Invite emails not sending
Find out why a Smart Invites email hasn't gone out or reached your customer, starting from their status in the campaign, and fix each cause.
You invited a customer, or your webhook did, and they say nothing arrived. The quickest check is their row in the campaign: in your project's sidebar, open Invites under Collect, go to the Campaigns tab, open the campaign and find the customer. Status shows how far their emails got. Click the arrow at the start of the row for their timeline: it shows the time each email is scheduled for, or the reason the emails stopped.
Smart Invites are on Premium and Business. The workspace owner and the project's Admins can open campaigns and the email log.
Check this first
Most often the invitation is only waiting for its time. Go to the section for the customer's Status:
| Status | Go to |
|---|---|
| Queued or Invitation scheduled | The email is scheduled for later and A large list goes out over time |
| Invitation sent, or a reminder sent | The email was sent and the customer can't find it |
| Delivery failed or Bounced | Delivery failed or bounced |
| Cancelled | The status is Cancelled |
| Unsubscribed | The address is on the do-not-email list |
| The customer isn't in any campaign | The customer isn't in any campaign |
The project's Email Log shows what happened to each email, once the customer's status has moved on from Queued. See Check whether an email was sent.
The email is scheduled for later
Queued and Invitation scheduled both mean the invitation hasn't gone out yet. The timeline shows when it's due, as "Invitation scheduled" with a date and time.
That time is set when the customer is added: the moment they were added plus the Delay of Email 1: Initial Request in your email template or, for a customer who came in by webhook, the webhook's Wait before the first email. Changing a delay later doesn't move an email that already has a time.
To send it sooner, set the Delay you want in the template (see Customize your invite emails). Then choose Cancel remaining emails, and after it Restart sequence…, in the three-dot menu on the customer's row. A restart takes its times from the template and doesn't use another invite.
A large list goes out over time
A time that has passed doesn't mean the email was skipped. A large list is worked through over time:
- Customers are lined up in batches. When one import adds more than 50 customers, their rows change from Queued to Invitation scheduled a batch at a time.
- Each project has an hourly email limit. Past it, the emails still to go wait. The email log shows each as Waiting, with "This project reached its hourly email limit. It goes out when there's room."
There's nothing to do: the rest go out as room frees up. The project's other emails, such as new testimonial alerts, wait behind the same limit.
The email was sent and the customer can't find it
Invitation sent, First reminder sent and Second reminder sent mean that email went out. Search the customer's address in the email log:
- Delivered: their mail server accepted it. Ask them to look in spam and junk for an email from your project's name followed by "via ReTestimonial", sent from
invites@campaigns.retestimonial.com. See Emails not arriving. - Sent or Delayed: their mail server hasn't confirmed delivery yet.
To send the link yourself, choose Copy invite link in the three-dot menu on their row. A testimonial sent through it counts as their response.
Delivery failed or bounced
- Bounced: the customer's mail server rejected the email, and the address went on the project's do-not-email list. The sequence can't be restarted. If the address had a typo, invite the corrected address.
- Delivery failed: an email couldn't be sent or delivered, or the address is blocked because an earlier email to it bounced or was reported as spam. No later emails go out. Unless the address is blocked, the menu on the customer's row offers Restart sequence… to try again.
For a blocked address, see An address stopped getting emails.
The status is Cancelled
Open the customer's timeline. Under Cancelled — remaining emails stopped, a line gives the reason when ReTestimonial stopped the emails itself. Each reason has its own section below. With no reason line, someone on your team chose Cancel remaining emails for this customer.
The address is on the do-not-email list
The reason reads "The address is on this project's do-not-email list." A customer whose status is Unsubscribed or Bounced is on the list too, and a new invite to a listed address is refused or skipped.
The Do not email tab shows why an address is there. Only an unsubscribe can be lifted, and only when the customer asks to hear from you again. Until then, the menu on their row offers Open do-not-email list in place of Restart sequence…. See Manage the do-not-email list.
The plan no longer includes Smart Invites
The reason reads "The workspace's plan did not include Smart Invites when the next email was due." On a plan without Smart Invites, each customer's sequence is stopped when their next email comes due, and the Invites page shows a See plans button in place of your campaigns.
Moving back to a plan with Smart Invites doesn't start those customers again: choose Restart sequence… for each one you still want to email.
The project is read-only
The reason reads "The project was read-only when the next email was due." A project beyond your plan's project licences is read-only, and so is every project of a workspace that became read-only after a failed payment: see Project is read-only and Payment failed. Once the project is active again, choose Restart sequence… for the customers you still want to email.
The email was stopped just before sending
The reason reads "The next email was stopped just before sending: the project, its plan or its do-not-email list no longer allowed it." Every invite email is checked once more right before it goes out, so this is one of the three causes above, found at the last moment. The email log shows that email as Not sent.
Check the Do not email tab, your plan and whether the project is read-only. Then choose Restart sequence….
The form was deleted
The reason reads "The form this invite pointed to was deleted." The customer's remaining emails can't be sent, and Restart sequence… stops again for the same reason. A single invite or an import to the same address is refused for 90 days after the customer was added, so send them the link to another form yourself: see Share or embed your form.
Reminders don't go out
Reminders stop once the customer responds or unsubscribes, or when their sequence is stopped for one of the reasons above.
A reminder that's switched off in the email template isn't sent either. If you switch off Email 2: First Reminder after customers were added (Email 3: Final Reminder goes off with it), they keep the status of their last email, such as Invitation sent, and get nothing more. To send them reminders after all, switch the reminder back on and choose Restart sequence….
The customer isn't in any campaign
Then they were never invited, and no invite was used. Where you see the reason depends on how you tried to add them:
- A single invite shows an error on the page: see If the invite isn't sent.
- An import lists the first 50 addresses it left out as recently invited or blocked, each with its reason, under Who was left out, and why.
- A webhook shows the reason on its Activity tab: see Smart Invites webhook not inviting customers.
The usual reasons are the do-not-email list above and the two below. See also Who isn't invited.
The customer was invited in the last 90 days
A single invite answers "This address was invited in the last 90 days.", and an import gives the reason "Invited in the last 90 days". Both skip anyone this project added in the last 90 days, whatever happened to that invite; a webhook uses its own Re-invite cooldown (days). To email the customer again now, restart their sequence from their campaign.
Out of invites this month
Each customer you add uses one invite from the project's monthly allowance (500 on Premium, 1,000 on Business), then from the workspace's invitation credits. With neither left, a single invite fails with an error that starts "Insufficient invitation credits", an import that needs more invites than you have left adds nobody, and a webhook's Activity tab says "You were out of invites, so this customer wasn't invited."
The Invites this month card on the Overview tab then reads "You're out of invites — new customers won't be invited until this resets." and shows the reset date. Add invite credits on that card opens the Credits tab of Billing, where the workspace owner can buy more. See Buy invitation credits. Customers who are already in a campaign keep getting their emails.
The form is paused or a draft
Pausing a form doesn't stop the emails of customers who were already invited, but the link in them doesn't open until the form is active again. Open the form in the form builder, click its status badge and choose Activate form.
A form that isn't active can't be chosen for a new single invite or import.
After you fix the cause
Restart sequence… is in the three-dot menu on the customer's row once their sequence has stopped, or once they've been sent every email without responding. Confirm with Restart sequence: the customer is sent the invitation again, then the reminders, on the template's timing. It doesn't use another invite.
A customer who was never added to a campaign needs a new invite instead.
Still not sending?
Contact us and include:
- the project's name and the campaign's name;
- the customer's email address, their Status and the reason on their timeline, if there is one;
- the status of their email in the email log.
Next steps
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