Why Your Contacts' Email Status Matters

A hard bounce means an email address is permanently undeliverable — sending to it again damages your sender reputation and increases the chance your future emails land in spam. Opted-out, unengaged, and non-marketable statuses each signal a different deliverability risk that can affect your entire contact list if left unmanaged. The Email Status Search report gives you a clear picture of the deliverability health of your contact list so you can take action before it affects your campaigns. Use this report to identify contacts who need re-engagement, confirm which addresses are safe to market to, and manually manage opt statuses when needed.

What Each Email Status Means for Your Deliverability

Your contacts' email statuses determine whether your CRM will send marketing emails to their addresses. Understanding each status helps you identify why a contact stopped receiving emails and what action, if any, you can take.

Hard Bounce
A hard bounce means the email address is permanently undeliverable. This happens when the address does not exist, the domain is invalid, or the receiving mail server has permanently rejected delivery. Your CRM automatically stops sending marketing emails to hard bounced addresses. You cannot reverse a hard bounce by manually updating the status — the address itself is the problem. If a contact's primary email address has hard bounced, ask the contact to provide an updated email address and create a new contact record.

Soft Bounce
A soft bounce means delivery failed temporarily. This can happen when the recipient's inbox is full, the receiving mail server is temporarily unavailable, or the message is too large. Your CRM may attempt redelivery for soft bounced addresses. If a contact's address continues to soft bounce over time, your CRM may move the address to a non-marketable status.

Opted Out
An opted-out status means the contact has unsubscribed from marketing emails, either by clicking an unsubscribe link or by being manually opted out. Your CRM will not send marketing emails to opted-out addresses. Opting a contact out is permanent and cannot be reversed on your end — the contact must submit a new opt-in themselves. For more information, see the bulk opt-out limitations in the FAQ section of this article.

Unengaged Marketable
An unengaged marketable status means the contact has not opened or clicked a marketing email within a defined period of time, but your CRM can still send marketing emails to the address. Contacts with this status are candidates for a re-engagement campaign before their status moves to non-marketable.

Non-Marketable
A non-marketable status means the contact has never given permission to receive marketing emails, or has not engaged within the threshold that qualifies them as marketable. Your CRM will not send marketing emails to non-marketable addresses. Non-marketable is the only status you can update to opted-in using the bulk Actions tool in the Email Status Search report.

Unconfirmed
An unconfirmed status means the contact was added to your CRM but has not yet confirmed their opt-in to receive marketing emails. This status is common when double opt-in is enabled. Your CRM will not send marketing emails to unconfirmed contacts until they confirm. You can send a confirmation email directly from the Manage Status popup in the Email Status Search report.

For a complete list of all email status values and their full definitions, see Contact Email Status Types in Keap.

How to Find the Email Status Search Report

The Email Status Search report is located in the Reports section of your CRM. To navigate to the report, click Reports in the left-hand navigation. In the search box at the top of the Reports page, type Email Status Search to locate the report quickly. Click Email Status Search in the results to open it.

To keep the Email Status Search report easy to access, pin it to the top of your Reports list. Click the three dots icon next to the report name and select Pin to top. The report will appear at the top of your Reports list each time you visit.

How to Search for Contacts by Email Status

The Email Status Search report opens to the Search tab by default. This tab contains the primary filters for narrowing your results by email deliverability criteria.

The Search tab displays the following filter fields:

• Email Status — Filter contacts by their current email status using the "contains any" dropdown. Type to search for a specific status value.
• Automatically Opted Out Reason — Filter by the reason a contact was automatically opted out of email communications.
• Last Sent Date — Filter by a specific date range, a preset date interval, or a custom interval entered as a number of days ago.
• Last Engagement Date — Filter by the most recent date a contact engaged with an email, using the same date, interval, or custom interval options as Last Sent Date.
• Id — Filter by a specific contact ID number.
• First Name / Last Name — Filter by contact name using the "starts with" operator and a text entry field.
• Company — Filter by company name using the "starts with" operator.
• Matching Email — Filter by email address using the "starts with" operator.

