Bounces, opt-outs and the do-not-contact list

Bounces

• Hard bounce. The address does not exist or the server refuses it permanently. The address is added to the do-not-contact list and never emailed again. If WhatsApp is linked and the company has a suitable number, it can still be reached there.
• Soft bounce. A temporary problem, such as a full mailbox. The message is marked bounced, but the address is not blocked.

Before research saves a company, its domain is checked for a mail server. If there is none, it is moved to Contact by hand rather than emailed. Bounced messages appear as Bounced in Sent, and the Dashboard shows your bounce rate under Sending health.

How people opt out

• The unsubscribe link at the foot of every email: “Prefer no further outreach from us? Unsubscribe”.
• One-click unsubscribe in their mail app. Every email carries the standard List-Unsubscribe headers (RFC 8058), so Gmail, Outlook and others can show their own unsubscribe button.
• A reply such as “unsubscribe”, “remove us”, “stop emailing” or a one-word “stop”. These are recognised before any AI is involved and take effect at once, with no approval needed.
• “STOP” on WhatsApp. On WhatsApp, a reply asking to stop, such as “stop”, “unsubscribe” or “remove me”, ends outreach at once.

Newsletters, automatic replies and the standard unsubscribe lines in quoted email footers are ignored, so they cannot put someone on the list by mistake.

The unsubscribe confirmation page

Opening the unsubscribe link does not unsubscribe anyone on its own. It opens a page headed Unsubscribe? asking “Stop all further messages to [address]?” with an Unsubscribe button. After pressing it, the page confirms: “You’re unsubscribed. We won’t contact [address] again. Nothing further is needed.”

The extra step exists because some company mail systems open every link in an email to scan it for security. Without the question, a scanner could unsubscribe a buyer who never asked. One-click unsubscribe from the mail app still works in a single step. If a link has been damaged in transit, the page asks the person to reply with the word “unsubscribe” instead.

The shared do-not-contact list

Outreach Asia keeps one do-not-contact list across the whole platform. It only ever grows.

• An opt-out recorded against a sending mailbox applies to every workspace that sends from it, so an opt-out through the agency mailbox protects that person from every client on it.
• An opt-out also follows your workspace, whichever mailbox you use later.
• An opt-out that cannot be matched to a conversation blocks that address for every client.
• Opting out through the link also covers the company, not just the individual address.

Opt-outs stop everything, on every campaign, by email and WhatsApp.

See your opt-outs

1. Go to Settings → Countries and exclusions → Opt-outs.
2. Each row shows the company or address, how it happened (Unsubscribe link, Asked to stop in a reply, Address bounced, Added by hand or Imported) and when. The 50 most recent are shown.

There is no way to undo an opt-out in the app, because consent to resume cannot be confirmed. To exclude companies before they are ever contacted, use the separate Never contact list on the same tab.