Topic architecture

Topic architecture

The Zoho topics approach to campaigns does not appear to be well architected.

While a topic is required for a campaign, and a user can choose which topics to subscribe or unsubscribe from, these preferences appear to only stick to the contact list within the Campaigns module.

There is no apparent way to store such preferences within each source Lead or Contact, including synchronizing from the Campaign contact after a user has chosen their own preferences. The awkward synchronization mechanism then leads to redundant data with its own structure.

Most companies have their own flags to indicate who on their contact/lead list wishes to be subscribed to something. There's no apparent way to synchronize using a filter on source Leads or Contacts using such flags, just the entire lists, then targeting a mailing list with a certain topic.

In short, disconnecting Campaign contacts from Leads and Contacts (arguably, even disconnecting Leads and Contacts as separate lists) leads to a fragmented, hard to conceptualize system. After reading many posts and comments, this appears to be a common thread for many people.

It shouldn't be nearly so hard to create a targeted campaign and maintain user preferences in a unified way. Am I missing something?