Understanding Contact Statuses
Each contact in your BuffSend account has a status that indicates their current state and eligibility for receiving emails. Understanding these statuses is important for managing your lists and campaigns effectively.
Common Contact Statuses:
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Active / Subscribed:
This contact is eligible to be included in campaigns. They have not unsubscribed, and their email address has not (yet) hard bounced.
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Unsubscribed:
This contact has clicked an unsubscribe link in one of your emails or has been manually marked as unsubscribed. BuffSend will automatically prevent sending any further emails to this contact from your account to comply with anti-spam regulations. You generally cannot change this status back to Active manually.
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Bounced / Hard Bounced:
An email sent to this contact resulted in a hard bounce, meaning the email address is permanently invalid (e.g., doesn't exist, domain typo). BuffSend typically marks these contacts as Bounced and automatically excludes them from future campaigns to protect your sender reputation. It's good practice to remove these from your active lists periodically.
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In Campaign / Active in Sequence:
This status often indicates that the contact is currently part of an active, ongoing email sequence. They will continue to receive scheduled steps unless they reply, bounce, or unsubscribe.
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Completed Campaign / Finished Sequence:
The contact has received all the steps in a specific campaign sequence they were assigned to.
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Pending / Processing:
The contact has been added to a campaign, but the first step hasn't been sent yet (e.g., waiting for the scheduled sending window or initial processing).
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Spam Complaint / Complained:
The contact marked one of your emails as spam through their email provider. Like unsubscribes, these contacts are usually automatically suppressed from future mailings. High complaint rates severely damage your sender reputation.
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Suppressed / Do Not Contact:
A general status indicating the contact should not be emailed. This could be due to previous bounces, unsubscribes, spam complaints, or manual suppression.
Where to See Statuses
You can typically see the status of a contact:
- In the main contact list view (often as a filterable column).
- On the individual contact's detail page.
- Within the reporting section of specific campaigns.
Why Statuses Matter
- Deliverability: Sending to bounced or unsubscribed addresses hurts your sender reputation.
- Compliance: Respecting unsubscribes and complaints is legally required (CAN-SPAM, GDPR, etc.).
- List Health: Monitoring statuses helps you keep your lists clean and effective.
- Campaign Logic: Statuses often control whether a contact continues to receive sequence steps.
Regularly reviewing contact statuses, especially Bounced and Unsubscribed, is key to maintaining healthy lists and maximizing the effectiveness of your email campaigns.
