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Campaign Contact States Explained

Campaign Contact States Explained


Purpose


Contacts in a campaign move through states: Active, Queued, Paused, Replied, Finished, Bounced, and more. Understanding these states helps you know who's still in the sequence, who's done, and why someone stopped receiving emails. This article walks through every state and what triggers each transition.


Quick Reference: Contact States


State

Can receive more emails?

Typical cause

Active / Queued

Yes

In sequence, waiting for next step or within schedule window

Paused

No

Manually paused or step failure (if you chose "Pause contact")

Replied

No

Contact replied; reply-stops-sequence behavior

Opted Out

No

Unsubscribed

Completed

No

Reached end of sequence

Bounced

No

Email bounced (invalid, blocked, etc.)

Failed

No

Error state — check Events



Dashboard Counts


On the campaign dashboard you'll see:


  • Total Contacts — All contacts ever added.
  • Contacts Remaining — Still in the sequence (not finished/paused/replied/bounced).
  • List Health — % deliverable (safe + low risk).
  • In Progress — Actively moving through the sequence.
  • Finished — Completed or otherwise done.
  • Paused — Manually or automatically paused.



Business Outcome States


Some contacts get labeled with business outcomes (from AI or manual tagging):


Badge

Meaning

Interested

Contact showed interest.

Meeting Requested

Meeting requested.

Meeting Booked

Meeting booked.


These are informational — they don't change whether the contact receives emails. The sequence logic (reply, unsubscribe, bounce, completion) controls that.



What Stops a Contact From Receiving Emails


  1. Reply — When a contact replies, replied is set and they're removed from the sequence. Banner: "This contact has replied and will not receive any more automated emails."
  2. Unsubscribe — Opt-out removes them. "This contact has unsubscribed and will not receive any more emails."
  3. Bounce — Hard or invalid bounce stops sends. Banner varies by bounce type (invalid recipient, policy block, soft, etc.).
  4. Sequence complete — Reached the last step. "This contact has finished the sequence and will not receive any more automated emails."
  5. Manual pause — You paused the contact.
  6. Step failure + "Pause contact" — The failure handling setting paused this contact.
  7. No LinkedIn/Twitter match — For social steps: missing URL, invalid URL, or no identity — step is skipped; contact continues based on failure handling.



Processing, Queued, Idle


On the contact card you may see:


  • Processing (blue) — Actively being processed.
  • Queued (yellow) — Waiting for next send window or step.
  • Idle (gray) — Not currently in an active send window.


Next step — Shows the step number the contact is on (if in progress).



Completion Forecast


For capacity planning, contacts may show:


  • on-track (green) — Normal flow.
  • at-risk (yellow) — May not complete in time.
  • oversubscribed / no-capacity (red) — Capacity constraints.
  • finished — Done.



Resuming a Paused Contact


If a contact is Paused and you want them to continue:


  1. Open the campaign → Contacts tab.
  2. Find the contact.
  3. Select them → Resume from the bulk actions (or use the contact detail view).


They'll re-enter the sequence at their current step.



Expected Result


You can tell at a glance who's still getting emails (Active/Queued), who's done and why (Replied, Completed, Bounced, Paused), and who needs attention (Failed). Use the Events tab to trace the exact reason for any contact's state.



Updated on: 17/03/2026

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