On this page
This guide walks you through every single step — from creating accounts to sending your first email. No experience needed. Follow along and you will be set up in under 30 minutes.
First — which option should you choose?
EmailQo supports two ways to send emails. Pick the one that fits where you are right now.
Amazon SES
Best choice for serious outreach. Your own sending infrastructure. Highest inbox rates. Scales to thousands of emails a day.
Gmail / Outlook / Zoho (SMTP)
Easiest to start. Connect your existing email in under 5 minutes. Good for low volumes — up to 500 emails per day.
A complete walkthrough from creating your AWS account to sending your first email.
Why use Amazon SES?
Your own reputation
When you use SES, you own your sending infrastructure. No one else's bad emails affect you.
Enterprise-grade infrastructure
The same system used by Reddit, Duolingo, Netflix and thousands of other companies worldwide.
Extremely affordable
62,000 emails free every month. After that, just $0.10 per 1,000 emails. Far cheaper than any dedicated tool.
Full tracking built in
EmailQo connects SES bounce and complaint tracking automatically. You always know what is happening.
Scales to any volume
Start at 200 emails a day. Scale to millions. No plan upgrades, no per-seat fees.
Highest inbox placement
Your own dedicated sending. Not a shared IP pool. Better reputation means more emails land in inbox.
STEP 1 OF 6
Create a free AWS account
If you already have an AWS account, skip to Step 2. Creating one takes about 5 minutes and is completely free.
Open your browser and go to aws.amazon.com
Click the orange Create an AWS Account button in the top right corner.
Type your email address, choose a password, and give your account a name (like your company name). Click Continue.
On the next screen, choose Personal for account type. Fill in your name, phone number, and address. Click Continue.
Enter your credit or debit card details. Amazon will charge a small verification amount (usually $1 or less) and refund it within a few days. This is just to verify your identity. The SES free tier is genuinely free.
Verify your phone number by entering the code Amazon sends you by SMS.
Choose the Basic support plan (it is free). Click Complete sign up.
Once you finish, AWS sends a confirmation email. Your account is usually activated within a few minutes, though it can take up to 24 hours. You will get an email when it is ready.
STEP 2 OF 6
Get your AWS access keys
Access keys are like a special username and password that lets EmailQo send emails through your AWS account. Think of it like giving EmailQo a key to your email house — it can send emails but cannot do anything else in your AWS account.
Sign in to your AWS account at console.aws.amazon.com
Once inside, look at the top-right corner. You will see your account name. Click on it and a small menu appears.
Click Security credentials in that menu.
The page that opens is called IAM Security Credentials. Scroll down until you see a section called Access keys.
Click the Create access key button.
AWS will ask what you plan to use this key for. Select Other and then click Next.
On the next screen, type EmailQo in the description field. This is just a label so you remember what this key is for. Click Create access key.
You will now see your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key. This is the only time you will ever see the Secret Access Key. Copy both values now and keep them safe. Paste them somewhere temporarily like a notepad.
The Secret Access Key disappears forever when you close this page. If you lose it, you will need to create a new access key. Store it safely until you have pasted it into EmailQo.
STEP 3 OF 6
Connect your AWS account to EmailQo
Now you will paste those keys into EmailQo. This links your AWS account and lets EmailQo send emails on your behalf.
In EmailQo, click Setup in the left sidebar.
On the setup page, choose Amazon SES as your sending method.
You will see two fields: Access Key ID and Secret Access Key. Paste each one from the notepad where you saved them.
The region field should stay as US East (N. Virginia). This is us-east-1 and works for everyone. Only change it if you need a specific region.
Click Connect. EmailQo will test your keys immediately. This takes just a few seconds.
If it works, you will see a green success message. Move to the next step.
Connection successful means your keys are correct and EmailQo can reach your AWS account. If you see an error, see the Troubleshooting section at the bottom of this page.
STEP 4 OF 6
Add your sending domain
Your sending domain is the website address part of your email. For example, if you send emails from john@mycompany.com, your domain is mycompany.com.
