SendGrid is one of the best known sending services, with a free tier and plans that scale. Setup is straightforward. The part that surprises people is the account review: SendGrid checks new accounts, especially ones that start sending large volumes on day one.
Step by step:
- Create an account at sendgrid.com and confirm your email address.
- Complete Sender Authentication for your domain. SendGrid gives you several CNAME records.
- Add those records to your DNS and press verify. This is what puts your DKIM signature on every email, so do not skip it in favour of verifying a single address.
- Create an API key. Give it Mail Send permission and nothing else it does not need.
- Copy the key immediately. SendGrid shows it once.
- In ResultsAiX Mailer, open Delivery, then Sending, and add a connection.
- Choose SendGrid, paste the API key, and set From name and From email to an address on the domain you authenticated.
- Save and send yourself a test.
About the review:
A brand new account that suddenly sends fifty thousand emails looks exactly like a spammer to any provider, and SendGrid will pause you while a human looks. Avoid it by starting small and climbing: switch on Warmup for this connection, which starts at a modest number and grows each day, and set Daily limit to match your plan.
Keep the account healthy:
- Only mail people who opted in. Bought or scraped lists end accounts quickly here.
- Clean an old list with Verify Leads before its first send, so old dead addresses do not bounce in bulk.
- Keep the unsubscribe link in place. The Mailer adds one to every email automatically.
Common problems:
- Everything is refused with an authentication error: the API key was copied with a space, or it lacks Mail Send permission.
- Mail sends but lands in spam: domain authentication was never finished, so nothing is DKIM signed.
- Sending stops suddenly: the account is under review, or the plan allowance was reached.