follow the proper protocol. Hence, your emails might not end in the inbox of the receiver.

Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) will help your WordPress site send out emails more reliably and ensure they go straight to your recipient’s inboxes, not spam folders.

And if you need to add email signature to your WordPress website emails, then be sure to check my tutorial because not only will you be improving your branding process but your emails will look professional too.