Can I find contacts that are not in categories?

You can use our segment builder to create clauses to find contacts that are in or not in single or multiple categories. Navigate to the Contacts dashboard and select "Segments" from the left menu to get started building your new segment.

Find contacts not in a single category

1. Click the "Create Email Segment" call-to-action button located at the top right of the Segment dashboard page.
   
   
2. Choose the "Regular" segment type from the pop-up.
   
   
3. Provide a name for your new segment. Optionally provide a description.
   
   
4. In the segment builder area of the page, click open the "Select field" drop-down menu.
   
   
5. Scroll to find the "Groups" section of the menu:
   
   
   
6. Choose the clause for "Not in category":
   
   
   
7. Choose the operator "A selected category", if it's not already selected:
   
   
   
8. Click into the 3rd clause box to open your list of categories.
   
   
9. Checkmark the single category that should be used.
   
   
   
10. Click the "Save & Test" button. This will save the segment and test it to show results on-screen.

Find contacts not in multiple categories

1. Click the "Create Email Segment" call-to-action button located at the top right of the Segment dashboard page.
   
   
2. Choose the "Regular" segment type from the pop-up.
   
   
3. Provide a name for your new segment. Optionally provide a description.
   
   
4. In the segment builder area of the page, click open the "Select field" drop-down menu.
   
   
5. Scroll to find the "Groups" section of the menu:
   
   
   
6. Choose the clause for "Not in category":
   
   
   
7. Choose the operator "All selected categories", if it's not already selected:
   
8. Click into the 3rd clause box to open your list of categories.
   
   
9. Checkmark all categories that your contacts should not be in.
   
10. Click the "Save & Test" button. This will save the segment and test it to show results on-screen.

Tip

Many customers use method #2 to find contacts in their accounts that do not belong to all of the categories that are in use to identify contacts that may not be receiving campaigns when sent. In this case, select all of the categories available in the 3rd part of the clause.

Notes

More on the operators used in the examples in the article.

A selected category

Contacts are / are not members of only one of the categories selected. This works like an OR statement: In category A, or in Category B, or in category C.

All selected categories

Contacts are / are not members of ALL categories selected in the next step. This work like an AND statement: In category A, and in category B, and in category C.

Resources

See these related help articles for building segments based on category subscription:

Can I determine how long contacts have been in a category?

What is the difference between a segment and a category?