Marketer's Space - Get effortless subscription management for CRM-synced contacts using Journeys

Marketer's Space - Get effortless subscription management for CRM-synced contacts using Journeys


Hello, marketers! Welcome to another post in the CRM Integration Series in Marketers’ Space. We’ve been exploring how integrating Zoho CRM with Zoho Marketing Automation (ZMA) can enhance your marketing efforts, especially via the Journeys feature. This week, we’ll focus on how you can automate subscription management for contacts synced from Zoho CRM using Journeys.

Why automate subscription management?

Both your team and your customers can update subscription preferences. To stay compliant and ensure your communications are relevant, it’s crucial to manage these updates efficiently. You can:
  • Manually update subscription lists.
  • Automate subscription updates using Journeys.
Let’s see how Zoho Marketing Automation’s Journeys make this process effortless.

Sync CRM contacts with a targeted list

Since we're working with contacts synced from Zoho CRM, start by adding them to a specific list during the sync.
This enables you to target them later using Journey triggers like the following:
  • “Added to list” trigger: Starts a journey when a contact is added to a list. 
  • “Criteria match” trigger: Targets contacts based on their list memberships and other criteria.

   

Capture customer interests in Zoho CRM

Your sales team can capture customer interests in a custom field in Zoho CRM. For instance, they could create a text field called “Interests,” which sales reps can update with values like “sale” and “new product launch.”

Add topics in Zoho Marketing Automation

In ZMA, you can create topics to categorize your campaigns:
Go to Contacts > Topics and click on Add Topic.
Group topics under relevant categories, such as:
  • Newsletters
  • New product launches
  • Exclusive member content
  • Sale announcements

Create an automated subscription journey

1. Set up the trigger

  • Create a new journey and add the “Added to list” trigger. Then select the list where your CRM contacts are synced. This ensures that only relevant contacts enter the Journey.
  • Alternatively, you can use the “Criteria match” trigger and set list membership as a condition to filter contacts. For even more precision, refine the entry criteria further based on additional conditions or custom CRM fields.


2. Segment based on interests

  • Add a multi-way split component and configure it by setting criteria: “Interests”.
  • Create branches for each interest, like “Sale” or “New Product Launch.”
  • Add “No Interests” for the “Else" branch.

3. Automate subscription updates

  • Under each branch, add the “Subscription Management” action.
  • Configure it to subscribe contacts to a relevant topic.
  • For the “Sale” branch, select “Add Subscription to Marketing Topics” and select the topic “Sale Announcements”.
  • Repeat for other branches.
  • For the “No Interests” branch, select “Unsubscribe From All Topics” to avoid sending irrelevant emails.


If your business runs exclusive member campaigns, you can also do this by adding a “Customer Type” field in Zoho CRM (e.g., Members and Non-Members). With this segmentation, you can create a separate Journey that automatically assigns “Members Only” topics to eligible contacts, which ensures exclusive content reaches the right audience while keeping non-members in a separate communication flow.
Idea

Handling Multiple Topic Subscriptions

If a customer wants to subscribe to multiple topics instead of just one, use the “contains” modifier instead of “is” when setting up conditions. This ensures that contacts interested in more than one topic are correctly identified and subscribed to all relevant categories, allowing them to receive communication related to multiple topics without restrictions.

Automate subscription management with the “Added to Segment” trigger

You can also achieve the same automation using the “Added to Segment” trigger. If you prefer not to sync CRM contacts into a list, you can set up a segment instead and define the criteria to be matched.

Once the segment is created, you can build a new Journey using the “Added to Segment” trigger and configure the appropriate subscription management actions for that segment.

This ensures the following:
  • The segment is automatically updated whenever a contact meets the defined criteria.
  • Any new contact entering the segment is immediately enrolled in the Journey, which triggers the relevant subscription updates without the need for manual intervention.
With Journeys in Zoho Marketing Automation, your subscription management can be completely automated and dynamic. No more manual updates or guesswork—just seamless, automated audience segmentation. Try it out, and let us know how it works for you. See you next week with more ways to supercharge the Zoho CRM + ZMA integration. Until then, happy marketing!

