Mail Agents

A Mail Agent in ZeptoMail is used to segment the outgoing transactional emails according to their purpose, application, type and more. This segmentation ensures separate channels for each type, ensuring better management and organization. You can associate the necessary domains to each Mail Agent to send out emails.

Each Mail Agent has a list of features that allow email-handling effectively. The email activity (opens, clicks, and bounces) for all outgoing emails can be tracked in the Processed Emails section. You can also configure webhooks that track real-time engagement metrics (opens and clicks) and bounces. There are also provisions in place to track opens and clicks and to upload and manage attachments.

Create a Mail Agent

By default a Mail Agent will be created during the account creation process. To create and use additional Mail Agents, follow the instructions below:

1. Log in to your ZeptoMail account.
2. Click the Add Mail Agent icon near Mail Agents in the left panel. 
   
   
    
3. The Add Mail Agent pop-up appears.
4. Provide the Mail Agent Name, Domain, and Description for the new Mail Agent. You can associate multiple domains to a Mail Agent.
   
   
    
5. Click Add to create the new Mail Agent.

Sections of a Mail Agent

From the list of Mail Agents, select any Mail Agent to view the related details. The Mail Agent-related data are available as different sections within it. They are:

• Overview - Contains a comprehensive graph with different email statuses (sent, delivered, process failed), bounce information (hard bounce, soft bounce) and engagement metrics (opens, clicks). Apart from this, you can view the bounce error reports.
• SMTP/API - API and SMTP credentials necessary to send emails are available here. This section also lists the various plugins integrated with ZeptoMail.
• Domains - List all the domains associated with the Mail Agent along with their respective details.
• Processed Emails - Contains all the outgoing email logs and their delivery statuses.
• Templates - List of email templates created to be used for email-sending can be found here. You can also create new templates.
• Webhooks - Configure webhooks to trigger HTTP call backs to your application, based on configured events here.
• Email Tracking - Section to enable tracking for engagement metrics like - opens and clicks.
• File Cache -Upload any inline images, attachments that need to be sent in the email. 

Overview

You can get an Overview of the Mail Agent (for the last 15 days) in terms of the number of emails, the number of bounces, opened count, and so on. This can be based on different chunks of time periods, chosen by you. 

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The number of emails sent vs count of emails opened/ clicked along with the count of hard/ soft bounces is plotted in a chart to provide you an easy overview at a glance. 

Chart options

There are three chart options available on the upper-right corner of the chart. They are :

• Download - You can download the chart to your local server.
• Chart type -  You can choose between the two chart types available.
• Date range - Gives the date range over which you wish to display the information.

SMTP/API

Transactional emails are generated by your application. You need to configure the application with the MailAgent in ZeptoMail to trigger emails. There are two ways in which your emails will be sent - SMTP and API.

Navigate to the SMTP/API tab to access these two methods. 

• API Method : To connect to ZeptoMail via API method, use the Send Mail Token in the authorization header of your API request body. Copy the unique Send Mail Token generated for your account and add it to your API code.
  
• SMTP Method : To connect to ZeptoMail via SMTP method, add the following details :
  
   
  • Server name : smtp.zeptomail.com
  • Port number and Authentication : 465(SSL), 587(TLS)
  • Username : email apikey (We also support applications that use the From address as the username)
  • Password : Visit here to check your password.
     

Domains

In this section, you can associate your domains to the Mail agents. Multiple domains can be added to a Mail Agent. All the emails sent using the associated domains are grouped under this Mail Agent. You can:

• Associate or dissociate a domain
• View the list of domains associated with your Mail Agent
• View the verification status of the associated domains
• View the DKIM, and the CNAME values for your associated domains
• Setup bounce address(es) for your associated domains that are verified (DKIM, and CNAME)

You can add 100 domains in your account. The Domains page will provide you in-depth information about domains along with detailed instructions to verify domains, edit a domain or delete a domain.  

Domain setting option - The domain setting option allows you to restrict the sender addresses associated with the selected Mail Agent. Only those allowed addresses that you add will be used to send emails from the Mail Agent. 

Processed Emails

You can view the detailed log of all the emails processed by the Mail Agent in this section. The logs will be based on the processed time of the email. Select any email to view the status of the particular email. You can also use 'Search' to find the status of specific emails. 

The Processed Emails page has detailed instructions on using various parameters and also about the various delivery status associated with the email. 

Templates

The templates section lists all the templates associated with a particular Mail Agent. You can add new templates by choosing from the range of options available or import the template of your choice. The template key corresponding to each template can be copy pasted and used while sending out emails. 

More information on ZeptoMail templates can be found here. 

Webhooks

In most simple terms, Webhooks are user-defined HTTP callbacks that are triggered by an event. In ZeptoMail, Webhooks can be used to relay data based on recipient activity on the sent emails, to your application. The events for which the recipient data is relayed by the webhook are Opens, Clicks, and Bounces of the email. A Webhook instantly relays data to the configured URL and your application is instantly notified. 

When the specific event occurs, the Webhook is triggered. That is, an HTTP POST request is made to the URL (or URI) configured by the developer to receive the webhook. The most useful feature of email webhooks is getting the user details when any or all of these events occur. The Webhook URL has to be configured in ZeptoMail by the application developer to receive recipient details when these events occur. You can preview your webhook data within a Mail Agent and test it.

ZeptoMail supports various types of Webhooks for different purposes. Refer here to learn about Webhooks and its supported types.

Email Tracking

When you send Transactional emails, tracking the email to understand user behaviour becomes very vital for the application. Since Transactional emails are very critical, open and click-tracking provides information on how the users respond to your emails.

