Managing sequence enrollment and re-enrollment for contacts

Understanding sequence enrollment rules is crucial for successful outreach campaigns. This guide covers the key concepts and solutions for managing contact enrollment and re-enrollment in sequences.

Understanding Re-enrollment Restrictions

When manually enrolling contacts or launching plays, you may see significantly fewer enrollments than expected based on your audience size. This typically occurs due to re-enrollment restrictions that prevent contacts from entering new sequences.

Common error message: "Unable to enroll in Sequence - This Person was recently enrolled in a Sequence." This can appear even if the previous sequence completed weeks ago.

Key Enrollment Rules

• Organization-level settings take precedence: Global sequence enrollment rules override audience-level filters

• No automatic retry: Plays do NOT automatically retry blocked contacts when restrictions expire - you must manually re-run plays

• Global impact: Re-enrollment settings affect all sequences organization-wide - there are no per-sequence settings

Configuring Re-enrollment Settings

To allow contact re-enrollment:

1. Go to Settings > Organization > Sequences > Rulesets

2. Enable "Allow enrollment into multiple Sequences"

3. Set the minimum days between enrollments (use 0 for immediate re-enrollment)

Re-enrolling Previously Blocked Contacts

After changing re-enrollment settings, previously blocked contacts won't automatically enroll. Follow this process:

Note: Play re-run cool-down periods cannot be set to 0 days - the minimum is 1 day. If you need to immediately re-execute on the same audience, you must duplicate the Play rather than re-running the original.

1. Wait 30-60 minutes after changing settings for system propagation

2. Duplicate the original Play

3. Set the duplicated Play's audience to target previously blocked contacts

4. Publish the duplicated Play

Important: Re-enrolled contacts resume at their next step in the sequence, not from the beginning. If you need contacts to start over from step 1, you must enroll them in a new sequence instead of re-enrolling them in the same sequence.

1. For individual contacts, you can manually re-enroll by going to People → open the contact → click Enroll → select the sequence

Managing Mid-Sequence Exclusions

Sequences have separate entry and exit exclusion criteria:

• Entry exclusions: Prevent initial enrollment

• Exit exclusions: Can automatically remove contacts mid-sequence

Automatic Unenrollment

The automatic unenrollment toggle allows sequences to remove contacts when exclusion criteria are met mid-sequence. Enable this selectively:

• Enable for: "Became opportunity" or "Became customer"

• Don't enable for: "Last sales activity" (since sequences create activities that would remove contacts)

Cross-Trigger Enrollment Prevention

To prevent re-engagement when mixing individual sequences with business-triggered plays:

1. In your business trigger audience, add the condition: Person > enrolled in any Sequence > Anytime

2. This excludes previously contacted individuals from business plays

3. Maintains clean engagement history across trigger types

Important Sequence Limitations

Pausing vs. Unenrolling

Pausing a sequence does NOT unenroll contacts. Paused contacts remain enrolled and blocked from future sequences. To allow new enrollments, manually unenroll contacts from previous sequences.

Queued Email Handling During Pause

When a sequence is paused, no emails will be sent, including those already queued.

• When you resume the sequence, previously queued emails are automatically rescheduled to the next available time within your sending schedule.

Preventing New Enrollments During Pause

If you want to stop new enrollments while a sequence is paused, also pause the associated Play(s) to prevent new contacts from enrolling during the pause period.

Completed Sequences

You can add new steps to a sequence at any time, but the changes only affect new enrollments and contacts that have not progressed past Step 1. Contacts still queued on Step 1 can be upgraded to the latest version, while contacts past Step 1 or who have completed the sequence require alternative approaches.

Managing Enrollments When Adding New Steps

Contacts still queued on Step 1 can be upgraded in bulk to the latest sequence version:

1. Open the sequence's Enrollments tab

2. Filter to contacts on Step 1

3. Select them and choose "Upgrade to latest version"

Contacts past Step 1 but not completed cannot be upgraded to receive new steps. Choose one of the following:

• Unenroll and re‑enroll into the updated sequence (starts a new email thread)

• Manually send the follow‑up from the original sender's outbox

Contacts who have completed the sequence cannot receive new steps; create a new sequence and enroll them there (subject to your re‑enrollment cooldown settings).

You cannot switch the sending mailbox mid‑sequence. Follow‑ups must come from the original sender’s mailbox to preserve threading.

Email Attachments

Direct email attachments are not supported. Host files externally and include links in your emails.

Out of Office Responses

Automated OOO replies mark sequences as "complete" just like regular responses, preventing re-enrollment. Use re-enrollment workarounds for affected contacts.

Best Practices

• Temporary 0-day setting: Use 0 days between enrollments temporarily, then increase to prevent over-messaging

• Plan sequences completely: Ensure sequences are complete before launching since you can't extend them retroactively

• Regular audits: Monitor enrollment status to prevent contacts from being indefinitely blocked

• Strategic exclusions: Configure automatic unenrollment only where mid-sequence removal makes sense

• Multi-play strategies: Account for re-enrollment restrictions when planning sequential plays

1. Consider sequence position on re-enrollment: Remember that re-enrolled contacts resume at their next step, not from the beginning - create new sequences if contacts need to restart from step 1