You must own this domain to continue. If you do not have a domain yet, you can buy one cheaply from Namecheap, GoDaddy, or Cloudflare Registrar (usually $10-15 per year). If you already have a website domain, use that.
In the EmailQo setup wizard, type your domain name exactly as it appears — for example mycompany.com (no www, no https).
Click Add Domain.
EmailQo sends your domain to Amazon SES and generates the DNS records you need.
The next screen will show you all the records — do not close this page. You will need to copy these in the next step.
STEP 5 OF 6
Add DNS records to your domain
DNS records are like a proof of identity for your domain. They tell Gmail, Outlook, and every other email provider that your emails are genuinely from you and not from a spammer pretending to be you. Without these records, your emails will go straight to spam.
You add these records at your domain registrar — the company where you bought your domain. This is usually GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, Google Domains, or similar. You are not doing anything to your website — just adding some text records in the background.
What records you will add:
DKIM Records
These add a digital signature to every email you send, proving it is really from you. Think of it like a wax seal on a letter. All 3 must be added.
SPF Record
This tells the world that Amazon SES is allowed to send emails on behalf of your domain. Without it, many email providers will reject your emails entirely.
DMARC Record
This protects your domain from spammers pretending to be you. It also tells email providers what to do if they receive a suspicious email claiming to be from your domain.
How to add them — step by step:
Log in to your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, etc.).
Look for a section called DNS, DNS Settings, DNS Management, or Manage DNS. It is usually under your domain settings.
Click Add Record or Create Record.
EmailQo shows you each record with a Copy button. Copy the Name and Value for each record and paste them exactly as shown.
Select the correct record type — CNAME for the DKIM records, TXT for SPF and DMARC.
Save each record one by one.
Once all records are added, go back to EmailQo and click Check DNS.
DNS changes take time to work globally — usually 15-30 minutes, sometimes up to 48 hours. If EmailQo says the records are not found yet, wait 15 minutes and click Check DNS again. This is normal and expected.
Cloudflare users — one extra thing to know
When adding CNAME records in Cloudflare, make sure the orange cloud icon (proxy) is turned OFF — it should be grey. Proxying CNAME records breaks DKIM verification.
STEP 6 OF 6
Request production access (leave sandbox mode)
This is the most important step and the one most people forget. Every new AWS account starts in sandbox mode — a restricted mode that only lets you send emails to addresses you have individually verified in AWS. In sandbox mode, you cannot send to your contact lists.
You must complete this step before you can send campaigns to real contacts. This is an AWS requirement for all new accounts, not an EmailQo limitation.
What sandbox mode means in plain English:
In sandbox mode you CAN:
In sandbox mode you CANNOT:
How to request production access:
Go to the AWS SES console Open SES Console
In the left sidebar, click Account dashboard.
You will see a yellow/orange warning banner that says you are in the SES sandbox. Click the Request production access button.
Fill in the form — the most important part is the Use case description. See below for exactly what to write.
Set your daily sending limit request to at least 10,000 emails per day.
Click Submit request.
AWS reviews the request manually. Most requests are approved within 24 hours. You will get an email when approved.
What to write in the use case description
Copy and adapt this template. The more specific you are, the faster AWS approves.
"We are a [describe your business briefly — e.g. B2B software company / marketing agency / consulting firm] that uses email outreach to reach potential business customers. Our contact lists consist of professionals in [your industry] who are relevant to our product or service.
We collect contacts through [e.g. LinkedIn research / industry databases / trade shows / website sign-ups / referrals]. All our emails include a clear unsubscribe link and we immediately process all unsubscribe requests.
We are using the EmailQo platform to manage our campaigns, which includes automatic bounce handling and complaint processing. We aim to maintain a bounce rate well below 2% and a complaint rate below 0.1%.
We are requesting production access to send targeted outreach emails to our contact lists. We are requesting a daily sending quota of [10,000 / 50,000] emails per day."
