AWS SES Integration for Orbit ABM Sequences

Overview

The ^[1] uses AWS Simple Email Service (SES) as its email delivery backbone, enabling high-volume, highly personalized outbound sequences at a fraction of the cost of traditional email platforms like SendGrid or Go High Level. Each contact in a sequence receives a completely unique, individually generated email — not a mail-merge template — making this approach meaningfully different from bulk email tools.

This architecture was demoed internally on 2026-02-18 and is ready for client use.

Why AWS SES

• Cost: Less than $0.01 per email (described as "less than a third of a cent"). Sending 1 million emails per day costs virtually nothing.
• Volume: No practical sending limits at the scale ABM campaigns require.
• Independence: Operates entirely outside client CRM platforms (HubSpot, Salesforce), avoiding entanglement with existing automation logic or licensing constraints.
• Reliability: AWS infrastructure handles deliverability at scale without the configuration overhead of shared-IP tools.

This makes SES a direct replacement for SendGrid-based tier 2/3 email flows and eliminates dependency on Go High Level for sequence automation.

Architecture

The integration uses three AWS services working together:

The automation server (hosted separately, configured in the Aden environment) orchestrates the flow:

1. Orbit generates a unique email for each contact based on campaign context, target company data, and sequence step.
2. The automation server polls SQS and dispatches emails via SES on schedule.
3. SES returns open/click/bounce events via SNS.
4. Events are pushed to the client's CRM (HubSpot or Salesforce) for attribution.

Personalization Model

Unlike bulk email tools, Orbit generates a distinct email per contact per step. For a campaign with 100 contacts and a 5-step sequence, that means 500 unique emails in the queue. Personalization draws on:

• Target company vertical, competitors, and market context stored in Orbit
• Contact role and relationship data
• Campaign-specific messaging playbook

Sequences can run fully automatically (no manual click required per send) or be reviewed step-by-step.

CRM Integration

Orbit supports both HubSpot and Salesforce. Because some clients use one and some the other, separate connection configurations are required per client. Attribution data pushed to the CRM includes:

• Email open events
• Link click events
• Sequence step completion status

This gives clients full visibility into ABM engagement within their existing CRM workflow.

Client Setup Status (as of 2026-02-18)

Additional ABM clients are being onboarded. Clients can be granted direct access to their Orbit workspace to view campaign boards, contact status, and email activity themselves.

Operational Notes

• SendGrid deprecation: Work on a SendGrid-based tier 2/3 flow for Aviary was paused in favor of this approach. Do not build new SendGrid sequences for ABM clients.
• Go High Level: This stack is intended to replace Go High Level for email automation use cases. GHL has caused attribution and form-routing issues that SES/Orbit avoids by design.
• Multi-CRM complexity: Building connections for both HubSpot and Salesforce clients requires separate integration work per CRM type. Account for this in onboarding timelines.

Related

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