¶ Explanation Email
An explanation email is an awareness message sent to campaign targets after a phishing simulation is completed. It reveals that the email was a test and provides educational content to help employees recognize real threats in the future.
Setting up explanation emails involves three steps across three different sections of the platform:
Step 1 — Customer Params → Configure the sender address
Step 2 — Scenarios → Write or generate the email content
Step 3 — Campaigns → Choose who receives it on completion
¶ Step 1 — Configure the Sender
Before sending any explanation email, you need to define the sender identity used for these messages. This is done once per customer in Customer Params.
- Go to Customer Params → Customers management
- Click Edit on the relevant customer
- Expand Advanced Settings
- Fill in the Explanation email sender fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Display name shown to recipients (e.g., noreply) |
| Address | Local part of the email address (e.g., admin) |
| Domain | Select from your configured domains (e.g., company.com) |
The resulting sender address is previewed below the fields — for example: noreply <admin@company.com>.
Important: This sender must be configured before completing any campaign that uses an explanation email. If left empty, sending will fail.
¶ Step 2 — Create the Explanation Email Content
Each scenario can have its own explanation email, tailored to the phishing theme used in the simulation.
- Go to Scenarios and open the scenario you want to configure
- In the top-right area of the scenario editor, click Generate explanation email
Four action icons are available next to the button:
| Icon | Action |
|---|---|
| AI (magic wand) | Automatically generate the explanation email content using AI, based on the scenario's theme |
| Translate | Translate the explanation email into another language |
| Preview | Preview how the email will appear to recipients |
| Send test | Send a test copy to verify the email before the campaign ends |
Tip: Use AI generation to quickly produce relevant content — the AI uses the scenario's phishing theme and context to write a coherent awareness message.
¶ Step 3 — Send on Campaign Completion
When a campaign is ready to close, click Complete campaign from the campaign actions. A dialog will appear with delivery options for the explanation email.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Send to everyone | All campaign targets receive the explanation email, regardless of how they interacted with the phishing message |
| Send to clicked & submitted only | Only targets who clicked the link or submitted credentials receive the email — focuses awareness training on the most at-risk individuals |
| Do not send | Complete the campaign without sending any explanation email |
Note: The Send to clicked & submitted only option is the recommended approach for targeted follow-up — it avoids alerting employees who successfully ignored the phishing attempt.
¶ Prerequisites Checklist
Before using explanation emails, verify the following:
- Explanation email sender configured in Customer Params → Edit → Advanced Settings
- Explanation email content created for each scenario you plan to use
- Sending domain is properly configured in Integrations → Domains
- Image Display (Non-Microsoft Integrations): If the target client does not use the Microsoft integration, external images may be blocked by default. In this case, users should contact their local IT administrator to obtain and run a specific PowerShell script that replicates the image rendering behavior.