External Sending is a ContactMonkey add-on that automatically applies compliance controls — like unsubscribe footers and suppression lists — to recipients outside your organization. Internal communications continue to work exactly as they do today.
External Sending provides tools to help you meet compliance requirements, but you remain responsible for ensuring your sends comply with applicable laws. The add-on does not constitute legal advice. For specific compliance questions, consult your legal or compliance team.
Prerequisites
External Sending is a paid add-on activated by ContactMonkey's Customer Success team. Before you can use it:
- Your account must have SendGrid configured
- Contact your Customer Success Manager or email support@contactmonkey.com to activate the add-on
Once active, the Compliance Center appears in Settings for Owner and Admin users.
What Counts as Internal vs External
ContactMonkey classifies every recipient on a send based on their email domain:
-
Internal recipients have an email address that matches a domain on your internal domain list. By default, this is your primary organization domain (for example,
yourcompany.com). -
External recipients have an email address that doesn't match any domain on your internal domain list. This includes contractors, partners on their own corporate domains, alumni or retirees on personal addresses, and anyone on a free-mail domain (
gmail.com,yahoo.com,outlook.com).
Compliance controls only apply to external recipients. Internal recipients receive emails the way they always have.
What Happens at Send Time
When the add-on is enabled, ContactMonkey processes each send as follows:
- Every recipient is classified as internal or external based on your internal domain list
- Internal recipients receive the email unchanged — no unsubscribe footer, no suppression checks
- External recipients receive the email with a system-inserted unsubscribe footer and a hosted unsubscribe landing page
- External recipients who previously unsubscribed are suppressed and don't receive the email
- After the send, ContactMonkey logs the count of internal, external, and suppressed recipients
If your contact list includes a mix of internal and external recipients, you'll see a confirmation message before sending that summarizes which compliance behavior applies.
If the add-on isn't enabled, external sending works as it does today — no classification, no unsubscribe footer, no suppression list.
Why Compliance Controls Matter
Emails to external recipients are subject to compliance laws, including CAN-SPAM (US), CASL (Canada), and GDPR (EU/UK). These laws typically require a clear unsubscribe option, honoring unsubscribe requests across future sends, and accurate sender information. Mishandling these requirements can hurt deliverability and, if your organization is audited, result in significant fines.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will my internal email metrics change?
Your internal metrics become cleaner because external sends are classified separately. If your reports previously mixed external sends into internal metrics, you'll see that separation moving forward.
What happens to recipients who unsubscribe?
External recipients who unsubscribe are suppressed across all future sends from your account. Their unsubscribe is captured in your account's suppression list.
Can I block external sending entirely for some users or domains?
Not in the initial release. The Add-on focuses on oversight and compliance, not blocking. Org-level controls are planned for a future release.
Does it work with Google Workspace?
Yes. The add-on works regardless of your email platform, as long as SendGrid is enabled.