How exclusion lists work in Unify and troubleshooting common issues

Exclusion lists in Unify help prevent unwanted outreach to competitors, current customers, and non-target contacts. Understanding how they work and troubleshooting common issues can help ensure your campaigns run smoothly.

Understanding exclusion list previews

When setting up exclusions in Unify, you may notice that excluded companies don't appear in the preview. This is expected behavior and indicates your exclusion is working correctly, not that there's an issue.

The preview only shows companies that already exist in your CRM or Unify system. Companies don't need to exist in your CRM to be excluded. If competitor companies haven't been added to your CRM or revealed as web visitors, they won't show in the preview. However, exclusion rules work proactively - if these companies are later added to your system, they'll be automatically excluded from outbound activities.

Company deduplication and exclusion logic

Unify automatically deduplicates company records based on acquisitions, redirects, subsidiaries, and shared parent organizations. When processing exclusions, Unify checks all deduplicated company records to determine if any linked records match exclusion criteria.

Key behaviors

• If any deduplicated record meets exclusion criteria, the entire company group will be excluded

• This commonly occurs when acquired companies have a "Don't Prospect" status that causes the parent company to be excluded

• Companies may appear excluded even when the primary record doesn't meet exclusion criteria

• Unify maintains company linkages to prevent duplicate outreach to the same organization

Important limitation

Unify identifies companies primarily by domain rather than company name. When companies are acquired but maintain their original domain, exclusion rules for the parent company won't automatically apply to the acquired company records. Additionally, if you have multiple company records with different domains for the same organization, exclusions set up for one domain will not apply to contacts associated with the other domain records. For example, if a company has one record with domain A marked as “Customer” (excluded) and another record with domain B marked as “Lead” (not excluded), contacts associated with the domain B record will not be excluded even if they use an email address from domain A.

Troubleshooting unexpected exclusions

1. Check all deduplicated company records in your CRM

2. Look for acquired companies or subsidiaries with different statuses

3. Check if there are multiple company records with different domains for the same organization, as exclusions for one domain won't apply to contacts associated with other domain records

4. Verify all related company records have correct status fields

5. Update exclusion‑triggering fields in your CRM for all linked records

6. Allow approximately 15 minutes for Unify to sync CRM changes

Troubleshooting why excluded contacts received emails

If a contact received an outbound email when they should have been excluded, follow these diagnostic steps:

1. Identify which sequence sent the email and the send timestamp

2. Review the sequence's Ruleset > Exclusions to verify the relevant exclusion is enabled for that sequence

3. Verify that the exclusion itself has the Sequences toggle turned on

4. Check for duplicate contact or company records for that organization

5. Check if there are multiple company domains associated with that customer that might cause domain mismatches

Verifying sequence ruleset configuration

Exclusions may not apply to a sequence if the sequence's ruleset doesn't have the appropriate exclusions enabled. Each sequence has a ruleset setting that controls which exclusion rules are active.

1. Navigate to the sequence experiencing exclusion issues

2. Go to Settings > Ruleset

3. Verify that the required exclusions are toggled on

4. If using the default ruleset, check Settings > Sequences > Ruleset to configure default exclusion behavior

Important: The default ruleset may have all exclusions toggled off. Always verify ruleset configuration when troubleshooting exclusion issues, even if exclusion lists are set up correctly.

Setting up contact and company exclusions

People-level exclusions for sales reps

You have several options to exclude sales representatives:

• Option A: Create a People exclusion and add their emails directly

• Option B: Upload a CSV with rep emails and a "Status" column, then filter on status

• Option C: Navigate to Personas > Settings and exclude words like "sales" in the titles section

Company-level exclusions

1. Go to Settings > Exclusions > New exclusion

2. Select Companies and add domain rules

3. For multiple domains, separate with commas (e.g., competitor1.com, competitor2.com)

4. Enable Sequences/Proactive Unenrollment if you want existing enrollments removed

HubSpot property-based exclusions

When setting up exclusions using HubSpot properties, you must use the internal property names, not the display labels.

Finding HubSpot internal property names

1. In HubSpot, go to CRM → Companies → Actions → Edit properties

2. Search for your property (e.g., "Lifecycle Stage")

3. Navigate to Field type section to see LABEL and INTERNAL NAME values

4. Use the INTERNAL NAME value when setting up exclusions in Unify

Field mapping and activity-based exclusions

Field mapping configuration affects how activity-based exclusions behave:

• Read-Only Permission: Unify won't update the field directly, but CRM automations may still modify it when Unify logs activity

• Read & Write Permission: Allows Unify to directly update activity fields, providing more predictable exclusion behavior

For activity-related fields like "Last Activity Date," it's recommended to use read & write access rather than read-only to maintain accurate tracking.

Troubleshooting unexpected contact exclusions

Contacts may be unexpectedly excluded when field mapping is set to read-only because CRM automations can still update exclusion-related fields. This creates a feedback loop where contacts become excluded right after receiving their first email.

Solution: Change field mapping permissions from read-only to read/write access for activity date fields to give Unify direct control over field updates.

Managing exclusion changes and re-enrollment

When contacts or companies are removed from exclusion lists, they automatically re-enroll in active campaigns if they meet audience criteria. No manual intervention is required.

Re-enrolling incorrectly excluded contacts

If contacts were incorrectly excluded due to configuration issues:

1. Contacts can be manually re-enrolled at specific sequence steps

2. Choose which step to start from (e.g., step 2 if they received the first email)

3. Consider pausing sequences during re-enrollment for review