Unsubscribes, bounces and pauses

Trellis looks after the church's email list for you. People can take themselves off in one click, addresses that bounce are skipped, and if too many emails bounce or get marked as spam, church-wide email pauses until it's cleaned up. This page explains each, and what you can do.

How someone unsubscribes

Every email to a list ends with a link, Stop getting emails from followed by the church's name. It opens a page that asks "Stop emails from" the church, with a button, Yes, stop emailing me. Asking first means a link checker in someone's inbox can't take them off by accident.

Mail apps like Gmail and Apple Mail also show their own Unsubscribe button on these emails. That one takes the person off straight away.

Marking a church email as spam takes the person off too.

When they ask you instead

If someone asks the office to stop their church email, staff and admins can do it for them:

1. Open the person in People.
2. Under Details, next to Church email, press Stop.
3. Confirm.

It's the same as them pressing the link. Add back undoes it.

What unsubscribing stops

It stops:

• Emails to lists from Communications.
• Group emails that leaders send from Trellis.
• The Monday check-on email to leaders.

It doesn't stop:

• A note written to them alone from their page in People.
• Serving reminders, receipts, sign-up confirmations and invitations.

See who has unsubscribed

A person who unsubscribed shows Unsubscribed from church email on their page in People. They're still on your lists, but they're skipped when you send, and Reaches counts them as "without an email or unsubscribed".

Put someone back on church email

Only do this if they've asked you to. Staff and admins can.

1. Open the person in People.
2. Next to Unsubscribed from church email, press Add back.
3. Confirm.

When an address bounces

A bounce means the email couldn't be delivered, usually because the address is wrong or closed. Trellis marks the address, and the person's page shows Email bounced. From then on Trellis skips that address: on lists, in reminders, and for notes to one person.

To fix it:

1. Open the person in People and press Edit.
2. Correct the email address and save.
3. Back on their page, press Try again next to Email bounced.

Why church-wide email can pause

Every church on Trellis sends through the same email service. When too many emails bounce or are marked as spam, inbox providers start sending everyone's email to spam. So Trellis watches each church's last 30 days of church-wide email, and pauses it when:

• at least 5 emails bounced, and that's at least 4% of what was sent, or
• at least 2 people marked an email as spam, and that's at least 0.1% of what was sent.

The people who bounced or complained are already off your lists by then.

What a pause stops

While church-wide email is paused, these wait:

• Emails to lists from Communications.
• Group leaders' emails from Trellis. Leaders can still write from their own mail app; Trellis opens it for them.

These still go out: emails to one person, reminders, receipts, sign-up confirmations and invitations.

Admins get an email from Trellis saying why it paused. When you write a message in Communications, it shows the same reason.

Get sending back on

Reply to the email Trellis sent your admins, or write to support@trellischurch.app. Trellis will look over the list with you and switch sending back on. You can't switch it back on yourself.

Before that, it helps to look over the people marked Email bounced in People and correct any addresses you can.

How many emails you can send

Communications covers a number of emails each calendar month. The number grows with the number of people you can email, and Trellis moves your church to the right size by itself. See the Pricing page for the sizes.

Each person a message goes to counts as one email. Emails to lists and leaders' group emails count. Notes to one person, reminders, invitations and receipts never do.

To see where you stand, an admin can open Church settings, then Parts and billing. The Email reach card shows People you can email and Emails sent this month.

If a message would go past this month's emails, the composer tells you before you send, and how much it adds to your next bill. Tick OK, send it and add the amount to the bill to send it anyway, or send to fewer people.

Still stuck? Ask Silas