Topic management - tips and use cases

Topic management - tips and use cases

Topics is a feature in Zoho Marketing Automation that you can use to let your contacts choose the types of email campaigns they are interested in receiving. This feature helps you organize your contacts according to their preferences, which may result in reduced unsubscribes and complaints for your email campaigns.
 
In this document, we'll cover all the important points and tips you need to know about topic management. This will help you understand the feature better, therefore use it more effectively.

Topic Preferences

Once your contacts receive email campaigns from you, they can manage their preferences by clicking the Manage Preference option. They will be able to see all your topics and products.
 
You can customize the Topics Landing Page that contacts can see when they click Manage Preference by:
  1. Click Settings from the top-right corner.
  2. Under the General section, click Signup Pages and Emails.
  3. Select Topics.

    Signup pages and emails - Topics

  4. Click the Edit button beside Preference under Preference page content under Preference Management Page tab.

    edit preference page

  5. Make necessary changes and click Save and Proceed.

    save changes
Notes Note: You can edit the Topics Thank You page by clicking Settings -> Signup Pages and Email -> Topics -> Thank You Page tab.

 Best practices for topic creation 

  1. Classify topics under relevant products or brands. This will provide better clarity to your contacts while subscribing.
  2. The topic name should be crisp and clear. You can come up with interesting ways to name them but it should not be misleading.
  3. Add a brief description for all of your topics. This helps your contacts understand exactly what the topic covers.
  4. You can create lists for internal use and classification of contacts. Avoid creating topics for such purposes.
  5. Maintain a minimum number of topics under each brand. It helps your contacts to manage their preferences easily. 
Notes
Note:
It is better not to have the same name for topics and lists because:
  1. Lists are for internal use, whereas topics will be viewed by your contacts. The name of the topic should explain the purpose and context of emails that you will send.
  2. The same name for a topic and a list might confuse you.

Difference between topics and lists 

 
Lists
Topics
Adding
Contacts
Contacts are added to lists by you according to your requirements.
Contacts can subscribe to topics based on their preferences.
Visibility
Lists can be seen by you and members of your organization based on their privileges.
Topics can be seen by all the contacts.
Removing Contacts
You can remove contacts from  lists according to your requirement
Contacts can unsubscribe from topics based on their preferences.
Usage
Lists are for internal use. You can manage lists as per your requirement
Topics are useful for your contacts to subscribe to their preferred topics.

Use cases

Let us see some use cases to understand when to create lists and when to create topics.

Case 1

Rogers runs an online consultation site called Rogers' Business Ideas. He sends weekly emails to all his subscribed users. For free subscription users, he sends a generic business ideas newsletter, and for paid users he sends specific business advice for their firm. In this case:

Quote
Topic
  1.  Rogers' Business Ideas 
  Lists:
  1. Paid subscribers
  2. Free subscribers

Case 2

Jones Coffee has two types of customer base, purchasers and bulk purchasers. Purchasers shop for their household and bulk purchasers shop for their office, restaurant, or diner. Each customer base gets the monthly item price list and combo offers via emails respectively. The coffee store quote different prices and combos based on the type of customer base. In this case:

Quote
Topics
  1. Monthly item price
  2. Combo offers 
Lists
  1. Purchasers
  2. Bulk Purchasers

Case 3  

Jerold is the owner of the online store " www.jeroldstores.com". He sells Electronics, Mobiles Devices, and Computers in his store. His email campaigns are based on latest market trends, hot sellers, and monthly offers for each category of products he sells in his store. In this case:

Quote
Product - Electronics
Topics
  1. Latest market trends
  2. Hot sellers
  3. Monthly offers
Product - Mobile devices
Topics
  1. Latest market trends
  2. Hot sellers
  3. Monthly offers 
Product - Computers
Topics
  1. Latest market trends
  2. Hot sellers
  3. Monthly offers
  Lists
  1. Electronics
  2. Mobile Devices
  3. Computers

Case 4

Suave Fashions is an online clothing store. Initially users get sales offers emails according to the data provided by them during signup.  

Quote
The topics are:
  1. Men
  2. Women
  3. Kids
  4. Teen
 
Now, if a user subscribed to the Women Topic wants to get sales offers emails for Kids too, she can subscribe to Kids Topic using the Manage Preference option in their email.

Info
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