Authentication

The mechanisms a receiver checks to decide whether mail claiming to be from your domain actually is.

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)
• BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification)
• MTA-STS (SMTP MTA Strict Transport Security)
• TLS-RPT (SMTP TLS Reporting)
• DKIM selector
• DMARC alignment
• Return-path

Further reading

• SPF record guide
• What changes under DMARCbis
• Why your DMARC policy might be useless
• SPF record builder (tool)

Deliverability

What happens to a message after it authenticates — whether it bounces, gets reported, or actually lands.

• Soft bounce
• Hard bounce
• Complaint rate
• Spam trap
• Blocklist (DNSBL)
• IP warming
• Dedicated IP
• Shared IP
• Inbox placement
• Feedback loop (FBL)
• List-Unsubscribe

Further reading

• SES bounce rate: thresholds and fixes
• SES complaint rate
• Landing in the spam folder
• Account under review
• How email actually works

Infrastructure

The AWS SES resources and protocols that carry a send from an application to a recipient's mail server.

• SMTP relay
• MX record
• Configuration set
• Suppression list
• Sending quota
• Message-ID

Further reading

• SES sending limits
• SES sandbox guide
• SES production architecture
• AWS account setup
• SES pricing calculator (tool)
• SES error reference

Compliance

The consent and disclosure rules that decide whether you were allowed to send the message at all.

• Double opt-in
• CAN-SPAM Act
• GDPR consent

Metrics

The numbers senders watch, and where they quietly stop meaning what they used to.

• Open rate