Understanding and Preparing for Email Campaign Approvals

Approval Process for Sending Emails

To protect your email deliverability and avoid landing in spam folders, your account may be subject to approval before sending a campaign. Approvals are a standard practice for email service providers and serve to:

  • Keep spammers off the platform.

  • Ensure users comply with email regulations and best practices.

  • Protect the email-sending reputation for everyone on the platform.


For a successful approval, you must have explicit permission from your subscribers to send them marketing emails. An active subscriber should have:

  • Opted in for email marketing.

  • Received an email from you within the last 12 months.


Important Notes During Approval

  • You will not be able to send the flagged campaign until the approval is complete.

  • Your campaign will not send automatically once approved. You must manually schedule and send it afterward.


When You Need to Be Approved

Approvals are primarily triggered by the number of subscribers you are sending to. This threshold may change based on how long you've been using the platform and how quickly your audience grows. Your account may be approved more than once as your audience expands.

Other triggers include abnormally high bounce rates or a surge in spam complaints.


Prepare for a Faster Approval

Approvals are completed faster when your account and email content are in good standing. Follow the guidelines below to expedite the process.


  • Comply with all applicable legal requirements, such as CAN-SPAM, for the countries you are sending emails both to and from.


Subscriber Readiness

We review your subscribers based on how you obtained them, whether they voluntarily opted in, their ability to opt out, and their previous engagement.


How to Prepare Your Subscribers:

  • Ensure your email collection methods comply with legal permission guidelines and anti-spam policy.

  • Subscribers must be able to easily opt out via a single-click unsubscribe link.


Information You Must Provide:

  • Collection Method: Every method used to collect email addresses (e.g., website forms, in-person events).

  • Proof of Permission: Written or digital evidence of consent, such as:

    • URLs for your website signup forms.

    • Scanned copies of offline signup forms.

    • Copies of confirmed opt-in correspondence.

  • Specific Details: Be descriptive about how users opted in. For offline signups, explain whether they verbally agreed or signed a form.

  • Customer History (if applicable): If recipients are paying customers, state how long ago they purchased from you and how often you've emailed them since.


Email Content Guidelines

Spam complaints against your emails affect the reputation of our entire platform. Follow these guidelines to reduce complaints:


How to Prepare Your Email Content:

  • Ensure your content complies with our acceptable use policy.

  • The content should match the type of information your subscribers expect to receive.

  • Emails must include the sender's name and physical address.

  • Include a permission reminder explaining how or why the recipient is receiving your email.

  • The "From" name and email address must clearly identify you or your organization, and the subject line should accurately reflect the email's content.


Content to Avoid:

  • Content about third-party products or services (affiliate marketing).

  • Unsubscribe links that are difficult to find.

  • Complicated unsubscribe processes (e.g., forcing users to re-enter their email or check multiple boxes).

  • Content that resembles spam, such as subject lines with excessive promotional terms ("FREE! WIN! SALE!") or image-heavy emails with very little text.

  • Irrelevant content that does not match subscriber expectations.


Start the Approval Process

You will only see the option to request approval when you are approaching or have already triggered an approval. Pre-approval is the best way to prevent campaign delays.


Pre-Approval

When you are approaching a sending limit that requires approval, you will see a message on the Overview and Campaigns dashboards.

  • Click Request approval and complete the form to submit your account.
    A notification about needing to be approved, with a button to request approval


Approval from Campaign Snapshots

If you exceed your approved sending limit, you will be prompted to begin the approval process.



  1. Navigate to the Email app, then select the Email Campaigns tab.

  2. Click on one of your email campaigns.

  3. Select Assistant at the bottom-right corner of the page.

  4. Click Request approval.


Submitting Your Request

Provide as much detail as possible in the approval form for the fastest response.

  • Subscriber Acquisition: Detail how and when subscribers were added.

  • Permission: Attach specific proof (form URLs, screenshots) that explicit permission was given for ongoing marketing emails. Remember, permission is not valid after 12 months of inactivity.

  • Past Communication: Share the names of any previous campaigns or automations used to email the list (whether through this platform or another service).

  • List Hygiene: Confirm that all bounced, unsubscribed, and spam complaint addresses have been removed from your lists.


After Account Approval

Once approved, you can schedule or send campaigns and turn on journeys.

  • Be sure to turn back on any journeys that were previously flagged. If anyone missed joining a journey, you may consider re-triggering the journey for that group.


Frequently asked questions

How long will my approval take?

All submissions enter a queue. While subsequent approvals usually take a few hours, first-time approvals for new accounts can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Providing all required information speeds up the process significantly.

How will I know I've been approved?

You will be contacted via email when the approval process is complete.

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