Regards,
Pearlin Nitika
User education | Zoho Marketing Automation

    • Recent Topics

    • Feature Request: Dynamic Dimension Control for zc_LoadIn Popups

      As detailed in this community discussion, Zoho Creator's zc_LoadIn parameter is a vital tool for opening components (forms, reports, or pages) in modal dialogs via HTML snippets, Notes, or Rich Text Fields. While powerful, this feature suffers from a

    • Introducing Multi-Asset Support in Work Orders, Estimates, and Service Appointments

      We’re excited to announce a highly requested enhancement in Zoho FSM — you can now associate multiple assets with Work Orders, Estimates, and Service Appointments. This update brings more clarity, flexibility, and control to your field service operations,

    • Process between CRM and Campaigns to ensure double opt-in contacts?

      I would like to ask for a few clarifications to ensure we fully comply with best practices and legal requirements: According to the documentation (Zoho Campaigns CRM sync – Default option), the best and recommended way to sync contacts is by using the

    • Zoho Books - New Interface keep details with PDF View

      Hello, The Zoho Books Interface has changed for estimates etc... One thing is causing issues though. Before the change, in PDF view you could see the detail information including custom fields entered for the estimate. Now, you have to switch between

    • Zoho CRM Kiosk issues

      Firstly this is for a system on the AU servers if that makes a difference. Issues are as follows (For Kiosk): 1. Re-ordering fields in the screen builder is broken. The fields seem to be re-ordering themselves, unless you order everything by moving the

    • Tip #52- Zoho Assist Downloads: Everything You Need in One Place- 'Insider Insights'

      Looking to start remote support sessions faster, manage unattended devices effortlessly, or join sessions without any hassle? The Zoho Assist Downloads Center has all the tools you need—across desktop, mobile, IoT, and browser environments. With our range

    • Condition based aggregate fields in subforms

      Hello everyone, We're excited to inform you about the latest enhancements made to our aggregate field capabilities in subforms; create aggregate fields based on conditions! An aggregate field is a column on which a mathematical function has been applied.

    • Presenting ABM for Zoho CRM: Expand and retain your customers with precision

      Picture this scenario: You're a growing SaaS company ready to launch a powerful business suite, and are looking to gain traction and momentum. But as a business with a tight budget, you know acquiring new customers is slow, expensive, and often delivers

    • SalesInbox

      Sorry for saying this but SalesInbox is a really mess. BIG FAIL. Bad UX and VERY bad IMAP sync. I don't know how can someone use this to be more productive. It's just the oposite. I'm trying to use SalesInbox for a while but sales people do not have just sales activities so we still have to came back to the mail app anyway. Folders of SalesInbox are not in sync with folders of mail server (wich syncs Ok to mobile) and vice-versa wich leads to double work as now you have to cleanup 3 inboxes (Mail

    • Print labels on selected view

      How can I print labels for select view. Always defaults to ALL contacts when I select View = Mailing Labels. Thanks!!

    • Update CRM Price Books to include volume discounts as per Zoho Books/Inventory

      Once again, Zoho has 3 great products that all store information in different ways (which is not helpful when you attempt to integrate the 3 products - one of the best features of Zoho). Zoho CRM Price Books are basic at best. Zoho Books/Inventory Price

    • Change in Zoho CRM API?

      Hello, I am using the Zoho API trough the PHP SDK v2.1 Since few days, I noticed that I have to change the way I pass the data to the API when I create, update, or upsert a record. Dates Before I was passing a PHP date object to "$record->addKeyValue(...)",

    • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

      The address field will be available exclusively for IN DC users. We'll keep you updated on the DC-specific rollout soon. It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition. Latest update

    • Tip #40- Strengthen Remote Support with IP-based Restrictions in Zoho Assist– ‘Insider Insights’

      Protecting sensitive data and preventing unauthorized access is a top priority for any organization. With IP-based restrictions in Zoho Assist, you can ensure that only users from trusted networks can initiate remote support sessions. Say your IT team

    • Printing Client Lists

      I was looking for a way to print out client lists based on the account. For example if I want all my contacts from company A on one sheet, how would I do this. Moderation Update (3rd December 2025): There are two challenges discussed in this thread. 1.

