05/2025

Stop Sending the Wrong Emails: Step-By-Step Exclusion Strategies

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Sending emails is just as much about who not to send them to as it is about who you should send them to.

Yep, you read that right!

Not everyone should get your emails.

In email marketing, a lot of our attention goes to one thing: who to send to.

We obsess endlessly about lists, segments, flows, campaigns, all designed around getting the right message in front of the right people.

That also means that being intentional and tactical about who shouldn’t get an email is a key consideration (and if it isn’t already, it should be!), and going beyond basic list hygiene and unsubscribes into a full exclusion strategy.

If you want to avoid friction, misalignment, and confusion in your customer journey, you need to implement an exclusion strategy and repeatedly ask yourself “Who shouldn’t receive this message?”.

So, what is an exclusion strategy, and how do you get started on building an exclusion strategy in your email marketing?

What are exclusion strategies in email marketing?

An exclusion strategy is a process of clearly defining who shouldn’t receive an email based on their timing, experience, or journey stage even if they meet the basic criteria.

Beyond the fact it just makes sense to implement (our mantra of “Send the right message at the right time”, and all), campaigns filtered to specific subscribers through inclusion and exclusion strategies have been shown to achieve a 36.69% higher open rate and a whopping 267.21% higher click-through rate compared to unfiltered campaigns.

Exclusion strategies are designed to help you prevent:

Misaligned messages
Customer frustration
Missed sales or service opportunities
Brand damage due to poor timing

It’s not about throwing people out of the door and closing it forever — just right now.

Why exclusion strategies matter (the real-world impact)

B2C example:

Let’s say that you buy a product and then start receiving transactional emails like:

Order confirmation
Dispatch notification
Delivery tracking
Delivery confirmation

Great, the basics are covered and the emails make total sense.

Until the email equivalent of a horror film starts, and before you’ve even received your much-awaited product, you get:

A promotional upsell
A discount code
A cross-sell message

It’s annoying, and more importantly, it’s confusing.

You’ve just bought something, and you haven’t even received it… so why are they trying to sell you something else?

This is a classic case of no exclusion strategy.

B2B example:

A client downloads a whitepaper.

They’re already a paying customer, but they get entered into a sales automation funnel meant for leads.

Cue the flood of “book a call!” CTAs and cold nurture emails that aren’t remotely suitable for them and their circumstances.

Or let’s say a lead received email comms from both the sales and marketing team — with no coordination.

One message says “speak to sales” while the other says “learn more.”

Yet again - you guessed it - no exclusion strategy.

Where email marketing goes wrong (the silo problem)

One of the reasons why the above happens is because email marketing sits in a silo, typically owned by the marketing team.

That means that there’s a calendar, a campaign deadline, a segment — and boom, the email goes out.

It’s almost easy to forget that your subscriber or customer is also:

Receiving emails from sales
Speaking to customer service
Being targeted in paid campaigns
Having real-world interactions

Without the all-important umbrella view of all touchpoints, you’re likely to make mistakes like:

Sending the wrong message at the wrong time
Creating internal friction (between sales, marketing, and service)
Confusing or annoying your customer

What should you do instead? Here’s our step-by-step approach

Here’s how you can get started embedding exclusion strategies into your email process as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

Step 1: Ask these questions before sending any email

Use this handy checklist to see if an exclusions strategy is needed before you send any - and we mean any - email:

1. Could this message clash with another department’s communications (sales, service, onboarding)?
2. Is the recipient already in another journey, automation, or campaign?
3. Has this person just completed a key action (purchase, download, conversation) that changes their intent or context?
4. Would this message confuse or irritate them based on where they are right now?
5. Are we unintentionally treating customers like leads, or leads like customers?
6. Could a recent negative interaction (e.g., support ticket) make this message poorly timed or inappropriate?
7. Are we using the same message for different audience types who might need a variation?

Step 2: Build a centralised exclusion map

This is where most teams fall short.

Rather than having a centralised view, they might think about exclusions on a per-campaign basis.

You need an exclusion map — one place where the whole team (sales, marketing, service, product) can see:

What’s going out
To who
When
And who should be excluded — and why

This should be treated like an operational blueprint that keeps all parties informed and in sync:

A shared calendar
A visual journey map
Key rules or triggers for when to exclude specific audiences

Having this all under one roof means that you’ll be avoiding the usual pitfalls:

Marketing emailing people who have just spoken to sales
Clients being sent irrelevant lead messaging
New customers getting offers for things they just bought

Align teams around experience, not ownership

We don’t want to say that it’s outdated to view each element of email being under the sole ownership of a specific department, but… it kind of is.

It’s about creating a mindset shift.

Rather than “marketing owns email” or “sales owns lead nurturing”, think in terms of “what is the experience we’re giving our audience?”.

Exclusion strategies cut through the noise and create cohesion because your email marketing revolves around the important concept that it’s not about sending more, it’s about sending smarter.

Final thought: You don’t need to message everyone, every time

It might seem easier to slip into the mode of ‘more sends = more results’ sometimes when email marketing becomes overwhelming.

But that mindset leads to friction, unsubscribes, and missed opportunities that’ll only increase over time.
It’s better to lead with a thoughtful exclusion strategy in place so that:

Messages hit right
Journeys feel seamless
You avoid embarrassing mistakes
Your customers feel seen (extra important!)

So, yes… not everyone should get your emails!

Need help with your email strategy?

If your emails are causing confusion or if you’re struggling with conflicting journeys, we offer strategic consultancy on building friction-free email programmes (without the faff!).

Have a chat with me to find out more about how I can help.

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