Troubleshooting: Why isn’t a subscriber receiving my email?

Article author
Miguel Panayotty

This article will walk you through how to answer the question, Why isn’t this subscriber receiving emails? The first place to look is the subscriber’s profile in WordFly.

The profile landing page will tell you right away whether the subscriber is receiving emails or has a flagged event that is suppressing emails. You will also be able to check subscriber activity and list inclusions from the subscriber profile.

 

View the subscriber’s profile

 

1. Go to Subscribers > Subscriber Search

 

2. Search for the subscriber address

 

3. This will bring up the subscriber’s email address (if it can be found). If multiple addresses appear, hover over the right side of the record and click View.

 

 

 

Check the sending status

On the subscriber profile landing page, you will see right away if a subscriber is receiving emails by the icon sitting to the left of the subscriber’s address. Click on it to access additional information.

ICONS


Check
This subscriber is receiving emails.
Alert
This subscriber probably is not receiving emails because they are being filtered out when imported. The subscriber remains filtered out unless you specifically say to override the issue on a list-by-list basis or at the subscriber level.
Slash
This subscriber is not receiving emails. The subscriber is suppressed from the list when any campaign is sent.
  • Opt-outs should only cleared if the subscriber has expressly consented to the override.
  • Abuse complaints can ONLY be cleared through a process that involves subscriber consent. Learn more

Learn more about Subscriber Sending Status

 

 

Check the Activity tab

Click on the Activity icon in the subscriber’s profile. Use the Event filter to look for events that may prevent a subscriber from receiving emails.

Events that prevent sending to the subscriber's address:
Opt-outs, hard bounces,
and abuse complaints

If any of these appear, refer back to the previous section to adjust the subscriber’s sending status if the subscriber would like to receive emails again.

Events that cause temporary issues with receiving emails:
Soft bounces

Soft bounces are always temporary issues and will be retried a few times in a short period of time. Repeated soft bounces could point to an invalid or dead address that may never open an email. Any spam block soft bounces should be investigated further. Email content or poor subscriber engagement may cause a spam block bounce.

Learn more about the Activity tab



Check the Lists tab

Click on the Lists icon in the subscriber’s profile if you’ve checked the subscriber profile and the sending status is OK. This page will tell you if the subscriber is included in the lists being used by your email campaigns.

Use the Status filter to review the lists the subscriber is in or not in. From the Status filter select Subscribed to find all lists the subscriber is in. Or select Not Subscribed to find all lists the subscriber is not in. *Tip: Use the Date filter as well to fine tune the results.

Learn more about the List tab

 


What to look for

  • Is the subscriber on a recent list import and doesn’t have a response?
    It could be that the subscriber wasn’t in a new list. Check your lists to make sure this subscriber is opted in to the ones they expect to be.

  • Does the subscriber have a flagged event such as an opt-out response?
    Any list imports after the opt-out is recorded will suppress the subscriber and they will not be included in the list.

  • Does the subscriber have any temporary issues, such as a spam block soft bounce?
    While soft bounces are temporary issues, some bounces like a spam block should be investigated further to locate issues in the email design, content, or subscriber engagement.