After entering your search criteria, click the Search button to run the search. To clear your search and start over, click the New Search button at the top of the page.

Filtering by Contact Details

The General tab allows you to filter contacts by personal and demographic information stored in your CRM. The General tab displays the following filter fields:

• Contact Type — Filter by contact type using the "contains any" dropdown. Available options include Prospect, Customer, Partner, Personal Contact, and Vendor.
• Title — Filter by title using the "contains any" dropdown. Available options include Mr., Mrs., Dr., and Ms.
• Suffix — Filter by name suffix using the "contains any" dropdown. Available options include I, II, III, IV, V, PhD, and Jr.
• Job Title — Filter by job title using the "starts with" operator.
• Middle Name — Filter by middle name using the "starts with" operator.
• User Name — Filter by username using the "starts with" operator.
• Birthday — Filter by birthday using a date range with start and end date fields.
• Anniversary — Filter by anniversary date using a date range with start and end date fields.

After entering your criteria, click Search to run the search.

Filtering by Address

The Address tab allows you to filter contacts by their billing address, shipping address, or optional address fields stored in your CRM. The Address tab displays the following filter fields:

Billing Address fields: Billing Address, Billing City, Billing State, Billing Zip, Billing Zip+4, and Billing Country.

Shipping Address fields: Shipping Address, Shipping City, Shipping State, Shipping Zip, Shipping Zip+4, and Shipping Country.

Optional Address fields: Address (Optional), City (Optional), State (Optional), Postal Code (Optional), Zip Four (Optional), and Country (Optional).

All address fields use the "starts with" operator with a text entry field. Zip and Zip+4 fields use a split entry format with two input boxes separated by a dash. After entering your criteria, click Search to run the search.

Filtering by Phone or Email

The Phone/Email tab allows you to filter contacts by secondary phone numbers, additional email addresses, or fax number. The Phone/Email tab displays the following filter fields:

• Phone 1, Phone 2, Phone 3 — Filter by any of three stored phone numbers using the "starts with" operator.
• Email 2, Email 3 — Filter by a contact's second or third stored email address using the "starts with" operator. Note that Email 1 (the primary email address) is searchable from the Search tab using the Matching Email field.
• Fax 1 — Filter by fax number using the "starts with" operator.

After entering your criteria, click Search to run the search.

Filtering by Additional Criteria

The Misc Criteria tab provides advanced filtering options based on tags, purchase history, engagement activity, and contact ownership. The Misc Criteria tab displays the following filter fields:

• Tags / Tags 2 — Filter contacts by tags applied in your CRM using the "With ANY of these Tags" dropdown. Type to search for a specific tag.
• Purchased Products / Purchased Products 2 — Filter contacts by products they have purchased using the "With ANY of these Products" dropdown. Type to search for a specific product.
• Spouse Name — Filter by spouse name using the "starts with" operator.
• Website — Filter by website using the "starts with" operator.
• Assistant Name — Filter by assistant name using the "starts with" operator.
• Assistant Phone — Filter by assistant phone number using the "starts with" operator.
• Fax 2 — Filter by a second fax number using the "starts with" operator.
• Lead Source — Filter by lead source using the "contains any" dropdown. Type to search for a specific source.
• Data Exists — Filter contacts based on whether a specific field contains data. Use the first dropdown to select a field and the second dropdown to select the condition.
• Date Created — Filter by the date a contact record was created, using a date range, a preset interval, or a custom interval in days.
• Last Updated — Filter by the date a contact record was last modified, using a date range, a preset interval, or a custom interval in days.
• Owner — Filter by the CRM user assigned as the contact owner using the "contains any" dropdown. Available options include Unassigned, Current User, and any named users on the account.
• Last Open Date — Filter by the most recent date a contact opened an email, using a date range, a preset interval, or a custom interval in days.
• Last Click Date — Filter by the most recent date a contact clicked a link in an email, using a date range, a preset interval, or a custom interval in days.
• Last Web Form Submission Date — Filter by the most recent date a contact submitted a web form, using a date range, a preset interval, or a custom interval in days.

