Sometimes, it's necessary to resend a message to an individual or a group. Duplicate sends are typically blocked because the contact ID is matched against the message ID. Essentially, when selecting Messages > Send > To a Group, a contact cannot receive the same message ID.
If contacts in a group were already sent a message, those contacts would not receive the same message a second time. So, how do you work around this? In order to resend a message to the same group, you must copy the message to generate a "new" one, and then send that version.
To copy a message:
- Access the Admin interface.
- Navigate to Messages > List.
- Select the message in the list and click More > Save As.
- In the "copy message" dialog, either: accept the default name ("copy" appended to the name) or specify a new message name.
- Click Create Copy.
- Review the list to confirm the new message is listed.
- Select the message and click Send > To a Group to send the new message to the group.
Exceptions
The following sections detail the two exceptions to the duplicate send rule.
Sending a message to an individual
The de-duplication method mentioned above (matching contact ID against message ID) is only applicable to sending a message to a group; messages sent to individuals are excluded from this rule.
How does this impact sending a message to a group? When you use either the Ad-hoc or Add Contacts features when sending a message to a group, this uses the same mechanism as Send Message to Individual and will bypass the de-duplication function.
Because of this, be careful when using the Ad-hoc or Add Contacts features that you only add individuals that you know to not be part of the group or groups to whom you are sending your message.
Sending a message via Marketing Automation
Marketing Automation does not use the same functionality of sending a message to a group; rather, messages are sent via a set of rules. Therefore, the de-duplication method of matching contact ID to message ID does not apply.
It is important to note that if a message was sent via Marketing Automation and then sent to the same group (Messages > Send > To a Group), the message will deliver to the contact a second time. Similarly, if an individual meets the criteria for a Marketing Automation campaign a second time (such as for a renewal campaign), they may receive messages again.
Troubleshooting
Below are a few scenarios that you might encounter. Review the Solution to see if it resolves your issue.
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Some group members did not receive the message | Was the message sent more than once? You'll have to re-create the message and send to group if you would like to send a message multiple times. Otherwise, the contacts may be suppressed or unsubscribed. If you have a Subscription Management Page (SMP) that requires dual consent, that individual may not have clicked the link in their confirmation email. |
| Some group members received the message twice | Check your Unique ID (Tools > Unique Identifier). If this is set to Custom ID when the list was uploaded, it contained duplicate records. |