The Blocked contact details section allows you to manage the email addresses and mobile phone numbers that should not receive communications from magnews. Here you can view the status of contact details, apply or remove blocks, import lists, and configure automatic rules based on spam complaints and bounces.
The section replaces the previous management of Blacklists and Greylists. The blocking logic remains the same, but the terms used have been updated.
Difference between a contact and contact details
A contact is an entity in a database.
A contact detail is the channel associated with the contact, such as:
- An email address.
- A mobile phone number.
The block is applied to the contact detail. If the contact detail is blocked, magnews does not send communications through that channel.
Where to find blocked contact details
To access the section, follow this path:
Profile Studio > Blocked contact details
The page displays the list of email or mobile contact details currently blocked or previously blocked by magnews.
To protect privacy, contact details are provided in hashed format.
To ensure the confidentiality of contact data, when contact details are blocked, they are automatically converted to a hash and are no longer available in their original plain-text format.
The hashing procedure is applied both to operations performed by the user in magnews and to those performed through the Scripting API.
For each contact detail, you can view:
- Email or mobile contact detail in hashed format
- Block status
- Reason for the block
- Date of last block
- Date of last change
A contact detail can have one of the following block statuses:
- Permanent: the contact detail is no longer available for sending
- Temporary: the contact detail is unavailable for a specific number of days, after which it may become available again
- Unblocked: the contact detail is not currently blocked, but was blocked in the past
The list may contain blocked contact details that do not belong to any contact, for example because you deleted the contact.
Search and filter contact details
You can narrow the list using:
- The Block filter, to display all contact details or only those that are unblocked, temporarily blocked, or permanently blocked.
- The Reason filter, to search for contact details blocked for a specific reason.
- The Search for a domain field, to display contact details belonging to a specific domain.
- The Filter button, to use more specific search criteria.
In the advanced filter, you can search by, for example:
- email address or mobile phone number
- Date of the last block
- Date of the last change
- Contact detail hash
- Contact detail domain
- Block type
Manage blocked contact details
Select one or more contact details from the list to display the Actions menu.
The following operations are available:
- Make the block permanent: applies a permanent block to the selected contact details.
- Unblock: removes the active block.
- Delete permanently: permanently deletes the selected contact details from the list.
- Export: exports the selected contact details.
Removing the block allows the contact detail to be used for sending again, if the associated contact is eligible to receive the message.
Import a list of contact details
You can import a file containing multiple contact details.
- Click the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner.
- Select Import from file.
- Upload the file or drag it into the import area.
- Choose the data format:
- Plain text, if the file contains readable email addresses.
- SHA1, if the file contains contact details transformed using the SHA1 algorithm.
- Choose how to manage the imported contact details:
- Blocked.
- Unblocked.
- If the file contains contact details that are already present with a permanent block, choose whether to:
- Overwrite the reason and date of the block.
- Ignore the contact details that are already present and continue the import.
- Configure the file parameters:
- Encoding.
- Line separator.
- Text qualifier.
- Start the import.
The file must contain one contact detail per line. Imported contact details are managed by magnews in protected form.
Manually block a contact detail
You can manually block a single email address.
- Click the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner.
- Select Block a contact detail.
- Enter the email address or mobile phone number.
- If necessary, enter a note.
- Click Block permanently.
Manual blocks are always permanent.
To apply temporary blocks or automatically manage blocks based on bounces, use Settings.
Configure blocking rules
To modify the rules, click Settings.
The configuration is organized into two tabs:
- Contacts.
- Blocking rules.
Choose what to do with contacts
In the Contacts tab, you can decide how to manage the contact associated with a permanently blocked contact detail.
When magnews prepares a delivery or sends a transactional message, it does not send communications to blocked contact details.
You can choose one of the following options:
- Unsubscribe the contact: the contact is unsubscribed from the database. This is the recommended option for keeping the database clean.
- Suspend the contact: the contact is suspended and is no longer included in sends. This option is useful when the database is synchronized with an external system.
- Keep the contact’s status unchanged: the contact retains its status, but communications are not sent to the blocked contact detail.
After choosing the option, click Save.
Configure automatic blocking rules
In the Blocking rules tab, you can enable or disable automatic management for the different types of events:
- Hard bounce
- Soft user bounce
- Soft block bounce
- Soft technical bounce
- Other type of soft bounce
Spam complaints result in a permanent block of the contact detail after the first complaint and cannot be disabled.
For the other types, you can use the default rules or click Customize and define a sequence of actions.
The available actions are:
- Block for, specifying the number of days.
- Do nothing, does not apply any block and allows subsequent sends
- Block permanently
You can add new rules with Add rule, remove them, or restore the initial configuration.
After modifying the rules, click Save rules and then Save.
Click Restore to restore the default rules.
Default rules
The default rules provide for:
Spam complaints
First spam complaint: permanent block
Hard bounce
- First bounce: temporary block for 7 days.
- Second bounce: permanent block.
Soft user bounce
- First bounce: temporary block for 7 days.
- Second bounce: temporary block for 14 days.
- Third bounce: temporary block for 28 days.
- Fourth bounce: temporary block for 28 days.
- Fifth bounce: permanent block.
Rules for soft block bounces, soft technical bounces, and other soft bounces can be enabled and customized according to the needs of the database.
What happens during a send
When you prepare a delivery or send a transactional message, magnews checks whether the contact’s contact detail is blocked or, if it is an email contact detail, whether its domain has been blocked.
If the contact detail has a temporary block:
- The message is not sent during the blocking period.
- The contact detail may become available again when the period specified by the rule ends.
If the contact detail has a permanent block:
- The message is not sent.
- The contact is unsubscribed, suspended, or left unchanged based on the setting selected in the Contacts tab.
As a result, the number of messages actually sent may be lower than the number of contacts selected as recipients.
Frequently asked questions
Why does a contact detail appear as unblocked if it is included in the list?
The list may also include contact details that were blocked in the past. If the temporary block has expired or was removed, the contact detail is displayed as Unblocked.
Can I manually apply a temporary block?
No. The manual block applied through Block a contact detail is permanent. Temporary blocks are managed by the rules configured for the different types of bounces.
Can I modify the default rules?
Yes. From the Settings > Blocking rules section, you can enable or disable the available rules and customize the sequence of blocks.
Does removing the block allow a communication to be sent immediately?
Removing the block makes the contact detail available again, but sending also depends on the contact’s status, any unsubscribes, and the other criteria applied to the delivery.
Can I search for contacts that have blocked contact details?
Yes. You can filter contacts whose email address or mobile phone number is blocked.
Open the database’s contact list or Profile Studio, then apply one of the following filters:
- Blocked email
- Blocked mobile phone
Then select the block status you want to search for and apply the filter.