mailpitcher

Replies, bounces and the do-not-contact list

What happens when someone replies to a campaign or an address bounces, how auto-pause works, and how to keep people from ever being emailed.

Updated · 2 min read · 7 steps

Mailpitcher watches your mailboxes for answers to your campaigns. A reply stops that person’s follow-ups. A bounce puts the address on your do-not-contact list.

Replies

Read replies in your inbox

Replies land in your normal inbox, in the same conversation as your email. Answer them like any other email.

See who replied

Open the campaign, then Recipients. Each email has a status:

  • Sent and the date.
  • Replied and the date: their follow-ups are cancelled.
  • Queued: waiting for its turn.
  • Bounced or Failed: hold the pointer over it to read why.

Use the filters All, Replied, Bounced and Not contacted yet to narrow the list.

Each email's status per recipient, with filters across the top.
  1. Filter: All, Replied, Bounced, Not contacted yet
  2. Replied: their follow-ups stop
  3. Bounced: the address went on your do-not-contact list

If the campaign is in a project, people who reply move to Replied on the project board.

Automatic messages from mail servers (like “Undelivered mail”) never count as replies.

Bounces

What a bounce does

A bounce means the address doesn’t exist or refused your email. Mailpitcher then:

  • marks the email Bounced,
  • adds the address to your do-not-contact list, so no campaign emails it again,
  • moves the prospect to Dead on the project board (the address can’t be reached).

If a campaign pauses itself

If a mailbox bounces more than 5% of its emails (counted after 20 sends), the campaign pauses so your mailbox’s reputation doesn’t suffer. The reason is shown at the top in red.

  1. Clean the list: remove addresses you’re not sure about.
  2. Click Resume… when you’re ready.
A campaign pauses itself when a mailbox's bounce rate passes 5% (after 20 sends). The reason is shown at the top.

The do-not-contact list

Open the list

Click Campaigns in the sidebar, then Do-not-contact at the top. It lists every address no campaign will email, with the reason:

  • Bounced: added automatically.
  • Unsubscribed: they clicked your unsubscribe link.
  • Marked as spam: a spam complaint came back.
  • Added by you.

Add people by hand

Type or paste addresses into Add addresses, one per line, and click Add. Use this for people who asked you to stop, or a client’s own contacts.

Remove someone

Click Remove next to the address. They can be emailed again.

Campaigns, Do-not-contact. Nobody on this list gets a campaign email.
  1. Add addresses, one per line
  2. Why each address is on the list
  3. Remove: they can be emailed again

Good to know

  • The list is for your whole account: it applies to every campaign.
  • It applies to emails you write yourself too: Mailpitcher won’t send a single email to an address on the list, and tells you which one.
  • People on the list are skipped when it’s their turn. You can still add them to a campaign; they just never get an email.