    • Qwen to be the default open source Generative AI model in Zoho Desk

      Hello everyone, At Zoho Desk, we will make the latest Qwen (30B parameters) the default LLM for our Generative AI features, including Answer Bot, Reply Assistant, and others. As a subsequent step, we will discontinue support for Llama (8B parameters).

    • ZOHO Blueprint and Workflow

      Hi, Correct me if i'm wrong, Blueprint triggers when a record that meets the criteria is created. It follows a specific transition that you will be setting up. Does blueprint work if the first state was triggered by a workflow? For example, In my custom module 1, I have a field named status. The statuses are 1, 2, 3 and 4. As soon as I create a new record, a workflow triggers that updates the status field to 1. Can a blueprint start from 2? My other concern is, can blueprint transitions work at the

    • Changing Department often causes the Firefox tab to freeze

      Title, it doesn't seem to happen with neither Opera nor Chrome. And even in Firefox, sometimes it just lets me change the department I'm in no problem, even to All Departments which is probably the most, like, resource heavy? But most of the time, the

    • Is it possible to sync data every 5–10 minutes in Zoho Analytics (CRM or Excel imports)?

      Hello Team, I want to know if Zoho Analytics supports near real-time syncing of data from different sources. My requirements: I am importing data from Zoho CRM → Zoho Analytics I also have some datasets maintained in Excel/CSV I want both data sources

    • Zoho CRM Participants Automatic - Invite Using Deluge

      Hi Zoho! Is there a way to make the invitations automatic via API? I'm using this one but it doesn't work or reflect in the CRM: participantUser = Map(); participantUser.put("type","email"); participantUser.put("participant",email); participantUser.put("invited",

    • Is there any way to send an Excel received by email to Dataprep?

      Every day I receive an email alert with an Excel file that I want to process through a Dataprep pipeline. To do this, I need to: -Save the file to disk -Open the pipeline -Run the pipeline -Update the source -Several clicks to select and open the saved

    • Whatsapp Connection Status still "Pending" after migration

      Hello, I migrated my WhatsApp API to Zoho from another provider a day ago. So far the connection status is still “Pending”. There is a problem? How long does it usually take?

    • Where to Add Machines as Products to Map with Assets in Zoho FSM?

      implementing Zoho FSM for a clinical equipment supply company. The business sells and installs clinical machines in hospitals and clinics, and they also handle service requests, scheduled maintenance, calibration visits, and general machine upkeep. In

    • Work Order Assignment for Engineers Handling Their Own Requests

      I’m setting up FSM for a business where there are multiple engineers, but each engineer handles their own process end-to-end receiving the service request, creating the work order, and completing the field service job. I noticed that I must create an

    • Experience Zoho Show on Mac now!

      Work today isn’t tied to a single place, time, or routine. It happens in cafes between meetings, on flights, or late at night when ideas strike. And when ins, your tools need to be ready, wherever you are. That’s why we built the Zoho Show app for Mac.

    • 【開催報告】東京 ユーザー交流会 Vol.4 | Zoho CRM 自動化のコツ ・Bookings のビジネス活用シーンとおすすめ機能を紹介

      ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 11月28日(金)に新橋で「東京 ユーザー交流会 Vol.4」を開催しました。ご参加くださったユーザーの皆さま、ありがとうございました。ユーザー交流会の年内開催は、今回が最後でした。 この投稿では、当日のセッションの様子や使用した資料を紹介しています。残念ながら当日お越しいただけなかった方も、ぜひチェックしてみてください😊 ユーザー活用事例セッション：関数やクライアントスクリプトまで、CRMをもっと便利に Zoho CRM には、ワークフローやブループリントなど、さまざまな自動化に役立つ標準機能が備わっています。さらに、関数（Deluge）のようにスクリプトを記述して高度な自動化を実現することもできます。

    • Kiosk Button Actions

      I need to add an action to a Kiosk Button to loop me back to start the kiosk again and I am not sure what that looks like (function, etc.).

