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Kevin F
Kevin F
Explorer
March 24, 2026
Solved

Behavior of duplicate emails with unsubscribe and suppressions

  • March 24, 2026
  • 6 replies
  • 123 views

My understanding is that if multiple contacts share the same email, Targeted Email and Send an email in a workflow only sends an email to the contact who most recently had that email address added to their record. If that contact is not included in a saved search for a workflow due to suppressions, e.g. marked as deceased, or their email is marked as unsubscribed, will that mean that no one with that email address will receive an email? Or does it send to the next most recent?

    Best answer by rachel moody

    Hi Kevin!

    1. Only Subscribed email addresses are eligible to be emailed. The recipient count is explicitly “the number of subscribed email addresses,” and “Opted Out” (Unsubscribed) addresses are not emailed.
    2. If the same email address appears more than once in the audience, EA dedupes it so that only one message is sent to that email address.
    3. When deduping duplicates, EA attributes/selects the contact record with the most recently added instance of that email address

    So, to your scenario:

    • If the only contact record in the workflow/Targeted Email audience that has that email address is not emailable (e.g., the address is Unsubscribed / otherwise not Subscribed), then no one at that email address will receive an email, because EA won’t email opted-out addresses.
    • If there is another contact record in the audience with the same email address and that email is Subscribed, EA will still send one email to that address, and it will be attributed to whichever included record qualifies under the “most recently added email address” rule.

    6 replies

    rachel moody
    rachel moodyAnswer
    Community Manager
    March 25, 2026

    Hi Kevin!

    1. Only Subscribed email addresses are eligible to be emailed. The recipient count is explicitly “the number of subscribed email addresses,” and “Opted Out” (Unsubscribed) addresses are not emailed.
    2. If the same email address appears more than once in the audience, EA dedupes it so that only one message is sent to that email address.
    3. When deduping duplicates, EA attributes/selects the contact record with the most recently added instance of that email address

    So, to your scenario:

    • If the only contact record in the workflow/Targeted Email audience that has that email address is not emailable (e.g., the address is Unsubscribed / otherwise not Subscribed), then no one at that email address will receive an email, because EA won’t email opted-out addresses.
    • If there is another contact record in the audience with the same email address and that email is Subscribed, EA will still send one email to that address, and it will be attributed to whichever included record qualifies under the “most recently added email address” rule.
    Rachel at Bonterra
    Kevin F
    Kevin FAuthor
    Explorer
    March 25, 2026

    Perfect. That’s what I needed to know. Thanks, Rachel!

      Anna Kehde
      Explorer
      May 13, 2026
      • If there is another contact record in the audience with the same email address and that email is Subscribed, EA will still send one email to that address, and it will be attributed to whichever included record qualifies under the “most recently added email address” rule.


      Is this the same behavior for sending phone numbers via an API to a separate p2p tool? For example, we have 2 records with the same phone number, both are on the list to send to a p2p campaign. Does VAN prioritize the name and phone number for the record where the phone was most recently added, even if the phone number on that record is not the preferred phone?  

      rachel moody
      rachel moody
      Community Manager
      May 19, 2026

      Hey ​@Anna Kehde! This is definitely a more involved question so I passed this along to ​@torvic vardamis and he is going to reach out to you to dig in more. 

      Rachel at Bonterra
      Megan Dunn-Paul
      Rising Star III
      Megan Dunn-Paul
      Rising Star III
      October 8, 2026

      What if one contact has multiple email addresses that are subscribed--can I have an automation send only to the preferred email address? Right now my automations are sending to all subscribed email addresses associated with the contact.

      Rebekah Eslao
      Rebekah Eslao
      Community Manager
      October 8, 2026

      Hi ​@Megan Dunn-Paul!

      Unfortunately, there is no setting to restrict automations to just the preferred address. However, you can set non-preferred email addresses to “Not Subscribed”—that status exists exactly for this situation, so the same email isn’t sent three times to one contact.

      Note: Don’t use “Unsubscribed” for this—that’s a compliance opt-out that you can’t reverse yourself. Only Bonterra Support can resubscribe an address, and only after you request it. “Not Subscribed” keeps the option open if you need to opt them back in later. 

       

      Check out the help article here:

       

      Rebekah at Bonterra
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