How to set up an email sunset flow

A sunset flow stops emailing contacts who no longer read your emails. This protects your sender reputation and deliverability. You can set it up in two ways:

• Sunset policy only. Pushwoosh stops marketing emails to contacts who haven’t opened or clicked your emails for a period you choose. You don’t need a journey.
• Sunset policy and a reconfirmation journey. A journey asks inactive contacts whether they still want your emails and unsubscribes those who don’t answer. This gives contacts a chance to stay before the policy stops emailing them.

This guide shows both: first turn on the sunset policy, then create the reconfirmation journey.

Turn on the sunset policy

The sunset policy is optional and off by default. You turn it on for each project in the email platform settings. Transactional emails ignore it.

1. Go to Settings → Configure Platforms and click Platform settings in the Emails row.

2. On the Sunset policy card, click Enable.

   

3. In What counts as activity?, choose Click or open.

4. In How long before a contact becomes inactive?, choose the period, for example, 180 days.

   

5. Click Enable.

From now on, marketing emails skip contacts whose last open or click is older than the period you chose. Skipped contacts aren’t unsubscribed. They receive marketing emails again after they open or click an email that was sent with Ignore sunset policy turned on.

Create the reconfirmation journey

1. Go to Campaigns → Customer Journey Builder, then click Create Campaign → Email.
2. Select Build a Journey from Scratch.

Choose the contacts to reconfirm

Use an Audience-based Entry with a segment of email contacts who haven’t opened or clicked your emails for a while. Pick a period a little shorter than the policy period, for example, 150 days for a 180-day policy, so contacts get the question before the policy stops their emails.

Note

Before you build the segment, check that PW_EmailOpen and PW_EmailLinkClicked are in the event list. If either is missing, go to Audience → Events, click Create event, choose Default Event, and click Activate next to the event. Each event appears in the list after the first open or the first click in your emails.

1. In the Audience-based Entry element, click Create Segment → Build segment.

2. Name the segment, for example, No opens or clicks for 150 days.

3. Add a User ID filter, switch it to Email, choose contains, and enter @. This keeps only email contacts in the segment.

4. Click Filter and add an Event filter: choose PW_EmailOpen, then never, during the last N days, and enter 150.

5. Add a second Event filter with the same settings for PW_EmailLinkClicked.

6. Add a Tag filter: choose First Install, then N or more days ago, and enter 150. This leaves out contacts added less than 150 days ago, who haven’t had time to open your emails yet.

   

   Note

   All filters in the group must match, so the segment includes only email contacts older than 150 days who neither opened nor clicked during that time.

   Without the User ID filter, a mobile or web device of the same user can enter the journey instead of the email contact. The unsubscribe step then applies to that device, not to the email contact.

7. Click Save.

8. Make sure the new segment is selected in Audience source.

   

9. Click Save.

Add the reconfirmation email

1. Drag an Email element onto the canvas after the entry.

2. Select a preset that asks contacts whether they still want your emails, or create a new one. Include a confirmation link, because a click on it is what keeps the contact subscribed.

   

   Example email content

   Subject: Do You Still Want to Hear from Us?

   Body: We noticed you haven’t engaged with our emails in a while. If you’d still like to receive updates, news, and special offers, please confirm by clicking the link below:

   👉 [Yes, keep me subscribed]

   If you don’t respond, we’ll stop sending you emails to avoid cluttering your inbox.

   Thank you for being with us!

3. Under the preset, choose the Marketing message type.

   

4. If the sunset policy is on, scroll to Delivery settings and turn on Ignore sunset policy.

   

5. Click Save.

Caution

Don’t skip Ignore sunset policy when the policy is on. The segment also includes contacts who are already past the policy period. Without the switch, the policy skips the email for these contacts, but the journey still moves them on. They can’t click a link they never received, so they reach the Not triggered branch and get unsubscribed without being asked.

A click on the confirmation link also counts as activity for the sunset policy, so contacts who reconfirm keep getting your marketing emails.

Wait for the confirmation click

1. After the Email element, add a Wait for Trigger element.

2. In Waiting period, set the time to wait for the click, for example, 3 days.

   

3. In Branch Name, enter Reconfirmed.

4. Click Add Event and choose PW_EmailLinkClicked.

   

5. Click Save.

What happens after the waiting period starts:

• Any link reconfirms. Any link in the email fires PW_EmailLinkClicked, so a click on any link reconfirms the contact.
• Scanners don’t count. Clicks from email security scanners don’t fire the event, so they don’t reconfirm anyone.
• No click means Not triggered. Contacts who don’t click within the waiting period go to the Not triggered branch, which is created automatically.

Count only the confirmation link (optional)

To count only the confirmation link, click Add condition, choose redirect_link and contains, and enter the confirmation URL.

Unsubscribe contacts who don’t reconfirm

1. On the Not triggered branch, add an Update User Profile element.

2. In Manual Tag Value, choose the Unsubscribed Emails tag and set the value to true.

   

3. Click Save.

What this step does:

• Marketing emails stop. The Unsubscribed Emails tag stops marketing emails to the contact. Transactional emails still reach them.
• You can undo it. To subscribe a contact again, set the tag back to false.
• Contacts who already unsubscribed enter the journey too. The segment doesn’t check the tag. These contacts don’t receive the reconfirmation email, so they end up on this branch. Their tag stays true.

Keep inactive contacts subscribed

Skip this element if you’d rather keep inactive contacts subscribed. If the sunset policy is on, it stops marketing emails to them once they pass the policy period.

End the branches and launch

1. On the Reconfirmed branch, optionally send a thank-you email.

2. End both branches with an Exit element or leave them without an outgoing connection.

   

3. Click Launch campaign.