Sender setup and list protection
Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC, understand BIMI availability, and see how BOLD Send handles bounces, complaints and unsubscribes.
Connect a domain you own
- Open BOLD Send, choose the correct brand, then open Domains and connect your sending domain.
- Copy the exact DNS records shown by setup into your DNS host. Use the issued DKIM values, not a sample selector.
- Return to the domain card and check verification. The card reports records that are still missing; DNS changes may take time to appear.
- Check the domain health panel and send a test to an inbox you control before starting a campaign.
- DKIM
- Three domain-specific CNAME records are supplied by Amazon SES Easy DKIM.
- SPF and MAIL FROM
- Setup supplies the custom MAIL FROM subdomain, its MX record and its SPF TXT value. Keep only one SPF record at any given name.
- DMARC
- Setup supplies a suggested monitoring policy, p=none, at _dmarc. Keep an established policy unless you intentionally change it; a monitoring policy does not enforce rejection.
- BIMI
- BOLD Send does not issue BIMI logo certificates or automate BIMI setup. Domain verification does not guarantee a brand logo in an inbox.
What happens after a bounce or complaint
Keep suppression records when moving a list. They protect people who opted out and prevent repeated delivery attempts to rejected addresses. Check the preflight audience before sending; an imported contact count is not a count of sendable recipients.
BOLD Send pricing is based on sending, rather than a monthly charge for each stored contact. See the live pricing page for current allowances and rates.
- Hard bounce
- A permanent rejection suppresses the address in the sending account’s scope so future sends skip it.
- Soft bounce
- A temporary rejection is recorded as a transient bounce. That event alone does not permanently suppress the address.
- Spam complaint
- A complaint suppresses the address. Do not import it again to try to restart sending.
- Unsubscribe
- Campaigns include one-click unsubscribe. The address is suppressed, and the account’s suppression list also applies to transactional sending.
- Re-imports
- Smart Import preserves unsubscribes. A new CSV is not permission to send to a suppressed contact.
- Stronger protections
- An unsubscribe must not overwrite a prior bounce or complaint suppression. A normal resubscribe action cannot clear those stronger reasons.
Track the result in your own app
The transactional API and signed webhooks are documented in the developer guide. Delivery, bounce, complaint and unsubscribe events let your app reflect the outcome. Validate webhook signatures before using an event to change customer records.
This guide documents the existing protections. It does not switch on a campaign, send a message or change your DNS.