What happens after you submit
Once approved, you are fully set up. EmailQo handles bounce removal, complaint tracking, and warmup automatically from here. You just need to create your first campaign.
Amazon SES — Troubleshooting
Connection failed — authentication error
This means your access keys are wrong or incomplete. Go back to AWS IAM, create a brand new access key (you can have multiple), and paste the new ones into EmailQo. Make sure there are no spaces before or after the keys when you paste them.
I cannot find the Secret Access Key anymore
You cannot retrieve a lost Secret Access Key — it is only shown once. Go to AWS IAM → Security credentials → find your old access key → click Deactivate, then create a new access key. Paste the new one into EmailQo Settings → AWS tab.
DNS records not verified after 30+ minutes
First, double-check that you added all records correctly. A common mistake is adding your domain name twice — for example if Cloudflare says your name is abc123._domainkey.mycompany.com but you type mycompany.com at the end again, it becomes abc123._domainkey.mycompany.com.mycompany.com which is wrong. Just paste exactly what EmailQo shows you.
Production access request was rejected
This happens when the description is too short or too generic. Reapply with the full template above, adding specific details about your business, your industry, how you got your contacts, and confirming you handle unsubscribes. AWS approves almost all legitimate business requests.
Emails are going to spam even with everything set up
This happens with new domains that have no sending history. This is exactly what warmup is for. Enable the warmup feature in EmailQo — it gradually builds your domain reputation over 14 days by sending small numbers of real emails that get engaged with. After warmup, inbox placement improves dramatically.
My sending quota is still 200 emails per day
You are still in sandbox mode. You need to submit the production access request in the AWS SES console under Account dashboard. Do not confuse this with the regular AWS Support Center — it is specifically in the SES console.
Connect Gmail, Outlook, Zoho or any email you already use.
When SMTP is the right choice
SMTP is the standard way every email app sends mail. When you connect your Gmail to an email client, it uses SMTP. EmailQo can send through your existing email account the same way.
Good for
Limitations
Gmail does not let third-party apps use your regular password for security reasons. Instead, you create a special one-time password called an App Password just for EmailQo. This takes about 3 minutes.
You must turn on 2-Step Verification in your Google account before App Passwords become available. This is a Google requirement — if you skip it, you will not see the App Passwords option at all.
Part 1 — Turn on 2-Step Verification (if not already on)
Go to your Google Account security page myaccount.google.com/security
Look for 2-Step Verification. If it says ON, you can skip to Part 2 below.
If it is OFF, click on it and then click Get started.
Google will ask you to verify it is you. Follow the steps — you may need to enter a code sent to your phone.
Click Turn on at the end. 2-Step Verification is now active.
Part 2 — Create an App Password for EmailQo
Go to Google App Passwords myaccount.google.com/apppasswords
If it asks you to sign in again, do so.
You will see a text box that says App name. Type EmailQo in it.
Click Create.
Google shows you a 16-character password in a yellow box — it looks like four groups of four letters, e.g. abcd efgh ijkl mnop.
Copy this password. You will paste it into EmailQo in the next step. Note: ignore the spaces — they are just for readability.
Click Done.
Part 3 — Add the sender in EmailQo
In EmailQo, go to Email Senders in the sidebar, click Add Sender, choose SMTP, and fill in:
John SmithWhat recipients will see as the sender name
john@gmail.comYour full Gmail address
smtp.gmail.com587abcdefghijklmnopThe 16-character app password — paste it without spaces
Gmail free accounts can send up to 500 emails per day. Google Workspace (paid Gmail) can send up to 2,000 per day. EmailQo sets your daily limit to 50 by default to be safe — you can increase it in Email Senders settings.
Outlook also uses App Passwords for connecting third-party apps. The process is similar to Gmail.
If you use Microsoft 365 through your company or employer, your IT administrator may have disabled this feature. If the steps below do not work for you, ask your IT admin to enable App Passwords or SMTP AUTH for your account.
Part 1 — Create an App Password
Go to your Microsoft account security page account.microsoft.com/security
Click Advanced security options.
