7 Lessons from Our First Amazon SES Email Marketing Campaign

What really happens when you send your first email newsletter to an old subscriber list? We found out when we sent our first Amazon SES email marketing campaign to nearly 11,000 subscribers, after moving our list from FeedBurner and FeedBlitz to Amazon SES. The campaign reports taught us seven lessons about bounces, opens and engagement that still apply in 2026, along with some new rules every email sender now needs to follow.

Quick answer: Our first Amazon SES campaign went to 10,893 addresses: 16.4% bounced, only 20 people unsubscribed, 2 marked it as spam, 7.8% opened it and 332 people clicked. The big lessons: clean old lists before sending, use double opt-in, write better subject lines, and today, set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC and one-click unsubscribe to meet Gmail and Yahoo’s sender rules.

Our Amazon SES email campaign report

We emailed 10,893 addresses: about 1,500 from FeedBlitz and 9,500 from FeedBurner. It was a 10-year-old list. Before sending, we had the combined list scrubbed to remove about 500 invalid and risky addresses, which was essential to avoid spam flags from Amazon SES and email providers.

Here are the results:

And the breakdown:

1. A surprising number of bounces

Both lists were active and set to stop emailing people who bounced, unsubscribed or complained. So we expected almost no bounces. Instead, 16.43% (1,790 emails) bounced. Old lists decay fast as people change jobs and abandon email addresses. Those addresses were removed from future sends.

Lesson: verify an old list before your first send. Amazon SES may pause your account if bounces go above about 5% or complaints above 0.1%, so a high bounce rate is a real risk.

2. Very few unsubscribes

Both lists used double opt-in: people filled in a form, then clicked a confirmation link. So nearly everyone on the list had asked to be there. Only 20 people unsubscribed.

3. Rarely marked as spam

Only 2 people marked the email as spam. Email services watch spam complaints closely, and too many can get your emails blocked. People who buy email lists get hit hard by complaints. Keep your list permission-based; double opt-in is more work, but it keeps the list clean.

4. Few people opened the email

Only 7.8% (713 people) opened it. That was disappointing. Better subject lines and more regular, useful content would help, as would sending from a name people recognise.

Note that open rates today aren’t directly comparable. Since 2021, Apple Mail Privacy Protection pre-loads emails, which inflates open rates, so clicks are now a more reliable measure of engagement.

5. Multiple opens

The 713 readers opened the email 862 times in total, probably on more than one device, or saving it to read later.

6. Some people clicked links

There were 332 unique clicks, so nearly half the people who opened the email clicked a link. Half clicked the link explaining our email move; half clicked through to our homepage, perhaps to remind themselves who we were after a long gap between emails.

7. US readers dominated

Most opens came from the United States, with India a distant second. That was a new finding, and it helped us plan send times.

What’s changed for email senders since then

• Gmail and Yahoo sender rules: since 2024, bulk senders must authenticate their email with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, offer one-click unsubscribe, and keep spam complaints below 0.3%. Read Google’s email sender guidelines.
• FeedBurner email is gone: Google ended FeedBurner email subscriptions in 2021, so anyone still relying on it had to move, just as we did.
• Easier tools: Amazon SES is still one of the cheapest ways to send email, but it’s a sending service, not a newsletter app. Tools like Sendy add a newsletter interface on top of SES, while services like Mailchimp and MailerLite handle everything for you.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good email open rate?

It varies by industry, but many newsletters see 20–40% open rates, partly inflated by Apple Mail Privacy Protection. Click rates of 2–5% are a more useful benchmark.

How do I reduce email bounces?

Use double opt-in, remove addresses that bounce, and run an email verification service on old lists before sending.

Is Amazon SES good for newsletters?

Yes, if you want low costs and don’t mind some setup. Pair it with a newsletter tool, and set up domain authentication before your first send.

How do you keep your email subscribers engaged? Share your experiences with email campaigns in the comments.