Onboarding
Welcome to Cyber Mail 9000!!! If you’re brand new, here’s how to get up and running faster than those old dial-up modems from the late 1990s.
*insert screetching noises.
- Configure your brand settings
- Connect Amazon SES
- Send yourself a test email
- Import subscribers
- Create your first broadcast
I recommend clicking this link to open this onboarding guide in a new tab, so you can refer back to it easier!
Got that open?
Let’s proceed 👇
Step 1: Configure your brand
Go to Brands and open the brand marked ‘default’ (click the Edit button)
Fill in these settings:
- Brand name
- Website
- Subscriber signup URL
- Physical address
- From name
- From email
- Optional logo and brand color
Your address and signup URL are required to be at the bottom of every email you send!
If you only do one thing on this page before moving on, make sure FROM NAME and FROM EMAIL are correct.
HIT THE SAVE BUTTON.
Did you know? You can create multiple brands here in CM9000! Think of “brands” as separate “businesses” with separate subscribers, automations, branding, ‘from names’, etc.
Step 2: Connect Amazon SES
In this step, you will…
- Create an Amazon AWS account (if you don’t have one already)
- Get some access keys
- Copy/Paste those access keys back here in your brand settings!
ALL email providers (a.k.a. Cyber Mail 9000 competitors!) use a sending service like Amazon AWS, Sendgrid, or Mailgun.
It’ll take 15-20 minutes, but luckily, we have a step-by-step guide here:
Click this link for the tutorial: Setting up Amazon SES
CLICK THAT LINK ABOVE NOW ☝️ and follow the instructions!
Step 3: Send yourself a test email
Stay on the same brand page and use the Test Email section.
This is the simplest next step because it confirms:
- your sender address is valid
- your SES credentials work
- your region is correct
- your account can actually send before you import subscribers
If the test email fails, fix that now before moving on.
Step 4: Import subscribers
Go to Subscribers, then open Add Subscribers.
You can:
- paste email addresses one per line
- upload a CSV
- map CSV columns to email, tags, and custom fields during import
Keep the first import small. A short test list is better than uploading your full audience before you’ve sent anything.
Step 5: Create your first broadcast
Go to Broadcasts and create a new broadcast.
Then:
- Add a subject
- Write your email
- Continue to preview
- Confirm the recipient count
- Send
Before sending, make sure your email still includes {{unsubscribe}}. Broadcast sending will fail without an unsubscribe link.
What To Ignore For Now
You do not need these before your first send:
- extra brands
- templates
- automations
- integrations
- advanced segmentation
- custom fields and tags beyond what you need for your first import
Get one brand working, send one test email, import a few subscribers, and send one broadcast. Everything else can come after that.