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Overview

Email notifications describe what failed, from which regions, and when, with a link to the monitoring page. Emails are sent automatically based on your notification preferences for each monitor.
Email alerts are included in all plans and count toward your plan’s notification limits. Configure email notifications individually for each monitor or manage them in bulk. Emails are sent only to a verified account email address.

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Setup

Email notifications are configured per monitor:

Select Your Monitor

Navigate to the monitor you want to configure

Open Notifications Section

Find the “Notifications” section in your monitor settings

Enable Email Channel

Turn on “Email” under the channels of the alert type you want

Verify Email Address

Ensure your account email is verified (check Settings → Profile)

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What You’ll Receive

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Incident Opened

When an incident opens, you receive an email with: Subject: YourSite.com availability incident opened Email Content:
  • Severity of the incident
  • Operational summary: what is failing, in plain language
  • Primary cause: for example a DNS failure, timeout, or HTTP error
  • Open Monitoring Page button

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Incident Resolved

When the site recovers: Subject: YourSite.com availability incident resolved Email Content:
  • What was happening while the incident was open
  • How long the incident was open
  • Open Monitoring Page button
A resolved email is sent only for incidents whose opening email was sent.

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SSL Expiry Warning

Automatic reminders 30, 14, 7, 3, and 1 day before the SSL certificate expires, and on the day it expires: Email Content:
  • Hostname
  • Days remaining

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Domain Expiry Warning

Automatic reminders 30, 14, 7, 3, and 1 day before the domain registration expires, and one notice after it expires: Subject: Your domain yoursite.com expires in 30 days. (“expires tomorrow” and “expires today” for the last day; Your domain yoursite.com has expired. after expiry) Email Content:
  • Domain name
  • Days remaining
  • A reminder to renew before the expiry date

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Multiple Recipients

To send emails to multiple people, you can:
  1. Add team members or collaborators to the site in Watchman Tower
  2. Configure email forwarding in your email client
  3. Use an alias or distribution list as your account email
Extra recipient addresses cannot be added to a monitor; each alert goes to the account email of each person with access.
Each team member can configure their own notification preferences for each monitor.

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Email Formatting

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Subject Lines

Email subjects are automatically formatted based on alert type:
Alert TypeSubject Format
Incident openedSite Name availability incident opened
Incident reopenedSite Name availability incident reopened
Incident resolvedSite Name availability incident resolved
Domain ExpiryYour domain yoursite.com expires in N days.
Domain ExpiredYour domain yoursite.com has expired.

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Email Body

All emails include:
  • The site name and the incident state
  • Severity and a plain-language summary of what is failing
  • The primary cause
  • A button to open the monitoring page

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Spam Prevention

Common causes:
  • First time receiving emails from Watchman Tower
  • Strict spam filters in your organization
  • Email not whitelisted
Solutions:
  • Add [email protected] to your contacts
  • Whitelist @watchmantower.com domain
  • Check spam folder and mark as “Not Spam”
  • Contact your IT department to whitelist our domain
Check these:
  1. Verify email address is correct in Settings → Profile
  2. Check spam/junk folder
  3. Ensure email checkbox is enabled for the monitor
  4. Verify the monitor is active and checking
  5. Confirm your email address is verified
Options to reduce email volume:
  • Disable email for non-critical monitors
  • Use Push notifications for less important alerts
  • Use bulk notification management to update multiple monitors

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Email vs Other Channels

FeatureEmailPushSMSSlack
PlansAllAllTeam, StackTeam, Stack
Detail LevelHighMediumLowHigh
Historical Record✅ Searchable inbox❌❌✅ Channel history
Mobile Access✅ Any email app✅ Requires app✅ Any phone✅ Slack app
Expiry Reminders (SSL, domain)✅✅❌❌

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Best Practices

Always Enable Email

Email provides a permanent record and detailed information

Check Spam Folder

First-time emails may land in spam - mark as “Not Spam”

Verify Your Address

Ensure your email is verified in account settings

Use Email Rules

Create email filters to organize alerts by monitor or severity

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Troubleshooting

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Emails Delayed

Possible causes:
  • Your email provider’s spam filtering
  • Server-side email queuing
  • Network congestion
Lower-severity incidents are also held for 5 to 15 minutes before an email is sent, and nothing is sent if the problem clears in that time. If delays persist beyond that, check with your email provider. Make sure you’re logged into Watchman Tower in the same browser before clicking dashboard links.

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Unsubscribe from Emails

To stop receiving email alerts:
  1. Go to your monitor’s notification settings
  2. Uncheck the “Email” checkbox
  3. Or use “Turn Off All Notifications” for all monitors
Unsubscribing from emails means you won’t be notified of outages. Consider using Push notifications instead if email volume is too high.

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Next Steps

Push Notifications

Get mobile alerts in the Watchman Tower app

Slack Integration

Send alerts to your Slack channels

SMS Alerts

Set up text message notifications

Alert Overview

Learn about all notification options