Managing Email Opt-Outs
With your team using Muck Rack to pitch journalists and track relationship information, it’s important to understand how to prevent outreach to a journalist and what it means when a journalist unsubscribes.
Before a Pitch is sent to each recipient on Muck Rack, we automatically check if the person you’re pitching to has been added to your organization’s Do Not Contact list or if the email address you’re sending to exists on your email suppression list.
Do Not Contact (DNC) List
The Do Not Contact List contains profiles marked as Do Not Contact by your teammates or those unsubscribed from Pitches your organization sent through Muck Rack. Journalists marked as "Do Not Contact" will display a "DO NOT CONTACT" indicator next to their name in the platform. This helps users easily identify suppressed contacts.
View Your Do Not Contact (DNC) List
You can view your Do Not Contact list using the following steps:
Navigate to the Settings page by selecting the dropdown in the top right corner of the navigation bar.
Go to Pitches and select View Do No Contact list under the Do Not Contact section.
Add a Contact to Your Do Not Contact (DNC) List
You can update your Do Not Contact list using the Contact Preferences on any journalist's profile.
Navigate to a journalist profile.
Select Add Contact Preferences or mark as Do Not Contact under the Contact section in the top right of the profile page.
Check the Do Not Contact box.
Select the Save button at the bottom.
NOTE: Removing a recipient from a pitch’s Recipients list only removes them from that specific pitch and does not alter their status in the Media List.
NOTE: When editing a profile, all teammates can mark profiles as Do Not Contact from the Contact Preferences section. When saved, all contact information will be hidden, and pitches will not be sent to this person in the future.
Organization Admins can remove profiles from the Do Not Contact list.
Remove a Contact from your Do Not Contact (DNC) List
To remove someone from your Do Not Contact list, you'll need to use the following steps:
Go to Account Settings > Pitches > Do Not Contact and select the View Do Not Contact list link.
Select the trash can icon to the far right of the contact name, or select multiple contacts using the checkboxes and use the Remove option that appears in the blue action bar.
NOTE: Only organization admins can perform this action.
Email Suppression List
The Muck Rack email suppression list contains email addresses that cannot be sent to through Muck Rack. Unsubscribed email addresses and email addresses that are undeliverable because of past bounces are automatically added to the list. These measures ensure compliance with email best practices and prevent sending emails to invalid or unsubscribed addresses.
View Your Email Suppression List
1. Navigate to your Settings page by selecting the dropdown in the top right corner.
2. Go to Personal Settings > Pitches and select the View email suppression list link under the Email suppression section.
Unsubscribers
Including an unsubscribe link in your email is recommended to identify the journalists who appreciate hearing from you. Seeing which journalists don't want to receive content from you in the future is quick and easy.
The unsubscribe button in Muck Rack pitches is optional. If you do not select it in your pitch draft settings, recipients will not see an unsubscribe button. You can enable it if you wish to provide recipients with the option to unsubscribe. This flexibility allows you to tailor your pitches based on your team's preferences and goals.
Including an unsubscribe link in your pitches can improve deliverability by reducing the likelihood of emails being filtered into spam folders. Better deliverability ensures that your emails reach real recipients, which in turn leads to more accurate engagement metrics. While the decision to include an unsubscribe link is up to your team, many users report improved results when the link is present.
View Unsubscribers for a Pitch
1. Go to Relationships > Pitches and select a Pitch.
2. Select the Unsubscribed filter.
Managing Suppressed Contacts
To view your team’s email suppression list, navigate to the email/sending settings area of your Muck Rack account. Here, you can see all suppressed addresses, including those that are undeliverable or unsubscribed. This list helps you identify contacts that cannot be reached and manage your email campaigns accordingly.
Export and Delivery Issues
If a journalist in the database has chosen to hide their email, Muck Rack blocks emails to that address. However, you can still add custom email addresses to your contacts. These custom emails are retained for your use and can be exported. Note that some interfaces may prevent adding an email to a database-maintained profile if it already exists, but custom emails you add are not removed from exports.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Question | Answer |
What is the difference between the Email Suppression List and the Do Not Contact List? | The Email Suppression List includes email addresses that cannot be contacted due to past bounces, undeliverable status, or unsubscribes.
The Do Not Contact List includes profiles marked as "Do Not Contact" by your team or those who opted out via the unsubscribe option on pitches. |
What happens when an email address is on the email suppression list? | Emails that are on the email suppression list cannot be added as recipients to future pitches. |
What happens when someone is added to the Do Not Contact list? | When a profile is added to your Do Not Contact list, contact information will not be displayed on their profile and this person will not receive Pitches through Muck Rack in the future. |
What happens when a recipient unsubscribes from a pitch email? | Their email address is automatically added to your organization’s Email Suppression list, and their profile is added to the Do Not Contact list. |
An email address is listed on the suppression list, but it’s the correct email for this contact. What happened? | There are many common reasons an email address may result in a bounce.
If you believe an email address on your email suppression list is correct, please contact us, and we are happy to investigate why the recipient is on your email suppression list. |
If a recipient is marked as undeliverable, did the email land in their junk or spam folder? | No. An undeliverable email doesn’t make it as far as the junk or spam folder. If the email was sent to a recipient's junk folder, their email address will not appear on the suppression list. |
How to request an email be removed from your email suppression list. | If there is an email address on the suppression list that should be removed, contact us with the email address of the person on the recipient list and confirmation that the person would like to continue receiving emails (e.g., a response to another email you’ve sent the recipient since they were added to your email suppression list in Muck Rack). |
Who has permission to mark a profile as Do Not Contact? | The Do Not Contact list on Muck Rack is added to and maintained by your organization. Any teammate can mark a profile as Do Not contact, but only Admins can remove profiles from the Do Not Contact list. |
I removed this journalist from the Do Not Contact list, but they are still not receiving pitches from us. Why? | Email addresses that unsubscribed to a Pitch sent through Muck Rack will remain on the Email Suppression list even if an Organization Admin removes this profile from the Do Not Contact list. |
What happens if a contact on the DNC list is added to a pitch? | Contacts on the DNC list are automatically suppressed and will not receive the pitch, even if they are mistakenly added to a media list or pitch. |
Who can manage the DNC list? | Only organization admins can add or remove contacts from the DNC list. Non-admin users do not have this permission. |
How can I identify contacts on the DNC list? | Contacts on the DNC list are marked with a "DO NOT CONTACT" indicator next to their name in the platform. |
How can I re-subscribe a journalist who unsubscribed? | You must obtain their explicit consent, such as an email confirming their desire to receive pitches again, and use this confirmation to process their re-subscription. |
What should I do if a pitch shows zero opens? | This could be due to privacy settings, security filters, or technical limitations. Try resending the pitch and monitor the results.
If the issue persists, it may indicate a tracking error requiring further investigation. |
Get Help
For additional help, contact support by choosing the chat icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and selecting Messages > Send us a message.
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