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.

1. Configure your brand settings
2. Connect a sending provider
3. Send yourself a test email
4. Import subscribers
5. 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 a sending provider

To send emails from your own address (like hello@yourdomain.com), you need to connect a provider that is allowed to send for your domain.

Amazon SES is the recommended path. It is usually the cheapest long-term option, and it works well once Amazon approves your account for production sending.

Start here:

Set up Amazon SES

If Amazon SES will not approve your account out of sandbox mode, use SMTP instead:

Set up SendGrid SMTP

Either way, you will authenticate your sending domain inside the provider’s dashboard by adding SPF, DKIM, and usually DMARC records to your DNS.

Step 3: Send yourself a test email

Once your sending provider is connected, head back to your brand edit page and use the Test Email section.

This is the simplest next step because it confirms:

• your sender address is valid
• your sending provider is properly configured
• 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:

1. Add a subject
2. Write your email
3. Continue to preview
4. Confirm the recipient count
5. 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, connect one sending provider, send one test email, import a few subscribers, and send one broadcast. Everything else can come after that.