    • [Webinar] Automate generation of wills, trusts, POAs, and other estate planning documents with Zoho Writer

      Managing the lifecycle of the estate planning documents such as wills, trusts, and POAs, from client intake to final storage, can be complex and time-consuming. Join our live webinar to learn how Zoho Writer transforms this process by automating document

    • Dependent drop-downs... how?

      Good day. I have 2 different situations where I need a dependent drop-down field. First is for a subform, where I want to show related fields for a specific customer on the main form. In my case it is a parent whose children make use of our school transport

    • Client Portal ZOHO ONE

      Dear Zoho one is fantastic option for companies but it seems to me that it is still an aggregation of aps let me explain I have zoho books with client portal so client access their invoice then I have zoho project with client portal so they can access their project but not their invoice without another URL another LOGIN Are you planning in creating a beautiful UI portal for client so we can control access to client in one location to multiple aps at least unify project and invoice aps that would

    • Reporting Limitation on Lead–Product Relation in Zoho CRM

      I noticed that Zoho CRM has a default Products related list under Leads. However, when I try to create a report for Lead–Product association, I’m facing some limitations. To fix this, I’m considering adding a multi-lookup field along with a custom related

    • Zoho Logs - Not seeing logs since 30 Nov

      Hi, we have a few functions running, I am testing some new ones and noticed that although I can see executions, I cannot see any logs, even when the first line on the functions is a log. I reviewed some existing functions, one of which is invoked on a

    • Creating multiple CRM leads from a Zoho Forms subform

      Hi all, We have a heavily used intake form that is used for new leads as a part of our intake. There is a subform that allows the lead to add additional team members, their titles and other basic info. That form submission creates a new Lead and the subform

    • Series Label in the Legend

      My legend reads 'Series 1' and 'Series 2'. From everything I read online, Zoho is supposed to change the data names if it's formatted correctly. I have the proper labels on the top of the columns and the right range selected. I assume it's something in

    • Dynamic Signature - Record owner

      Hi everyone, I’m using Zoho Writer merge templates from Zoho CRM and have two questions: Owner signature: How can I automatically insert the CRM record owner’s signature in the merged document? I’m not sure where this signature is stored or how to reference

    • Set Warehouse based on Vendor

      Greetings. I would like to set automaticaly the Warehouse based on the Vendor. Context: I am working on an adaptation of a Purchase Order to be used as a Quotation. I have defined that when a user has to raise a quote the Vendor will be "PROCUREMENT" I would like to set the Warehouse to a predefined value when "PROCUREMENT" is set as Vendor. I have tried to do with the Automation feature using the Field Update option, but Warehouse does not is listed as a field. Can you help? Thanks in advance.

    • Zoho CRM for Everyone's NextGen UI Gets an Upgrade

      Hello Everyone We've made improvements to Zoho CRM for Everyone's Nextgen UI. These changes are the result of valuable feedback from you where we’ve focused on improving usability, providing wider screen space, and making navigation smoother so everything

    • search and Smart Bar both missing in Mail

      One of the users on my account does not have the search bar at the top right or the Smart Bar at the bottom left of the desktop Mail app. Any ideas how to get those back?

    • Printing from Zoho Creator hosted on my own server to printers hosted on my clients local network

      Hello. Fairly new to Zoho Creator and looking for best options to be able to print from my application hosted on my own server to any printer hosted on my clients own local network. Any advice is welcome. Thank you.

    • Add System Pre-Defined Lookup Field to Subform?

      Hi there! New to using Zoho, so this may already exist, but I'm having trouble figuring it out. Is there a way to get the system pre-defined Account Lookup field (in our case, renamed to Company Name), as the starting point for a subform? In our company,

    • Next Page