Who will receive my email campaign?
The number beside an audience is not everybody whose email address Bernard knows. It is everybody in that group who can receive this campaign now.
The prompt
“Show me the lawful audiences for [my site], their current eligible counts, and why [a person or group] would be included or left out. Do not send anything.”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
That distinction keeps an address book useful without turning it into a mailing list. A customer can stay in Contacts for order history while remaining outside marketing.
The groups you can choose
Depending on what your site contains, Your customers can show:
- Everyone who’s said yes, across the site’s recorded marketing permissions.
- Buyers who gave the matching marketing permission at checkout.
- Students who gave the matching marketing permission when enrolling.
- People from a particular form, including named form segments where your forms create them. Only confirmed signups count.
These groups are defined by the actions and permissions your site recorded. They are not a loose list assembled from an uploaded file or every contact with an address. When do I need someone’s permission to email them? explains what each kind of yes permits.
Why somebody may be left out
A person is excluded when the required permission is absent, still awaiting confirmation, withdrawn, or blocked by a suppression for this site. A bounce or complaint can also stop later marketing mail. Bernard checks the evidence tied to the actual recipient address instead of trusting a label copied onto a contact.
You never have to guess which of those it was. Each contact page carries one sentence under Email permission saying whether that person can be emailed and what the evidence is: “Said yes on the workshop form, confirmed 12 May 2026”, “Bought something on 3 June 2026”, “Unsubscribed 1 July 2026”, “No permission recorded”. It is read from the same record the count is built from, so a contact page and an audience count can never disagree.
An imported spreadsheet is the commonest reason a count looks small. Permission you confirmed during the import does count, but not straight away: it joins an audience 48 hours after the import finishes, and the first campaign afterwards reaches at most 200 of the people that import brought. When can I email the people I just imported? is the full timetable. Anybody you did not confirm permission for stays out of every audience until they say yes on your own site. When do I need someone’s permission to email them? covers how to invite them properly.
Unsubscribing affects future audiences for that site. It does not erase the contact or alter audiences belonging to another business. How does unsubscribing from my emails work? explains that boundary.
The count you approve
Audience counts are live. Someone can confirm, unsubscribe or become ineligible after you first open the page. At the final step, Bernard freezes the exact eligible recipients and asks you to approve their count alongside the saved version, digest and timing. If the count changed while you were deciding, the old approval is refused and a new quote appears.
The count also has to fit inside your remaining monthly allowance. See How many campaign emails can I send? before choosing between two large groups, then use Send an email campaign to my audience for the final review.
Narrow a group by tag
Any group above can be narrowed further by tag - a word you put on a contact, such as “wholesale” or “vip”. Pick tags to include, tags to except, or both, and the eligible count updates as you choose. Include keeps anyone carrying at least one of the chosen tags; except drops anyone carrying at least one of them, even if they are otherwise in the group.
A tag can only ever remove people, never add them. The tag check runs inside the same query that checks recorded permission and this site’s do not email list, so a tag can never count someone who has not said yes, and it can never bring back someone who unsubscribed, bounced, or was blocked.
Found a group-and-tag combination you will use again, such as “Buyers, tagged wholesale”? Save it by name. Saved audiences appear in the picker beside the built-in groups, each with its own live count, and they store the group and its tags, never a list of people - so they stay honest as your contacts change. Send to one group of my mailing list, not everyone covers tagging contacts and saving an audience, step by step.
Questions people ask
- Does everyone in Contacts receive my campaign?
- No. Contacts is your address book; an audience is the people in it with recorded permission for that kind of email. Bernard also removes anyone suppressed for the site before showing the count. You approve the exact eligible count, not the size of the address book.
- Can I email all buyers or students?
- Only the buyers or students who also gave the relevant marketing permission. A purchase or enrolment allows practical messages about that transaction, but does not silently create permission for every campaign.
- Why is a form signup missing?
- Form audiences require the permission recorded by that form and the person’s confirmation click. Someone still waiting to confirm stays out.
- How do I find out why one person is missing?
- Open that person’s contact page. Under Email permission there is one sentence: ‘Said yes on the workshop form, confirmed 12 May 2026’, ‘Bought something on 3 June 2026’, ‘Said yes on a form on 12 May 2026, but has not confirmed yet’, ‘Unsubscribed 1 July 2026’, or ‘No permission recorded’. It is built from the same evidence as the audience count, so it always explains the count rather than arguing with it.
- I imported my old list. Why is the count still tiny?
- Two reasons, and both are ordinary. Permission you confirmed during the import counts, but only from 48 hours after the import finished, and your first campaign afterwards reaches at most 200 of the people that import brought. Anybody you did not confirm permission for joins an audience only when they say yes on your own site: by filling in one of your forms and clicking the confirmation email, or by buying something. See when-do-i-need-consent for the way to invite them properly.
- Can the number change after I preview?
- Yes. Someone may confirm or unsubscribe while you are deciding. Bernard checks again before sending; if the approved recipient count no longer matches, it refuses the old approval and gives you a fresh quote.
- Can I narrow one of these groups further?
- Yes. Add a tag to include, a tag to except, or both, and the eligible count updates as you choose. A tag can only remove people from a lawful group, never add anyone who has not said yes. See narrow-an-audience-by-tag.
- Can I save a group-and-tag combination to use again?
- Yes. Give it a name and it appears in the picker with its own live count, right alongside the built-in groups. It is re-checked every time you open it and every time you send with it, so it approves only who is currently eligible.