My boss accidentally sent an email newsletter through hubspot with a big, BAD error to 12k people. I can’t get a hold of her due to time zone differences. Anyway to rescind, even just the unopened ones?
Hi @Cate
I’m really sorry to tell you this but there is no way, that I know of, to recall mass emails sent by HubSpot, or any other ESP for that matter.
All you can do is cancel the email and if any of the emails have not yet been sent, these will be stopped.
If doing this, be aware, it can take HubSpot a little while to report the true numbers of how many were sent vs not.
ok, how do I cancel an email? I can’t see the functionality, is it archive?
Hi @Cate
You may not have the option if the email has already been delivered to all recipients, but refer to this article for more information: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/articles/kcs_article/email/can-i-cancel-a-sent-or-scheduled-email-send-in-hubspot
Everything @Phil_Vallender said, then immediately begin damage control & tracking.
Two BIG questions when these things happen are, 1) “how bad is the damage”, and 2) “what can we do about it”.
Here are our answers.
-1- Build a smart list (not a static list) tracking only people who OPEN the ‘bad’ email -- important because we don’t want to unnecessarily draw more attention to our bad email than already exists. Even in a great list the open rate will not be 100%.
-2- Immediately send a brief, PLAIN TEXT (not HTML) email appologizing for the error and briefly explaining what happened. Again, brevity and personal responsibility are orders of the day here. This follow-up email should come from the same sender as the original ‘bad’ email.
-3- Build a smart list tracking opens of the follow-up email, and a 3rd smart list tracking everyone who’s opened BOTH -- this last list shows the impact of our damage control efforts in a single easy-to-understand number.
Now you have a complete ‘dashboard’ of where the damage has occurred in the form of an exportable list to whom you can send boxes of chocolate to quell any further unrest.
Reach out if you need additional HubSpot help during your crisis.
Does that help solve your question?
Best,
Frank
UPDATE
-ps
Almost forgot. Since it’s a newsletter email, it may have the ‘view as a webpage’ option activated. Turn that off immediately (before Google indexes it) and make sure the url is redirected to your homepage or some other desired web asset. (would NOT recommend any sort of ‘appology page’)
Please add @MFJLabs to HubSpot Community Forum messages if you’d like me to reply.
very helpful, thanks! The damage is not as bad as it could be, basically announcing something in a list of items before it was confirmed so there is that.
Very good. May be helpful to mark this issue as solved.
Thanks in advanced.