Scroll down to App passwords and click Create a new app password.
Microsoft generates a password for you. Copy it now — you will not see it again.
Part 2 — Add the sender in EmailQo
John Smithjohn@outlook.comYour full Outlook or Microsoft 365 email address
smtp.office365.com587your-microsoft-app-passwordThe app password you just created — not your Microsoft account password
If you get an error saying SMTP AUTH is disabled, your company IT admin needs to enable it. They can do this in the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre under Users → Active users → your account → Mail → Manage email apps → turn on Authenticated SMTP.
Log in to Zoho Mail at mail.zoho.com
Click your profile picture or initials in the top right corner.
Click My Account.
In the left menu, click Security.
Look for App Passwords and click Generate New Password.
Give it a name like EmailQo and click Generate.
Copy the password shown.
Enter these details in EmailQo:
John Smithjohn@yourcompany.comYour full Zoho email
smtp.zoho.inUse smtp.zoho.com if you are outside India, smtp.zoho.eu for Europe
587your-zoho-app-passwordFor any other provider, search Google for your provider name and SMTP settings — for example "Fastmail SMTP settings" or "Proton Mail SMTP settings". Every email provider publishes these settings publicly.
What you need to find:
smtp.yourprovider.comUsually looks like smtp.providername.com or mail.yourdomain.com
587Almost always 587. Try 465 if 587 does not work.
you@yourprovider.comUsually your full email address
your password or app passwordUse an app password if your provider supports it. Much more secure.
SMTP — Troubleshooting
Authentication failed — wrong username or password
99% of the time this means you used your regular email password instead of an App Password. Go back and create an App Password specifically for EmailQo, then paste that password (not your normal one) into EmailQo.
I cannot find App Passwords in Gmail
App Passwords only appear when 2-Step Verification is turned on. Go to myaccount.google.com/security and turn on 2-Step Verification first. If you use Google Workspace through a company, your admin may have disabled App Passwords — ask them to enable it in the admin console.
Connection timed out
Try changing the port from 587 to 465 in EmailQo sender settings. Some corporate networks block port 587. If that does not work, contact your email provider to confirm that SMTP access is enabled on your account type.
Emails are being sent but landing in spam
SMTP does not offer the same deliverability as AWS SES because you are sending from a shared IP. Make sure your email account has proper SPF and DKIM set up. Enable warmup in EmailQo. Keep email content personalised and relevant. Avoid spam trigger words.
Microsoft 365 says SMTP AUTH is disabled
Your company IT admin needs to enable it. Send them this: go to Microsoft 365 Admin Centre → Users → Active users → your account → Mail tab → Manage email apps → tick Authenticated SMTP → save.
Daily limit reached too quickly
EmailQo sets a default limit of 50 emails per day for SMTP senders to be conservative. You can increase this in Email Senders → edit your sender. But do not exceed your provider limits: Gmail free = 500/day, Google Workspace = 2,000/day, Outlook = varies by plan, Zoho = varies by plan.
How to get your contact list into EmailQo ready to send.
What is a contact list?
A contact list is a group of people you want to email — like a named spreadsheet. You might have one called "SaaS Founders UK" and another "E-commerce Leads". Each campaign sends to one list.
Prepare your CSV file
A CSV is a spreadsheet saved as plain text. In Excel or Google Sheets: File → Download → CSV. Your file must have these column headers in row 1:
emailRequiredThe email address — required
first_nameRequiredFirst name — used in personalisation
last_nameLast name — optional
companyCompany — used in merge tags
Example CSV:
email,first_name,last_name,company
john@acme.com,John,Smith,Acme Corp
sarah@startup.io,Sarah,Jones,Startup IncCommon mistakes:
· Headers must be lowercase — Email won't work, email will
· Save as .csv not .xlsx — Excel format does not work
· Do not use merged cells or extra rows at the top
· Do not add spaces before or after column names
Create a list and upload your file
In EmailQo, click Contacts in the sidebar.
