Email Marketing20% of the exam
Operational email, sender options and A/B tests
What qualifies as operational email and who can receive it, how mailability, Do Not Email and suppression lists decide recipients, how sender hierarchies and reply-to addresses work, how classic A/B tests pick and send a winner, and how to reschedule or pause a list email.
Given a scenario, identify the capabilities and use cases for email.
~7 min read · 13 practice questions ·
What the exam expects
- Decide whether a message is operational or marketing, and which tools can send an operational email.
- Predict who receives a send from mailability status, Do Not Email, opt-out, bounces and suppression lists.
- Build a valid sender hierarchy with a fallback, and separate the sender from the reply-to address.
- Set up a classic A/B test (one variable, criterion, test percentage, duration) and predict who gets which version.
- Reschedule or pause a list email, knowing what the enhanced experience can't do.
Key terms:
- Operational email: a critical, non-marketing message that bypasses marketing opt-in status.
- Mailability status: Mailable, Operational Emails Only, Prospect is in Recycle Bin or Undeliverable.
- Do Not Email: a prospect field that suppresses one prospect from marketing email without changing opt-in.
- Suppression list: a list that omits its prospects from a list email or engagement program.
- Sender hierarchy: an ordered set of senders checked from the top at send time.
Key facts
Operational sending
- Detail
- List emails and Engagement Studio, not automation rules
Enable operational email
- Detail
- Account Engagement Administrator role
Undeliverable
- Detail
- One hard bounce or five or more soft bounces
Autoresponders
- Detail
- Treated as operational; opted-out prospects still get them
Suppression list types
- Detail
- Any non-test list, static or dynamic
Last sender in hierarchy
- Detail
- Specific User or General User with a verified domain
No reply-to set
- Detail
- Replies go to the sender address
A/B minimum audience
- Detail
- At least four prospects
A/B tie
- Detail
- Version A is sent
A/B completion actions
- Detail
- Apply to A, B and the winner
Reschedule
- Detail
- Classic list emails only
Pause a send
- Detail
- Total Queued row of the List Email report
Sources for this section (9)
- Non-Marketing Emailshelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Enable Operational Emailhelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Mailability Statushelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Suppression Listshelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Sender and Reply-Tohelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Trailheadtrailhead.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Enable A/B Testinghelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Reschedulehelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Pause a Sendhelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Why might prospects in a running program skip a Send Operational Email step?
- When does an email with a valid saved hierarchy still fail to send?
- Why are role-based addresses a poor General User choice?
- What happens to the countdown when a paused A/B test is unpaused?
The questions are free to read. Answers with their sources and self-grading are included with the pack.
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