Suppressions and bounces

The addresses that get no marketing mail from you, how they get there, and how to add or remove one.

A suppression is an address your account will not send marketing mail to. It protects your sending reputation and keeps a promise to people who asked for no more mail. Suppressions are kept by address, so they hold even for an address that has no subscriber record, and even after a subscriber is deleted.

How an address becomes suppressed

Only these add an address to your suppression list:

Hard bounce: the mailbox does not exist or permanently refused mail. The subscriber's status also becomes Bounced.
Complaint: the reader marked your mail as spam. Their status becomes Complained.
Left everything: the reader chose "Unsubscribe from everything" on their preferences page.
Added by hand: you or a member of your team added it.
Erased on request: you erased the subscriber, and the address stays suppressed so a later import cannot add them back.

A soft bounce, such as a full mailbox, does neither: no suppression and no status change. Leaving one series or leaving the newsletter is not a suppression either (see Consent).

See your suppressions

Open System > Consent.
Scroll to Suppressions. The heading counts the addresses that get no marketing mail from this account.
Each row shows the Address, Why (Hard bounce, Complaint, Left everything, Added by hand, or Erased on request), and Since.
Type in Search addresses to find one.

To find bounced and complained people on your list, open Audience > Subscribers and click the Bounced or Complained tab. The Activity screen under Analytics also lists each bounce and complaint as it happens, with hard and soft bounces labelled.

Suppress an address by hand

For someone who asked by phone or email:

In Suppress an address, type the Email.
Add a Note if you want a record of why.
Click Suppress.

Remove a suppression

Click the bin icon on the row and confirm. Removing a suppression does not change the subscriber's status. A person who bounced stays Bounced. Only remove one when you know the address works again and the person wants your mail.

What happens next

A suppressed address is checked right before every send. Broadcasts and sequence steps to it are blocked and recorded as suppressed with the reason, never silently dropped. A broadcast's page shows how many were Suppressed: blocked by consent at send time.

Things to know