Skip to content
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Creating block lists from Salesforce reports

Don't contact open deals, customers, competitors, and more using Salesforce reports as your source.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Creating your list in Salesforce
Pulling your block list into OutboundSync
     Step 1. Go to Block Lists in OutboundSync
     Step 2. Select your profile
     Step 3. Select a list/report
     Step 4. Select fields
     Step 5. Select Sales Engagement Platform API Key
     Step 6. Select type of blocking
     Step 7. Select clients (OPTIONAL)
     Step 8. Start blocking
Troubleshooting

Introduction

With OutboundSync, you can designate any Salesforce report as a blocklist. Blocklists or exclusion lists help ensure that cold emails are not sent to existing customers, competitors, open deals, or contacts on Do Not Contact lists.

This article is for creating a block list in Salesforce. Go here if you're using HubSpot.

To create blocklists, you need to have a Sales Engagement Platform API key connected to OutboundSync. If you haven't done this yet, click here to set it up.

Creating your list in Salesforce

OutboundSync uses Salesforce reports as a source for the block list in Salesforce. The benefit of this is that Salesforce's reporting engine is highly configurable and adaptable. 

Understand the API limitations: The first step is understanding that the reports API only allows us to pull up to 2,000 rows and we use the date stamp for each row to distinguish newly added results from the previous day.

In practice, this means you can block up to 2,000 rows of email addresses or domains per day per report. If a row (e.g. an account or contact) has multiple email addresses or multiple domains associated with it, they can all be included.

If your list starts with more than 2,000 rows per day, consider a one-time initial pull from Salesforce directly to your Sales Engagement Platform.

If your list adds more than 2,000 rows per day, consider breaking it up into multiple smaller lists.

If you don’t have a blocklist built yet, let's create one now. Otherwise, skip ahead.

Need inspiration? Popular examples include lists for channel partners, open opportunities, and active customers.

Build a new report by going to Salesforce > Reports

Now go ahead and set whatever filters and criteria you want in-place for your report.

Here's an example report that uses the website field in Salesforce:

Keep in mind a few things:

  • We'll be creating a list that includes either email addresses or domains as one of the fields.
  • In the case of email addresses, we can either do a 1:1 matching block, or we can extract the domain of that email address and block the entire domain. 
  • If contacts have multiple email fields in Salesforce, include all those email properties in your report and we will use those later.
  • Finally, make sure to label your report with a clear name so you can find it quickly.

Pulling your block list into OutboundSync

Now that you have created your list in Salesforce, we need to pull that list into OutboundSync to start dynamically updating it in your Sales Engagement Platform. For this, we'll need to return to OutboundSync.

Remember that the user performing these actions needs to have sufficient permissions. If the user cannot access this data in the CRM, their credential cannot be used by OutboundSync to perform this action.

Step 1. Go to Block Lists in OutboundSync

Now, go to the OutboundSync app and go to the Block lists tab on the left.

Step 2. Select your profile

Select the Salesforce Connected App that you want to use as the source for your block list. This is based on the user who installed the Connected App when you first set up your OutboundSync account.



Step 3. Select a list/report

This is the one you just created earlier. If you don't see it, make sure you have permissions to access to the report in question.

Step 4. Select fields

Select which fields specifically you want to be included in your block list. Remember that the type of field will need to match up with type of blocking you want to do. 

Step 5. Select Sales Engagement Platform API Key

Select the API key for the Sales Engagement Platform that you want to send to the block list. If you want to block this list on multiple platforms, create multiple lists. 

Step 6. Select type of blocking

OutboundSync supports two types of blocking. You can block by address or by domain with the Type of Blocking.

Address (Individual Email Address)

Blocks each email associated with a contact in Hubspot individually and adds it to the blocklist in Smartlead.

Example: Blocking john@example.com doesn’t block all emails ending in @example; only John's email is blocked.

Domain (Every Email Address)

Blocks all emails associated with a contact’s domain and adds the domain to the blocklist in Smartlead.

If a contact had multiple email addresses, every domain would be blocked.

Exception: Leading email providers (e.g., Gmail, Outlook) won’t be blocked as they are common. View unblockable domains list here.

If you want to block these domains manually in Smartlead, download this CSV and import it into Smartlead directly. This would block you from emailing personal email addresses.

Step 7. Select clients (OPTIONAL)

If you are using a Sales Engagement Platform that has specific client IDs, this is the step where you will select that Client ID to match the blocklist to that client. Others use dedicated workspaces where this will not be relevant.

Step 8. Start blocking

Next, click Start Blocking (6). You will see your blocklist appear in the table.

This takes time to execute. The larger your list, the more time it can take. Refresh your browser or come back later to see OutboundSync's progress updating your blocklist. 

Troubleshooting

Once you've created a block list, use this article to understand how it's working and make changes ➔