Marketer’s Space – Automate Subscription Management for CRM Contacts Using Workflows in Zoho Campaigns

Marketer’s Space – Automate Subscription Management for CRM Contacts Using Workflows in Zoho Campaigns

Hello, marketers! Welcome back to Marketer’s Space. In this week’s post, we’ll look at how to simplify subscription management using Workflows for contacts synced from Zoho CRM in Zoho Campaigns. There are multiple ways to assign topics to your contacts:
  • Default assignment at sync: When syncing contacts from CRM, you can either keep them unsubscribed (no topics) or subscribe them to all available topics. This gives you a clean starting point, especially if you plan to collect preferences later.
  • Letting contacts choose: You can send an email campaign with a preference center link, allowing contacts to choose the topics they’re interested in. Their selections are automatically reflected in their topic subscriptions.
  • Manual updates via CRM: If your sales team collects customer interests during conversations, they can record them in custom CRM fields such as a field called “Interests.” These fields can hold one or more interest values like sale, product launch, or newsletters. Once these contacts are synced into Zoho Campaigns, you can build a Workflow that reads this data and automatically subscribes each contact to the relevant topics.
In this post, we’ll look at how to use custom CRM fields and Workflows in Zoho Campaigns to automate topic assignment based on customer interests.

Why automate subscription management?   

When both your sales team and your customers update subscription preferences, manual handling can get messy. Automating this process ensures that:
  • Your contact lists stay up-to-date
  • You remain compliant with email regulations
  • You send only relevant emails to the right audience

Sync CRM contacts with a targeted list   

To begin, sync your Zoho CRM contacts to a specific mailing list in Zoho Campaigns. This list will serve as the foundation for your targeting and automation.
Here’s how you can set it up:
  • Go to Settings > Apps > Zoho CRM and connect your account.
  • Then navigate to Contacts > Sync Services > New Sync.
Choose the CRM module you’d like to sync (e.g., Leads, Contacts or custom modules ) and map it to a mailing list in Zoho Campaigns.

Once the sync is set up, you can trigger Workflows using:
  • List Entry – Triggers when a contact is added to the synced list.
  • Field Update – Triggers based on changes to mapped CRM field values.

This setup ensures your Workflows respond dynamically to CRM data and list activity.

Capture interests directly in Zoho CRM   

Your sales team can log customer interests in a custom CRM field (e.g., Interests). This might include values like:
  • Sale
  • New Product Launch
  • Exclusive Content
These values become the key to targeting contacts with relevant content.

Create topics in Zoho Campaigns   

To align campaigns with user interests, create relevant topics inside Zoho Campaigns.
You’ll find this under Contacts > Manage Topics. 



Consider topics like:
  • Newsletters
  • Member-only updates
  • Sale announcements
  • Product launches

Organizing your campaigns under topics helps contacts manage preferences and improves engagement.

Build your automated subscription Workflow      

Trigger the Workflow   

Use the “List Entry” trigger with your CRM-synced list.
Alternately, use the “Field Update” trigger to filter based on interest fields or subscription status.  

Split based on Interests   

Add the Process Condition component and select the Multi-way option.
  • Branch 1: Interest is “Sale”
  • Branch 2: Interest is “New Product Launch”
  • Branch 3: Interest is empty → default to unsubscribe  

Assign subscriptions automatically   

For each branch, add the “Subscription Management” action component:
  • Branch 1 → Subscribe to Sale Announcements
  • Branch 2 → Subscribe to Product Launches
  • Branch 3 → Unsubscribe from all topics to avoid sending irrelevant emails
This ensures each contact only receives what they opted in for or nothing irrelevant.

Assigning Multiple Topics Using Comma-Separated Values   

If your CRM contacts are interested in more than one topic, you can record multiple interests in a single CRM field using comma-separated values. For example: sale, launch, newsletters
When you use the “contains” modifier, you can match this field against several keywords at once and assign multiple topics in a single branch.

Trigger the workflow 

Use the Field Update trigger and select the CRM field where interests are stored (e.g., Interests). This workflow will activate whenever the field is updated in CRM.

Add the Process Condition  

  • Insert a Multi-way process component and set the condition to: Interests contains sale launch newsletters 
  • Make sure the keywords are separated by spaces so that each word can be evaluated individually. If the contact’s field contains any of the specified values (sale, launch, newsletters), the workflow will take this path.