Click Create new list and give it a descriptive name — e.g. SaaS Founders March 2026.
Click on the new list to open it.
Click Upload CSV, select your file, review the preview, then click Import Contacts.
Duplicates are skipped automatically — no errors, no double entries.
Understand contact statuses
After upload, every contact has a status. Here is what each means:
Ready to email — will be included in your next campaign.
Email verified and confirmed deliverable. Best to send to.
Email exists but may have issues — role emails, catch-all domains. Use carefully.
Email does not exist. Skipped automatically to protect your bounce rate.
Previously hard bounced. Removed from all future sends automatically.
Person clicked unsubscribe. EmailQo will never send to them again.
From blank page to emails landing in inboxes.
Before you start, make sure you have:
Name your campaign and choose settings
Click Campaigns in the sidebar → + New Campaign.
Type a campaign name — only you see this. Be descriptive: SaaS Founders March 2026.
Select the contact list you want to send to.
Select your sender email — the from address recipients will see.
Set your send timezone so emails arrive at the right local time.
Optionally set send hours (e.g. 9am–6pm) and days (Mon–Fri). Emails outside this window are queued and sent when the window opens.
Write your first email
Write your subject line — keep it under 50 characters. Avoid FREE, URGENT, OFFER.
Write your email body — 3 to 5 short paragraphs. Get to the point fast.
Use merge tags to personalise: {{first_name}} becomes John, {{company}} becomes Acme Corp.
Use a template if you want a head start — click Load template.
The spam checker highlights risky words automatically as you type.
Merge tags available:
{{first_name}}→ John{{last_name}}→ Smith{{company}}→ Acme Corp{{email}}→ john@acme.comAdd follow-up steps (highly recommended)
70% of replies come from follow-ups, not the first email. Click + Add Follow-up Step to add more emails that send automatically after a delay.
EmailQo stops follow-ups automatically when a contact replies — they will never get a follow-up after responding.
Score and launch
Click Score & Launch — EmailQo analyses your email and gives a deliverability score out of 100.
A score of 80+ is good. Below 80 means higher spam risk — fix the issues shown.
Click Launch Campaign when ready. EmailQo starts sending immediately with 8–25 second human-like delays between emails.
You can pause or resume at any time from the Campaigns page.
Why it matters, how it works, and what to expect.
What is warmup and why do you need it?
When you use a new email address, Gmail and Outlook have never seen it before. They are suspicious — and many emails from new senders go straight to spam. Warmup fixes this by gradually building your sender reputation before you launch real campaigns.
EmailQo sends warmup emails between real accounts in the EmailQo network. These get opened and replied to. Email providers see positive engagement and start trusting your address more every day. Think of it like starting a new job — you prove yourself gradually before the big opportunities.
Day 1–7
5–15 warmup emails/day. Getting opened and replied to. Building initial trust.
Day 8–21
Volume increases. Reputation grows. Inbox placement measurably improving.
Day 22–45
Reputation established. Start real campaigns. Warmup runs in background.
How to enable warmup
Go to Warmup in the sidebar.
You will see all your connected senders listed.
Click Enable Warmup next to the sender you want to warm.
EmailQo starts automatically. Check back in a few days to see progress.
Connect IMAP (Connect Email in sidebar) for full benefit — warmup needs to open and reply to received emails too.
Rules to follow
· Do not turn off warmup once started — resets your progress.
· Run for at least 45 days before large campaigns.
· Do not send more than 50 campaign emails/day while warming up.
· You need at least 2 connected senders — they send warmup emails to each other.
How to read your score and fix every issue.
Inbox Health is a score from 0 to 100 showing how likely your emails are to land in inbox. Go to Deliverability → Inbox Intelligence to check yours.
What it is:
Tells email providers that Amazon SES is authorised to send from your domain. Without it, your emails cannot be confirmed as genuine.
How to fix it:
Add a TXT record to your domain DNS. EmailQo shows the exact value in Setup → DNS Records. Looks like: v=spf1 include:amazonses.com ~all
What it is:
Adds a digital signature to every email proving it has not been tampered with since sending. Without DKIM, Gmail treats emails as potentially forged.
