We have assembled this Getting Started Guide to help you get the most that our service has to offer and to make sure that you are aware of important considerations for using our service and your success. Please bookmark this page for future reference
How to Get Help When You Need It
Honestly, one of the best things about SocketLabs is our team of Email Experts. Our Email Experts can help you with all your needs from getting started to complex issues and troubleshooting. They are available from 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM ET (USA) Monday-Friday, excluding holidays and other business closings. But we also have self-serve resources that you can access 24x7. Here are the ways to get help:
- Chat
The Chat option allows you to get assistance quickly by instant messaging one of our live, US based representatives.
You can email our experts by sending an email to support@socketlabs.com.
- Phone
To speak to an expert directly, you can call 800-650-1639 from within the US or +1 484-418-1285 from outside of the US. Just select the option for Support.
Whichever option you choose to connect, you can be assured that our team of experts are there to help you succeed. Connect with them and find out why our customers rave!
A Few Important Ground Rules
We take email security seriously. You must send your emails from a domain that is registered to you, is under your control, or that you have permission to use. You may only send to recipients that have given their permission to receive emails from you. There are other regulations that are fully explained in our Acceptable Use Policy and Terms of Service.
Commercial email messages must provide recipients with a way to unsubscribe and must include the physical address of the sender.
Email sent through SocketLabs must conform to all applicable laws and regulations, including but not limited to, the CAN-SPAM act. If you are unfamiliar with the specifics of the CAN-SPAM act, you can read about it here.
If we find that your email is not in compliance with all of the above regulations, your service may be suspended or terminated so please be sure to adhere to all of the rules.
Logging Into the Control Panel
To log into the Control Panel, go to http://cp.socketlabs.com. The Control Panel allows you to configure your service, access reports and analytics, compose email messages, and more.
One Service, Many Uses
SocketLabs provides a wide range of email services included within your account. There are many different types of users and each will interact with our service a little differently.
Email Marketing Tools
Getting Started with the Email Marketing Tools
Sending with SMTP
Sending with HTTP
Processing Inbound Email
Ramping up your Service
Part of getting your email into the inbox requires us to establish a good reputation for you with the mailbox providers. To do this, we need to initially throttle the rate at which we deliver your email. This is an automatic "warm-up" process that gets the mailbox providers (i.e. Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, etc...) familiar with your email, without bombarding them with too much too soon. You will notice your messages being delivered increasingly faster and faster over the first few weeks of your service as the warm-up period progresses. We discuss the warm-up process more in depth here.
Usage Notifications, Overages, and Suspensions
If you exceed your monthly allowances you will receive an email notification every day detailing your current usage and overage. By default, servers that exceed their allowances by more than double will be temporarily suspended. This "safety valve" is intended for your protection in case accidental overages occur but it can be adjusted to accommodate expected or temporary overages. These options can be managed in the Control Panel under your Server's Configuration settings under Manage Overage Settings.
Integrate with our APIs
Integrating with our APIs enables your applications to get the most out of your SocketLabs Service.
Notification API
The Notification API provides you with the ability receive email status notifications directly to your application through HTTP POST events. The Notification API can send HTTP POST events such as sent messages, failed messages, complaints, opens, clicks, etc.
Click here for a complete guide on the Notification API
Injection API
The Injection API provides you with the ability to send messages through HTTP POST requests as opposed to standard SMTP message injection which is also supported by SocketLabs. The Injection API provides you with both the ability to do inline mail merges in a single HTTP POST request and the choice of JSON or XML based on your application and business needs.
Click here for a complete guide on the Injection API.
Reporting API
The Reporting API is a REST API that uses standard HTTP over SSL to query for tracking information associated with email sent through SocketLabs. With the Reporting API, you can programmatically query for all sent, failed/bounced, complaints, open and click events.
Click here for a complete guide on the Reporting API.
Marketing API
The Marketing API exposes RESTful HTTP methods to access and manipulate aspects of marketing features such as list management.
Click here for a complete guide on the Marketing API.
Manage Your Account Like a Pro
One Account, Many Servers
When you signup for service, your account is provisioned with one server. It is possible to create multiple servers within your account, each on its own messaging plan. This can be very useful if you need to segregate your outbound email for different customers or departments or to segregate outbound email between test and production environments. When you log into the Control Panel, you can create new servers or select existing servers to manage.
Reports & Analytics
We provide server level reporting and rich analytics on such things as Delivered Messages, Failed Messages, Open & Click Activity, and Complaints. These reports can be filtered in a number of different ways. It is also important to know there is a download button in the upper right hand corner of the report. This will provide you with a CSV file of the report data, if needed.
Suppression List
To ensure that you maintain an excellent reputation with mailbox providers, we automatically suppress email messages on your behalf for any known invalid email address or email to an address from which you received a complaint. This Suppression List is per-server and can be managed or searched in the Control Panel.
Account & Server Settings
There are many settings at both the Account and Server level. We highly suggest that you browse through the Control Panel, explore these settings, and customize them to your needs. Account level settings are for billing and notifications while Server level settings pertain to each server on your account. Server level settings expose such things as your SMTP Credentials, overage and notification settings, authentication settings and open and click tracking settings.