Overview
You can send emails manually, through sequences, or in plays. If you're having issues with email delivery, a few troubleshooting steps can help.
Several factors can impact whether emails sent in Apollo arrive in a contact's inbox. In general, Apollo characterizes email delivery issues into 3 main groups:
- Apollo hasn't scheduled or delivered any of your emails.
- Apollo sent your emails, but they failed to deliver.
- Apollo hasn't attempted to send your emails.
Refer to the following sections to learn how to resolve email delivery issues.
Apollo Hasn't Scheduled or Delivered Any of Your Emails
If you added contacts to a sequence, but Apollo hasn't scheduled or delivered any of your emails, there are 3 possible causes:
- You haven't activated the sequence.
- You haven't activated the steps in the sequence.
- You need to update the wait time between steps.
- A sequence email requires manual review.
Activate Sequence
Ensure you activated the sequence associated with the email you expected to send. To activate your sequence:
- Launch Apollo and click Engage > Sequences.
- Toggle the sequence on.
Activate the Sequence Steps
Ensure you activated the sequence step associated with the email you expected to send. To activate sequence steps:
- Launch Apollo and click Engage > Sequences.
- Click the sequence that you need to review.
- Toggle the sequence steps on.
Verify Wait Time Between Steps
Check the wait time between each sequence step associated with the email you expected to send. To verify wait time:
- Launch Apollo and click Engage > Sequences.
- Click the sequence that you need to review.
- Check the wait time shown to the right of each step. Apollo won't send your contacts any emails until this time has passed.
- To edit the wait time, click [. . .] > Edit.
- Use the When to start this step option to adjust the wait time between steps.
- When finished, click Continue.
An Email Requires Manual Review
If you configure a manual email step in a sequence, the email won't send automatically. You need to send the email manually:
- Launch Apollo and click Engage > Sequences.
- Click the sequence that you need to review.
- Click Tasks.
- Then click the Email.
- Personalize the email for the contact, then click Schedule. Choose whether to send the email immediately or schedule delivery for later.
Apollo Sent Your Emails, But They Failed to Deliver
If Apollo sent your emails but they failed to deliver, use deliverability scoring to confirm your mailbox's deliverability rating. If your deliverability scores are good, there are 3 possible causes for email delivery issues:
Bounced Emails
If an email bounces, it means that the recipient's email address no longer exists or there's an error in the recipient's information. When this happens, the email is returned and the email status is updated to Bounced.
To resume emailing a bounced contact, check out How do I resume emailing a bounced contact in a sequence?.
Not Sent
If you tried the troubleshooting steps in this article, but you're still having issues with emails not delivering, check out the following table for possible solutions:
| Reason | Explanation | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Blocked Contact Stage | When you create a sequence, you have the option to mark emails as Not Sent when a contact is in a selected contact stage through a sequence ruleset. If you then try to send an email to a contact in one of the selected stages, Apollo won't send the email. |
You can change the stage of a contact that you want to email, or you can change the settings in the sequence ruleset so that Apollo no longer blocks emails to contacts in the stage. After making this change, try sending the email again. |
| Blocked Account Stage | When you create a sequence, you have the option to mark emails as Not Sent when an account is in a selected account stage through a sequence ruleset. If you try to send an email to an account that is in one of the selected stages, Apollo won't send the email. |
You can change the stage of a specific account that you want to email, or you can change the settings in the sequence ruleset so that Apollo no longer blocks emails to any accounts in the stage. After making this change, try sending the email again. |
| Same Account Replied | If you set a sequence rule not to send when another contact from the same account replies in any sequence, Apollo won't send the email. | Update the settings in the sequence ruleset, then send the email again. |
| Unverified Email | If it's your first time sending an email to a contact with an unverified email, Apollo won't send the email as a failsafe. | Unverified emails have a 60-80% success rate. Try sending the email again. |
| Missing Snippet | If you include snippets in a message and the contact you want to email doesn't have a value for the snippet, Apollo won't send the email. | Edit the contact's profile to add a value for the missing field. Alternatively, change the snippet to an advanced snippet and add a fallback for this type of scenario. |
| Missing Dynamic Variable | If you used dynamic variables in a message and the contact you want to email doesn't have a value for a dynamic variable, Apollo won't send the email. | To fix the issue, edit the contact's profile to add a value for the missing field. Alternatively, change the dynamic variable to an advanced dynamic variable and add a fallback for this type of scenario. |
| Missing Thread Info | If you set the email type as "Reply to a Previous Thread" and the contact deletes the previous email, Apollo won't send the email. | You can send this contact a manual email. To ensure the next emails in the sequence are sent, adjust any other emails in the sequence to send as part of a new thread. |
| No Send From Mailbox Selected | When you add contacts to a sequence, you must assign a mailbox. If one of your teammates removes a mailbox to which you linked your contacts in the sequence, Apollo won't send the email. | You can update an existing mailbox or link the sequence to another mailbox. |
| Email Missing or Invalid | If you added a contact with no email address to your sequence, Apollo won't send the email. | Update the email address on the contact's profile. When the information is up-to-date, resend the message. |
| Contact Account Not Owned by User | You might only have permissions to send emails to the contacts you own. If you try to email another user's contact or account, Apollo won't send the email. | Re-assign ownership of the contact, or ask an Apollo admin to change your permissions so you can send emails to other users' contacts and accounts. |
| Email Service Provider Error | If a contact's email server is unable to deliver the email and returns an error to Apollo, Apollo can't send the message. | Hover your mouse over the "Email Service Provider Error" in Apollo to find out more about the error. Use this information to troubleshoot email delivery, or reach out to Apollo support. |
| Other | If an email fails to deliver for any other reason, Apollo shows an Other error. |
Reach out to Apollo support for assistance. |
Apollo Has Not Attempted to Send Your Emails
If Apollo hasn't tried to send your emails, there are 2 possible reasons for this:
- An admin in your team has deleted the user associated with the contacts in your sequence. To solve this issue, you need to re-assign ownership of the contacts, and then send the email again.
- The time or date you scheduled the email to send has already passed. To solve this issue, edit the send time for the step.
Resend an Email
After you've diagnosed a delivery issue, send the email again:
- Launch Apollo and click Engage > Emails.
- All of your emails will display, including undelivered emails. Click the checkbox for each email you want to resend, then click the Retry Undelivered Emails icon.
- Review the information, then click the checkboxes if they apply to you. Click Retry.
Apollo will indicate if it can reschedule the emails.