How to fix it:
Add 3 CNAME records shown in EmailQo Setup → DNS Records. Can take up to 48 hours to verify after adding.
What it is:
Protects your domain from spammers pretending to be you, and tells email providers what to do with emails that fail authentication.
How to fix it:
Add a TXT record named _dmarc.yourdomain.com. EmailQo generates the exact value in Setup. Once SPF and DKIM pass, upgrade p=none to p=quarantine for stronger protection.
What it is:
If you are using AWS SES and have not received production access yet, you are in sandbox mode — sending limited to 200 emails/day to verified addresses only.
How to fix it:
Go to AWS SES Console → Account dashboard → Request production access. See the Amazon SES guide above for what to write.
What it is:
A high bounce rate signals you are sending to bad addresses. Above 2% is dangerous and can get your AWS account suspended.
How to fix it:
Verify contacts before sending using Verify Emails in Deliverability. Remove invalid contacts. Keep lists clean and current.
How EmailQo reads replies and surfaces the ones worth your time.
How reply detection works
When someone replies to your campaign, it lands in your email inbox. EmailQo monitors your inbox via IMAP every 15 minutes, detects replies to your campaigns, and uses AI to read and classify each one — so you know exactly who to follow up with without checking your inbox constantly.
Set up IMAP (reply detection)
Go to Connect Email in the sidebar.
Choose your provider (Gmail, Outlook, Google Workspace, or Other).
Follow the instructions — you need an App Password, same as SMTP setup.
Click Test Connection first, then Save.
EmailQo checks for new replies every 15 minutes automatically.
How replies are classified
Person wants to know more or asked a question. Hot lead — follow up the same day.
Person said no. EmailQo stops all future follow-ups to them automatically.
Auto-reply. Follow-ups paused and resumed after a delay.
They referred you to someone else — worth following up with the new contact.
Asked to be removed. Added to suppression list. Never contacted again.
What is a Hot Lead?
A hot lead is any contact classified as Interested. The dashboard shows a hot lead count and alert. EmailQo also generates a suggested reply for each — AI reads what they said and drafts a response you can copy, edit, and send. Go to Replies → click any reply → Read with AI.
What blacklists are, how to check, and how to get removed.
What is an email blacklist?
A blacklist is a database of domains known for sending spam. Gmail, Outlook, and corporate email systems check these before delivering your email. If your domain is listed, your emails go straight to spam — or get blocked entirely.
You can get listed by sending to too many invalid addresses, high bounce rates, spam complaints, or emails that look like spam. EmailQo checks 20+ blacklists including Spamhaus, Barracuda, SORBS, and more.
How to check if you are listed
Go to Deliverability in the sidebar → Blacklist Check.
Your sending domain is pre-selected. Click Check Blacklists.
EmailQo checks 20+ blacklists — takes about 10 seconds.
If clean, you see a green All clear message.
If listed, EmailQo shows exactly which blacklists, the severity, and a direct removal link for each.
How to get removed
Stop sending campaigns immediately — continuing while listed makes removal harder.
Fix the root cause: high bounces? Verify contacts. Spam complaints? Review your email content and targeting.
Click the Request Removal link next to each blacklist. Most link directly to that blacklist's delisting form.
Fill in the form honestly — explain what caused the issue and what you have fixed.
Most blacklists remove legitimate senders within 24–72 hours.
After removal, resume at low volume (20–30/day) and increase gradually.
How to stay off blacklists
· Always verify contacts before sending — invalid emails cause bounces which cause blacklisting.
· Keep bounce rate below 2%. EmailQo auto-removes hard bounces.
· Include unsubscribe in every email — EmailQo does this automatically.
· Never buy email lists — purchased lists contain spam traps.
· Warm up new senders before large campaigns.
· Keep emails personalised and relevant.
Still stuck? We will help.
Open a support ticket and we will walk you through setup personally.