Get Instant Notifications with Email Webhooks
Integrate email API webhooks to receive real-time updates on opens, clicks, bounces, and more.
Email webhooks are HTTP callbacks triggered by email events. They allow your app to receive real-time data without polling. With Emailer's email API webhooks, you can automate workflows and stay informed instantly.
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Real-Time Event Streaming
Receive email events webhook notifications instantly as they happen. No more polling or delays—your app stays synchronized with every send, open, click, and bounce.
Custom Payload Filters
Filter which email events trigger your webhook. Only subscribe to the events that matter—like bounces or spam complaints—reducing unnecessary traffic and processing.
Retry and Logging
Emailer automatically retries failed webhook deliveries with exponential backoff. A detailed log shows delivery attempts, status codes, and payloads for troubleshooting.
What are email webhooks?
Email webhooks are automated messages sent from an email service (like Emailer) to your server when specific events occur. Instead of constantly polling for updates, your system passively receives event data via HTTP POST requests. Common email events include bounces, opens, clicks, spam reports, and deliveries.
Each webhook payload contains structured data (JSON) with details about the event, such as recipient address, timestamp, event type, and campaign metadata. This enables you to trigger custom actions in real time without manual intervention or API calls.
How email events webhooks improve deliverability and engagement
By subscribing to email events webhooks, you can instantly detect hard bounces and remove invalid addresses from your list, preserving sender reputation. An email API webhook for opens and clicks lets you segment engaged subscribers and re-engage inactive ones.
Automated reactions to spam reports via webhooks help you identify list quality issues early. Real-time feedback loops reduce complaint rates and improve inbox placement. Ultimately, email webhooks turn raw event data into actionable insights for better campaign performance.
Setting up email API webhooks with Emailer
To configure email API webhooks in Emailer, navigate to the Webhooks section under Settings. Enter your endpoint URL (must accept POST requests), select the events you want to subscribe to (e.g., sent, delivered, opened, clicked, bounced, complained), and optionally set a secret key for HMAC validation.
Once saved, Emailer will immediately begin sending HTTP POST requests to your endpoint for each subscribed event. You can also specify response timeout and retry policy. For high‑volume sends, consider using a dedicated webhook handler to avoid bottlenecks.
Best practices for handling email webhooks
Always verify webhook authenticity by validating the HMAC signature included in the `X-Emailer-Signature` header. This prevents malicious actors from sending fake events. Also, ensure your endpoint responds with a 200 OK as quickly as possible to confirm receipt.
Design your webhook consumer to be idempotent: store a unique event ID and ignore duplicates. Implement exponential backoff for failed deliveries (Emailer retries up to 3 times). Finally, log all incoming webhooks for debugging and audit trails.
Automated Unsubscribe Management
Use email webhooks to detect bounces and spam complaints instantly. Automatically remove those contacts from your lists to maintain a healthy sender reputation.
Personalized Follow-up Emails
Trigger a follow-up email when someone opens your campaign but doesn't click. With email events webhook data, you can send context-aware messages to boost conversions.
Fraud Detection
Monitor unusual patterns in email events (e.g., rapid opens from different IPs) via email API webhooks. Flag suspicious activity and prevent account abuse or credential stuffing.
FAQ
What is the difference between webhooks and API polling?
Webhooks push data to your server immediately when an event occurs, while polling requires your server to periodically request updates. Webhooks are more efficient and provide real-time notifications, making them ideal for time-sensitive email events.
How do I verify email webhooks from Emailer?
Emailer signs each webhook payload with a secret key using HMAC-SHA256. The signature is passed in the `X-Emailer-Signature` header. Compute the HMAC of the raw request body using your secret and compare it to that header to ensure authenticity.
Can I use email webhooks for multiple events?
Yes. In Emailer’s webhook settings, you can subscribe to any combination of events such as sent, delivered, opened, clicked, bounced, and complained. You can also create separate webhooks for different event groups.
What happens if my server is down when a webhook is sent?
Emailer’s webhook system retries delivery up to three times with increasing delays (approximately 5 minutes, 15 minutes, and 1 hour). If all attempts fail, the event is logged and you can check the webhook logs for details.
How to test email webhooks before going live?
Use a webhook testing tool like RequestBin or Webhook.site to capture incoming payloads. In Emailer, set your webhook endpoint to that test URL, send a test email, and inspect the payload structure and headers.
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