Follow-ups and stop conditions
The one email reminder Smart Outreach can send, and everything that stops a contact's sequence, from a reply to an unsubscribe or a bounce.
Last updated 2026-10-23
A sequence steps forward on its own, but it also knows when to stop. This page explains the single follow-up Smart Outreach can send, and every situation that closes a contact's sequence.
The email follow-up
Each contact gets one cold message per channel. Email is the only channel with a follow-up.
Turn it on in the Agent's Outreach section with the Email follow-up switch. Its help text is exact: One short reminder in the same thread, at most once. LinkedIn and WhatsApp never repeat a cold message.
When it is on:
- The reminder comes after the last step of the sequence. The switch's own description says it goes out in the same thread.
- It refers to the earlier message without repeating it, and makes one gentle ask. The Agent is asked to keep it under 600 characters.
- The subject is set automatically to
Re:plus the subject of your earlier email. The Agent does not write a new one. - It is never sent if the contact replied, unsubscribed or bounced before it is due.
When it is off, email has one message per contact, and so do LinkedIn and WhatsApp.
What stops a sequence
Any of the following closes the contact's sequence for that plan. Steps not yet sent are cancelled, and a step that was never sent is never charged.
| What happened | The contact's state |
|---|---|
| They replied on any channel | Replied |
| Someone at the same company replied | Company engaged |
| They asked not to be contacted, or used the unsubscribe link | Opted out |
| Their address bounced | The channel is marked dead; the sequence moves to the next reachable channel |
| Every channel failed, or none could be used | Unreachable |
| The plan ran out of time with no reply | No response |
| You ended the plan before the contact finished | Canceled |
| A step failed for a technical reason | Failed |
A reply stops everything
A real reply closes the contact's open sequence immediately, on every channel. This includes replies that arrive on a channel other than the one the last message used.
- It also stops the other contacts you are contacting at the same company in this Target: they move to Company engaged.
- An out-of-office or automatic reply is not a reply. It is stored in the conversation but does not stop the sequence, and the Agent does not answer it.
- After the reply, the conversation moves to the Agent's Conversation Inbox and its normal reply rules take over.
Unsubscribe and complaints
Every outreach email RenewSell sends carries an unsubscribe link, both in the body and in the standard email header. The contact can unsubscribe by clicking it or with the one-click option in their email client.
- Unsubscribing suppresses the address it came from right away. RenewSell also suppresses the other addresses it has for that contact, on every channel, and closes their open sequence as Opted out.
- Marking a thread Mark as complaint in the Conversation Inbox suppresses that channel's address for that contact.
- An inbound Agent can also stop a conversation itself when the customer asks not to be contacted again, which suppresses that contact's address on that channel.
A suppressed address is never contacted again in any plan or Target.
Bounces
When an email bounces, that email address is suppressed and the email channel is closed for the contact. The sequence continues on the next reachable channel, for example LinkedIn or WhatsApp.
If no channel is left and nothing was ever delivered, the contact closes as Unreachable. Otherwise the sequence waits out the Close after (days) window and closes as No response.
No response
After the last step, the Agent waits the number of days set in Close after (days). If nothing comes back, the contact closes as No response and the sequence ends.
The default is 7 days after the last step. You can set it between 3 and 30 days. Day N closed in the timeline preview is this moment.
What does not stop a sequence
- An out-of-office reply or an automatic answer.
- The contact reacting to your like.
- Pausing the plan: the sequence waits and continues from where it was.
Where to check
- The Conversation Inbox shows each conversation and its reply state.
- Smart Outreach in the Target shows the plan band with the counts per state and the Next step time.
- Opportunities collects the interested leads that came out of these conversations.