Configure your SES Account in AWS

Audience: Admins, Developers, Solution Architects

Purpose: Explains how to configure an Amazon SES account in AWS so it can be integrated with Kizen.

Overview

This page walks through how to configure your Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) account in Amazon Web Services so it can be used with Kizen. You’ll configure required SES settings, such as verifying your sending identity and preparing your account to send email.

Completing this setup ensures Amazon SES is ready to send email on behalf of Kizen and supports reliable, scalable email delivery for your workflows.

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Before You Begin

You’ll need:

• An AWS account – You’ll use this to configure Amazon Simple Email Service (SES).

• Access to your domain’s DNS settings – You’ll need to add a few records that Amazon provides to verify your domain.

• Kizen support – You’ll need to contact Kizen Support to turn on the Amazon SES feature for your account.

  • This step is required before the integration will work.

  • Open a support ticket and write something like: “Please enable the Amazon SES feature for our account.”

  • Once support confirms it’s enabled, you can continue with this setup.

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1

Verify your domain in Amazon SES

Before Amazon lets you send emails from your business domain (like yourcompany.com), you have to prove you own it.

1. Sign in to your AWS Console and open Amazon SES.

   • Write down your AWS region; you’ll need it to integrate with Kizen. It will look something like us-east-1 or us-west-2.

2. In the sidebar, go to Identities, then select Create Identity.

3. Choose Domain and enter your domain name (for example, yourcompany.com).

4. Keep Easy DKIM selected and then select 2048-bit key.

   • Selecting DKIM adds a trusted email signature automatically and helps your emails avoid spam folders.

5. Select Create Identity

6. Amazon will show you a trio of DNS records (they look like long strings of text. For example: "iL8m5kz4a2ZrQp3k0P1s9tEXAMPLEo3VuS7f4="). These records let Amazon confirm your domain and send emails on your behalf.

   • Add all of the records to your DNS configuration (such as AWS Route 53, Google Domains, or Cloudflare).

7. Wait a few minutes (though it can take longer), then go back to Amazon SES and refresh the page. When you see Verified and DKIM enabled, you’re done.

What you’re doing: You’re proving to Amazon that you own your domain and allowing it to send emails that look like they come from you.

Need more details? Check out Amazon’s guide for creating and verifying identities.

2

Create an IAM User and Keys

Now you’ll create a secure user in AWS that Kizen can use to send emails through your SES account.

1. In your AWS Console, open IAM (Identity and Access Management).

2. In the sidebar, go to Users, then select Create user.

3. Enter a name (for example, kizen-ses-user).

4. After the user is created, go to the user’s Security credentials tab, then scroll down and select Create access key (this creates a secure key that Kizen will use to connect to your AWS account).

5. Under Access key best practices & alternatives, choose Application running outside AWS.

   • This tells Amazon that a trusted external app (Kizen) will use this key to send emails through your SES account.

6. Copy or download both the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key (don’t share these keys publicly). Select Done to finish.

   • This step gives you two pieces of information that work like a username and password.

7. Staying with the user you created, go to the Permissions tab and select Add permissions. Then, select Attach policies directly.

   • This lets you give permissions to the user yourself instead of using a group.

8. In the list of policies, create a custom policy with these permissions under Service SES: ses:SendEmail, ses:SendRawEmail, ses:ListIdentities, ses:GetIdentityDkimAttributes

{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": [ "ses:SendEmail", "ses:SendRawEmail", "ses:ListIdentities", "ses:GetIdentityDkimAttributes" ], "Resource": "*" } ] }

What you’re doing: You’ve created a user and keys associated with that user that act like a secure password. You’ll paste them into Kizen so it can send emails through your SES account. Keep your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key safe; never share them publicly.

Need more details? Check out AWS guide to creating access keys for IAM users.

3

Set up feedback notifications (SNS)

This step connects Amazon and Kizen so Kizen knows what happens after your emails go out (for example, if an email bounces or is marked as spam).

1. In Amazon SES, go to Identities and click on your verified domain.

2. Open the Notifications tab.

3. Under Feedback Notifications, select Edit.

4. For each of the three types—Bounces, Complaints, and Deliveries—do this:

   • Choose an SNS topic you don’t own.

   • Add SNS topic ARN with either URL, depending on your production environment:

     1. https://app.kizen.com/api/customer-ses-webhook

     2. https://app.fmo.kizen.com/api/customer-ses-webhook

5. Select Save changes.

What you’re doing: When someone marks your email as spam or if an address doesn’t exist, Amazon relays that info to Kizen through the webhook you’ve pasted. This lets Kizen show accurate delivery reports and unsubscribe info.

Need more details? Learn more about Amazon SNS.

Your SES Account should now be configured in AWS.

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What's Next

Next, continue to Integrate Your Amazon SES Account with Kizen to connect your SES configuration to Kizen and start sending email from your workflows and automations.

Related Topics

• Amazon SES

• Integrate your Amazon SES Account with Kizen