In some cases, you might need to know whether the email delivered to your user was opened or not. Email Tracking helps you to track the click and open status of the emails sent via ZeptoMail. 

This page provides you detailed information on Tracking and instructions to configure Tracking in ZeptoMail.  

File Cache

When you send emails, you might need inline images or attachments that need to be sent with the email. Those commonly used attachments can be uploaded to File Cache. Each file (image or attachment) you upload to ZeptoMail will have a unique FileCacheKey generated by the system. You need to use this FileCacheKey to link them to the Transactional emails sent by you. The total email size, including the attachments and inline images should not exceed 15 MB in size.  

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Refer File Cache section for detailed instructions for uploading and including inline Images/ Attachments to the emails. 

Mail Agent setting

The Mail Agent setting section allows you to do the following :

• IP restriction
• Suppression list
• Sending limits
• Shutdown a Mail Agent

IP restriction list

The IP restriction option allows you to restrict IPs that will be sending emails from your ZeptoMail account. This provides an additional security layer in case your send mail token is inadvertently compromised and prevents unauthorized parties from sending email through your account. To add to the list :

1. Click Add IPs.
   
2. You can either add individual IP addresses or a range.
   
3. Click Add.
4. You will be required to validate your identity, post which the IP will be added to the list. 

Suppression list

The suppression list contains those addresses for which you no longer wish to send any emails and those that you do not wish to track anymore. Apart from email addresses, you can also suppress email-sending to whole domain. You can add the email addresses or domains specific to Mail Agents to this list. To do so:

1. Go to the Suppression list section in the Mail Agent settings section.
2. Choose whether you wish to add the email address or domain from the tab at the top.
   
3. Enter the email address or domain you wish to suppress. Enter the reason for the suppression.
4. Confirm the selection by clicking Add.
5. The suppressed email address or domain will be added to the list.

Sending limits

You can set limits on the number of emails sent from your Mail Agents, based on your usage. This helps you monitor and control your outgoing emails according to your business needs. You can configure individual sending limits for each Mail Agent based on your requirements. The limit you set will automatically reset at 12am server time each day. To set an email limit:

1. Go to the Mail Agent settings section. 
   
2. Select Sending limit.
3. Enter the desired limit for that Mail Agent. Save the limit.

If the number of outgoing email exceeds the set limit:

• For API users, the email will not be processed and you will receive a SM_151 error in your console.
• For SMTP users, your email will be accepted by ZeptoMail servers, but will not be sent out to your recipients. The email will have a Process failed status.

The Settings section lists all the limits set for a ZeptoMail account. You can add, edit or delete the limits from there too. This help page gives you more information on email limit actions in the Settings section. 

Shutdown and Delete a Mail Agent

You can delete the Mail Agents that you no longer use. Only Postmaster has permission to perform the deletion operation. Before deleting the Mail Agent, you have to initiate the Mail Agent shut down process. The shutdown period is for 45 days and your Mail Agent data will not be deleted during this period. After 45 days, ZeptoMail will automatically delete the Mail Agent and its information.

Here are a list of things to keep in mind before initiating the Mail Agent shutdown process:

• Once the shutdown of a Mail Agent is initiated, the process and the associated actions cannot be reverted.
• After the initiation of the shutdown, emails cannot be sent using HTTP or SMTP from the Mail Agent.
• All actions performed by the Mail Agent such as scheduled emails, tracking, webhooks, triggering, etc., will be blocked immediately after the shutdown is initiated.
• After Shutdown, information such as processed email logs, and reports will remain till the deletion of the Mail Agent.
• After the deletion of the Mail Agent, all information corresponding to the Mail Agent except the associated domains will be deleted irreversibly.

Steps to initiate the shutdown process:

1. Log in to ZeptoMail application.
2. Launch Mail Agents section from the left panel.
3. Select the Mail Agent you want to delete.
4. On top right corner click on Mail Agent setting.
5. Click on Shutdown Mail Agent
   
   
    
6. In the Shutdown Initiation popup, agree to proceed and click on Shutdown.
7. You will be required to validate your identity in order to shutdown your Mail Agent. Once validated, it will be deleted.

The Mail Agent will be permanently deleted after the completion of 45 days from the shutdown initiation period. 

Points to remember

• You can add and use up to 100 domains in your ZeptoMail account.
• All the domains you add can be associated to a single Mail Agent or multiple Mail Agents.
• The domain should be verified, to use it in the Mail Agent for sending Transactional emails.
• You need to configure a bounce email address with the verified domain in the Mail Agent.
• You can use different domains, for sending different types of Transactional emails from the same MailAgent. This is purely based on your sending requirements.
  • Example: The company Zylker sends two types of transactional emails - Daily reports and account alerts from the same Mail Agent. It uses the sub-domain reports.zylker.com for daily reports and alerts.zylker.com for account alerts. Both these verified sub-domains are part of the same Mail Agent.
• However, you can also send different emails using different Mail Agents. For instance, Zylker can use Mail Agent 1 to send welcome emails and Mail Agent 2 to send daily reports. Mail Agent 1 will have the sub-domain info.zylker.com added to it. Mail Agent 2 will have alerts.zylker.com sub-domain added to it.
• The maximum number of recipients you can add in your email (which includes to, cc and bcc fields) is 500.
• The maximum size of the email you can send including the headers, in-line images, and attachments is 15MB.
• ZeptoMail does not support certain formats of in-line images and attachments. Click here to view the list of unsupported formats.