Email statuses explained


This article applies to:

Each email address stored in Keap is assigned a status.  These status are generally assigned automatically, but can also be managed manually with some limitations. You cannot double-opt in a person or single-opt in someone who has previously opted out (unsubscribed) of your email marketing.

Confirmed (double opt-in)

Confirming an email address is a manual process. Since it's your contact that is telling their email provider that they want to receive emails from you,  a Confirmation email would be sent and your contact must click a link that confirms they want to receive marketing emails.

Unconfirmed (single opt-in)

This status is automatically set when you import a list and indicate you have permission to send email marketing, when a contact signs up through one of your web forms, or you manually add a contact. The unconfirmed email status indicates that you have permission to send marketing messages to the email address. Send a "Confirmation" email for a double-opted in.

Invalid email

The Invalid status indicates the email address is missing characteristics of a valid email address (e.g. an @ symbol, .com/.net/.org, etc.)

Unsubscribed (Admin opt-out)

This status indicates that it was manually opted-out by a user in your Keap account.

Unsubscribed

The Opt-Out status indicates a person has unsubscribed from all of your email marketing. You can send individual emails to these email addresses, but cannot send any broadcast or emails within a sequence to them. You are not able to manually update an Opt-Out status.

Non-marketable

  • The Non-Marketable email status is assigned during import or when a person is added manually, but you did not indicate that you have permission to send email marketing to them. This includes contacts that schedule an appointment via Keap but do not check the box to receive important emails from you. 
  • You can access the Email Engagement Report to manage to update the email status for a specific email address. 
  • Non-Marketable email addresses can receive individual emails, appointment reminders, and invoices and quotes, but cannot receive broadcasts or emails from an automation.

Bounced email

  • Soft Bounce: This status indicates that the recipient is not receiving your email due to a temporary issue with their email inbox or email provider. An example would be a full inbox that can no longer receive email messages. After multiple soft bounces the email will be automatically set to hard bounce. If the soft bounce issue is resolved, the status will update accordingly.

  • Hard bounce: This status typically means that the email no longer exists or it soft bounced too many times. For more information on bounced email status, click here

Un-engaged Marketable (4+ months of engagement)  

This email status is automatically applied on a weekly basis to any email address that has not engaged with your marketing efforts in the last 4 months.  The system checks email engagement status every week on Saturday. When the contact re-engages, their email status will revert to the previous state. Specifically, the status will be applied when  within the last 4 months all of the following are true:

  • The contact has not opened an email

  • The contact has not clicked a link in an email

  • Submitted a webform / landing page

  • Contact's email status has existed in any "opt-in" status for at least 4 months

List Unsubscribe

This is similar to the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email. This unsubscribe option will appear at the top of the email and is generated by some email service providers to make it easier for their customers to opt out of unwanted emails.

Provide Feedback 

This status indicates that the recipient reported your email as SPAM directly to their ISP.

Reported SPAM 

This status indicates that the contact reported your email as SPAM, via the unsubscribe feedback form, after clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email. This method of reporting SPAM does not count against the threshold, as this is additional feedback from the recipient, after clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.

Opt Out: System

Reserved when Keap's automated email scanning service detects an email address entered into the application (either manually or from an import) as being non-deliverable. This may be flagged for different reasons: from an email address having invalid syntax (e.g. rich@@com) to being on an internal 'restricted' list. These restricted lists contain email addresses and domains that Keap cannot send. For example many organizations such as Wells Fargo do not allow any email to enter their network from Email Marketing platforms, so any address using the wellsfargo.com domain cannot be delivered and therefore is opted out automatically. A reason as to why the address is opted out is also provided. In the Email Engagement Tracker report this is in the System Opt-Out reason column.