Amazon Simple Email Service for Soapbox Engage Actions App – Soapbox Support Center

Hey there! Welcome to Soapbox Engage’s Actions app. This guide will lead you step by step to preparing to utilize Amazon Simple Email Service for the Actions app.

The advantage of creating your own Amazon SES account over using the Soapbox Engage Email Service is that with your own account, you can set the From Email Address to Targets parameter to an email address using your own domain.

Otherwise, the email address that is used for messages to targets will use the soapboxengage.net domain.

If you decide the soapboxengage.net domain is sufficient for your use, then you only need to set Actions > Configuration > Send Messages Through option to "Soapbox Engage Email Service"

Create and enter your Amazon Simple Email Service (“Amazon SES”) API information
1. If you don’t have an Amazon Web Services account, go to Amazon Web Services - http://aws.amazon.com. If you already have an account, skip this step.
  1. Click the Sign Up button at the top-right of the screen
  2. On the “Sign In or Create an AWS Account” screen, type in the main email address you’d like associated with your AWS account. Also, choose the “I am a new user.” option. Click the Sign In Using our Secure Server button.
  3. On the “Login Credentials” page, enter the required information, and click the Continue button
  4. On the “Contact Information” screen, enter the required information, and click the Create Account and Continue button.
  5. On the “Payment Method” screen, enter your credit card information. Note, in using Amazon’s services, you’ll only be billed for services you use, and at the time of this writing, there are no monthly fees. Click the Continue button.
  6. On the “Identity Verification” screen, follow the instructions as shown on the screen.
  7. On the “Confirmation” screen, follow the instructions as shown on the screen.
2. Create an Amazon Web Services user dedicated to the Soapbox Engage Actions app
  1. Within the Amazon Web Services console, go to the Identity and Access Management
  2. In the left navigation, click on Users
  3. On the Users screen, click the Create User button
  4. On the User Details page, create a User Name, and click the Next button
  5. On the Set permissions page, in the Permissions options section, select "Attach policies directly", and in the Permissions policies section, type "AmazonSESFullAccess" into the search bar and check the box next to the AmazonSESFullAccess policy, and click the Next button
  6. On the Review and create page, click the Create user button
  7. On the Users page, click the name of the newly created user
  8. On the User page, click the Security credentials tab, and in the Access keys section click the Create access key button
  9. On the Access key best practices & alternatives page, select Third-party service, and check the confirmation box, and click the Next button
  10. On the Set description tag, just click the Create access key button
  11. On the Retrieve access keys page, save the Access key and Secret access key in a safe place for use by Soapbox Engage in a future step
3. Sign Up for the Amazon Simple Email Services (SES) account
  1. Go to https://aws-portal.amazon.com/gp/aws/developer/registration and follow the on-screen instructions for signing-up for an SES account (NOTE: It may be possible that Amazon has already automatically provided you access to SES, in which case you’ll see “You already have access to Amazon Web Services” at the top of your screen after clicking the link above).
  2. Completing this simple process gives you access to a test account, which allows you to send email ONLY to the verified email addresses below. You’ll need to request production access to use Soapbox Engage’s Actions app to send email normally (see below).
4. Configure your SES account’s email addresses
  1. Verify your sending address(es) or domain(s) by first going to the Amazon Console for SES: https://console.aws.amazon.com/ses/home
  2. In the upper-right of the Amazon SES console, to the left of the “Help” link, take note of the region code. If this says anything other than “N. Virginia”, click on the words displayed, and then choose “US East (N. Virginia)” from the dropdown.
  3. On the left side of the Amazon SES console, under the Verified Senders section, click the “Email Addresses” link.
  4. To add an address that you’ll be able to send email from in Soapbox Engage’s Actions app, in the top of the screen click the Verify a New Email Address button.
  5. In the Verify a New Email Address popup window, enter the email address you’d like to be able to send email from, and click the Verify This Email Address button.
  6. Check the email account of the address you supplied in the popup window to find a confirmation email from Amazon. Click on the appropriate link to confirm the verification process.
  7. Repeat this process to add more verified sending email addresses
5. Request Production Access to Simple Email Service
  1. Log into the AWS Management Console.
  2. Go to SES Sending Limits Increase.
  3. In the form, provide the following information:
    1. Region: Select “US East (Northern Virginia)
    2. Limit: Select “Desired Daily Sending Quota”
    3. New Limit Value: We recommend starting with 10,000, but recommend as much as you need. This is the number of emails you can send in a 24-hour period. Be sure to only request the amount you think you'll need. Keep in mind that you are not guaranteed to receive the amount you request, and the higher the limit you request, the more justification you will need to be considered for that amount.
    4. Click the Add Another Request button
    5. Region: Select “US East (Northern Virginia)"
    6. Limit: Select “Desired Maximum Send Rate”
    7. New limit value: 20
    8. Fill out the rest of the form
    9. Click the Submit button at the bottom of the screen once you have filled out the entire form
    10. It normally takes a few days for Amazon to process your request to move to their production services, but you can still keep moving forward on testing in the sandbox environment.
6. Add Amazon AWS Information in Soapbox Engage's Actions app configuration
  1. Login to your Soapbox Engage administrator
  2. Go to Actions > Configuration
  3. Enter AWS values, including the following
    1. Send Messages Through: Amazon Simple Email Service
    2. AWS Host URL: one of the following Amazon SES API endpoints listed below depending on the AWS region used for the organization
      1. US East (Ohio) - https://email.us-east-2.amazonaws.com
      2. US East (N. Virginia) - https://email.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
      3. US West (N. California)- https://email.us-west-1.amazonaws.com
      4. US West (Oregon) - https://email.us-west-2.amazonaws.com
    3. AWS Port: 443
    4. AWS Key | Username: the AWS Key for the AWS user previously created
    5. AWS Secret | Password: the AWS Secret for the AWS user previously created

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