After entering your criteria, click Search to run the search.

Filtering by Custom Fields

The Custom Fields tab displays filter options based on custom fields configured for your specific account. The fields shown in this tab will vary depending on the custom fields set up in your CRM. If your account has no custom fields configured, this tab may not appear. For help setting up custom fields, see how to create and manage custom fields in your CRM.

What You Can Do With Your Search Results

After running a search, the results page displays a toolbar at the top with five buttons: Actions, New Search, Edit Criteria/Columns, Save, and Print.

• Actions — Click the Actions dropdown to perform a bulk action on your search results. Available actions include: Apply/Remove Tag, Assign to Company, Create a Task, Delete Contacts, Export, Mass Update Contacts, Merge Duplicate Contacts, Reassign Contacts (Batch), Send a Broadcast, Start/Stop an Automation Sequence, and Update Opt-In/Out Status.
• New Search — Click New Search to clear all current search criteria and return to the search tabs to start a new search.
• Edit Criteria/Columns — Click Edit Criteria/Columns to open a popup where you can modify your existing search filters or adjust which columns appear in your results without starting over.
• Save — Click Save to save your current search criteria for future use. Saved searches can be reopened from the Reports section so you do not need to re-enter your filters each time.
• Print — Click Print to print your current search results.

How to View and Manage a Contact's Email Status

After running a search, your results appear in a table displaying the columns you selected in the Columns tab. To view and manage a contact's email status, make sure you have added the Manage Status column in the Columns tab before running your search. Without the Manage Status column in your results, the Edit link will not be visible.

To view the email status details for a contact, click the Edit link in the Manage Status column for that contact's row. Clicking Edit opens a popup window titled "Manage the Opt Status of [email address]."

The popup contains two tabs:

Current Status tab — Displays the contact's current email status label (for example, "Unengaged Marketable") along with a plain-language explanation of what that status means and whether marketing emails can be sent to the address. From this tab, you can take the following actions:

• Send confirmation email — Send a confirmation email to re-engage or re-confirm the contact's opt-in status.
• Manually opt-out this address — Manually opt the email address out of marketing communications.

Status History tab — Displays the full history of email status changes for that address, including the date and reason for each status change.

For a complete list of all possible email status values and what each one means, see Contact Email Status Types in Keap.

FAQ

What do the different email status values mean? Each status value (such as Unengaged Marketable, Opted Out, or Non-Marketable) has a specific definition that determines whether you can send marketing emails to that address. For a full explanation of every email status type, see Contact Email Status Types in Keap.

Does this article cover how to send a re-engagement campaign? No. This article covers how to search for contacts by email status and how to view and manage an individual contact's email status. To learn how to send a re-engagement campaign to unengaged contacts, see [link to re-engagement campaign article].

Can I bulk update email statuses from this report?

⚠️ Warning: Opting contacts out of email communications is permanent and cannot be undone. Once a contact is opted out, there is no way to opt them back in on your end. Do not opt contacts out unless you are completely certain, as this will permanently remove your ability to send marketing emails to those addresses. The contact can be sent a confirmation email to opt back in.

Yes, with important limitations. After running a search, click the Actions dropdown at the top of the results page and select Update Opt-In/Out Status to update the email status for contacts in your results.

Opting contacts in — You can only opt in contacts whose current email status is Non-Marketable. Non-Marketable contacts have never given permission to receive marketing emails. You cannot use this action to opt in a contact who has already opted out.

Opting contacts out — You can opt out contacts using this action, but this change is permanent and cannot be reversed. Once a contact is opted out, there is no way to opt them back in. Do not opt contacts out unless you are completely certain, as this will permanently remove your ability to send marketing emails to those addresses.