A follow-up is a later email in a campaign that sends only if the person has not replied. If a journalist replied and still got a follow-up, JournoFinder did not count their email as a reply to your campaign. The most common cause is an automatic out-of-office reply.
Check whether JournoFinder counted the reply
In the sidebar, under Outreach, click Campaigns, then open the campaign.
On the Overview tab, click Everyone. The tab opens on Replied when the campaign has replies. The search only looks in the group you picked.
Enter the journalist's name in the search box.
Read the grey lines under their name.
If you see a line such as “Follow-up 1 pending”, JournoFinder has not counted a reply from them. Their next follow-up will send. The sections in this article cover each reason, from most common to least common.
When JournoFinder counts a reply, it cancels every follow-up still waiting to go to that person in that campaign. The line such as “Follow-up 1 pending” goes away.
Check whether the reply was an out-of-office message
What you see: The journalist's reply says they are away. Their row on the Overview tab still shows “Sent” and a line such as “Follow-up 1 pending”.
Why it happens: Most email apps mark out-of-office messages as automatic. An automatic reply does not count as a reply, so the follow-ups keep going. If the message gives a clear return date, we move the next follow-up to the day after they are back.
How to fix: Nothing, if you still want the follow-ups to go. To stop them, follow Stop the follow-ups to one person in this article.
What happens when a journalist replies explains how return dates move follow-ups.
Check whether the journalist sent a new email instead of a reply
What you see: In the Unibox (your shared inbox in JournoFinder), the journalist's email is a separate conversation. It is not in the same thread as your campaign email. It may have a different subject.
Why it happens: JournoFinder links a reply to your campaign by its email thread. A new email is not part of that thread, so JournoFinder cannot tell it answers your campaign. This also happens when the journalist writes to a different address from the mailbox you sent from.
How to fix:
In the Unibox, click All above the list of emails. Primary only shows emails linked to a campaign.
Find the journalist's email and read it.
If you want no more follow-ups to go to them, follow Stop the follow-ups to one person in this article.
Check whether a colleague replied for them
What you see: The reply came from someone else at the same outlet, for example an editor or another reporter.
Why it happens: A reply from a colleague stops the follow-ups only when it is a reply in the same email thread as your email. If the colleague wrote a new email, it does not count. The reply also only stops follow-ups to the person you emailed. If the colleague is in the same campaign, their own follow-ups keep going.
How to fix: Follow Stop the follow-ups to one person in this article, for the journalist and for the colleague.
Check whether the journalist is in another campaign
What you see: The journalist replied to one campaign. A follow-up from a different campaign still reached them.
Why it happens: A reply stops the follow-ups in that campaign only. Every other campaign that includes the same person keeps sending to them.
How to fix: Open each other campaign that includes the journalist. Follow Stop the follow-ups to one person in this article in each one.
Stop the follow-ups to one person
You can only remove someone while the campaign is paused. Pausing stops sending to everyone in the campaign until you resume.
On the campaign's Overview tab, click Pause.
Hover over the journalist's row and click Remove. Their unsent emails are cancelled.
Optional: click Undo within 15 seconds to put them back.
Click Resume. The campaign sends to everyone else again.
Remove only shows for people who still have emails to send.
Warning: To stop every campaign from emailing an address, now and in the future, add it to your blocklist. The blocklist is the list of addresses your campaigns will never email. Stop emailing someone with the blocklist explains how.
Still not working?
If a follow-up went after a reply that was in the same thread as your campaign email, contact support. Send us:
the campaign name
the mailbox address you send from
the journalist's email address
the time the reply arrived and the time the follow-up sent
a screenshot of the journalist's row on the Overview tab