What is the difference between unsubscribing and email getting put “on hold”?
Emails that have been held are different from emails that have been unsubscribed. Unsubscribers have clicked the linked text in an email that said “unsubscribe from this mailing”. This link is created by one of these tokens in an email: {action.unsubscribe} or {action.unsubscribeUrl}
Email recipients who unsubscribe from a single mailing list will simply be removed from the group you used as a mailing list to send to. Use this tip to find out who unsubscribed.
Look at the contact record of someone who unsubscribed and take a look at their Groups tab. You can see it says “Removed (by Web)” from the mailing list group. Notice that their email is not held because it’s not in red. For example, you could send a non-bulk email to someone who has unsubscribed from a single mailing list group and she would get it.
So what is an email on hold?
Email gets put on hold if PowerBase tries to send an email blast determines that it’s not a valid email address. This happens when you send an email and it bounces. That means it never reaches the recipient.
Emails bounce for a number of reasons: a full inbox that can’t take in any more messages, a typo in the email, an email address that is out of commission, and various other, more obscure reasons.
Only some bounces actually get the email put on hold. Some bounce types are determined by PowerBase to be just temporary problems, and the email won’t get put on hold. This means PowerBase will still try to send email to this address in future mailings.
If the email is in red in a contact’s record, it is on hold. When you send email blasts, this contact will not receive them.
Learn about managing bounced emails.
