Help

Setting up Postmark.

Add your domain in Postmark, paste one server token into Newsletter Sender, and you are ready to send. Setup takes about 10 minutes, most of which is simply waiting for DNS records to propagate.

All help

1Before you start

  • A Postmark account: sign up at postmarkapp.com if you haven't already.
  • Your sender address: check your From address (such as news@yourdomain.com) in Newsletter Sender under Settings → Your company. Postmark must be set up for this address's domain.
Amazon SES or Postmark? Amazon SES offers much lower pricing for large subscriber lists, but takes a few more steps to set up. Postmark is much simpler to set up with top tier deliverability out of the box. You can swap providers at any time under Settings → Sending without losing your subscribers or drafts. See Set up Amazon SES.

2Add and verify your domain in Postmark

  1. In the Postmark dashboard, go to Sender Signatures (in the top navigation bar) and click Add Domain.
  2. Enter the domain your emails will send from, such as yourdomain.com.
  3. Postmark will show two required DNS records: a DKIM TXT record, which authenticates your emails so they land in subscribers' inboxes, and a Custom Return-Path CNAME record, which handles bounces and gives full SPF alignment.
  4. Add both records where your domain's DNS is. See the tips below.
  5. Return to Postmark and click Verify next to each record.
  • If your DNS is on Cloudflare: go to DNS → Records → Add record. Set any CNAME records to DNS only (grey cloud), not Proxied (orange cloud), or Postmark can't verify them.
  • If your DNS is elsewhere: copy each name and value into your DNS host's dashboard (such as GoDaddy or Namecheap).

DNS records typically take effect within a few minutes, though some hosts take up to a few hours.

Account approval Brand new Postmark accounts can only send to addresses on your own verified domain until approved. Click the approval banner at the top of the Postmark console to request full sending access before your first public campaign.

3Get your Server API token

  1. In Postmark, go to Servers and select an existing server, or click Create Server to set one up just for your newsletter.
  2. Select the server to see its message streams. Every standard server includes a Broadcasts message stream, which Newsletter Sender uses for your newsletters.
  3. Switch to the API Tokens tab inside your server.
  4. Copy the Server API token.

Open Postmark servers

4Connect Postmark to Newsletter Sender

  1. In Newsletter Sender, go to Settings → Sending and select Postmark.
  2. Paste your token into Server API token.
  3. (Optional) Sending rate: enter your account's limit under Emails per second. Leave it blank to use the default of 20 a second.
  4. Click Save.

Newsletter Sender checks the server token with Postmark and sends a test email to your own address. Once it works, your server token is encrypted inside your own Cloudflare account and hidden from view.

Newsletter Sender's Sending settings with Postmark chosen and the key box
Example details shown.

5Automatic bounce and complaint tracking

When you click Save, Newsletter Sender uses your server token to add its webhook directly into Postmark's Broadcasts stream for you.

This means every hard bounce and spam complaint comes straight back to Newsletter Sender, and those contacts are never emailed again. Once it's active, Settings → Sending shows a green tick.

If the webhook couldn't be added automatically

The page shows an Add it for me button to try again, alongside the webhook address to add yourself:

  1. In Postmark, open your server and click the Broadcasts message stream.
  2. Select Webhooks, then click Add webhook.
  3. Paste the address from Newsletter Sender into Webhook URL.
  4. Under Select events to trigger this webhook, tick Bounce and Spam complaint.
  5. Leave everything else as it is and click Save webhook.
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