Assign multiple topic subscriptions 

To that branch, add the Subscription Management action component and add all relevant topics. This ensures:
  • A single contact can be subscribed to multiple relevant topics
  • No interest is missed out during automation

Advanced Use Case: 

Use an additional CRM field like Customer Type (e.g., Member, Non-member). Create a separate Workflow that:
  • Filters contacts with “Member” status
  • Subscribes them to exclusive member-only topics
This lets you send gated content without mixing up audiences.  

Use Segments as an alternative trigger   

Instead of using a list-based trigger, you can create a Segment using criteria like CRM fields or engagement behavior. Then:
  • Trigger a Workflow when a contact is added to a segment using the “Enter a Segment” trigger component
  • Automate topic subscriptions or unsubscribes from there
This is ideal when you prefer dynamic criteria over static list membership.

With Workflows in Zoho Campaigns, subscription management becomes hands-free, precise, and personalized. Whether you’re handling thousands of CRM contacts or running niche campaigns for select groups, this setup keeps your audience segmentation sharp and relevant.

See you soon with more ways to supercharge the Zoho CRM + Campaigns integration. Until then, happy marketing!

Regards,
Pearlin Nitika
User Education | Zoho Campaigns

    • Recent Topics

    • Auto add new section based on document choices

      Hi team, I'm wondering if the below is a possilibity within Zoho sign. We have an application process to become a customer of ours, we currently use Zoho Sign to manage this application and this works quite well. However, if the customer indicates 'YES'

    • Change rate after xxxx kilometers

      Is there a way to change the miileage rate after a certain mileage. After 5000 kilometers, we want the rate to automaticly change. Thank !

    • Subform Entry Limit from a Subform Field (A different Subform on the same Form)

      Hi, I would like to be able to use a Subform 1 Field as the Dynamic Entry Limit for Subform 2. Even better would be able to use some code with the values, so for example using the Subform 1 Qty Field as the Max Entry limit for Subform 2, BUT only the

    • Slow Zobot response time

      Hi, We launched the Zobot on our site to sit along with the regular Live Chat but had to take the Zobot down as the response time was very slow. The bot was slow to begin then once the chat had been initiated the response was very slow. The bot typing

    • how to show data of 3 table in pivot

      Based on engineer name i want to get the data from 3 different tables like Service , amc, installation , but Every table contain Engineer name As Common , based that from the service table i want to take service amount , and count of service based on

    • Custom Status for Purchase Orders

      Currently Zoho books has functionality to create custom statuses for Sales Orders. Can this be extended to include custom status for purchase orders as well? It was a great decision to add this functionality to sales orders. Our use case is for tracking

    • Ask the Experts 22: Scale up your customer support with integrations & extensibility

      Hello everyone! The foundation is set. Build the beams. Raise the pillars. Set the walls. The Zoho Desk architecture stands tall. Let's discuss integration within Zoho Desk, extensions from the Marketplace, creating connections between Zoho Desk and other

    • Is there no way to duplicate an entire workflow or even custom function across multiple departments?

      Is there no way to duplicate an entire workflow or even a custom function from one department to other departments, like it is done for field duplication from one department layout to other department layouts?

    • Automated reply on any new ticket raised by customer

      Hi ZohoDesk team, Can we set up an automation so that whenever a new ticket is created against our support email; ZohoDesk immediately sends our standard acknowledgement, including the expected TAT for resolution? If that’s possible, could you share the

    • Create Invoice With More Than One Item/Product

      I was trying to use Zoho Flow to automatically create an invoice when an opportunity is marked won in Zoho CRM. However, you can only add one item/product using the Create invoice module. Is it possible to add more than one item/product to the same invoice?

    • Zoho equipment rental - just like Booqable

      Hi Zoho Team, is it possible to create a module or a system like booqable? our business starts renting our IT equipment assets that have been recently used for Events and Projects, we are having ZOHO books so its easy to integrate if you create one. Booqable

    • Profit Margin Scheme

      I'm a tourism company operating in the aviation and outbound tourism sectors. Typically, taxes are 0% as our operations are outside the country. However, the state has now imposed a tax on the profit margin. This means if the selling price of an airline

    • Visibility and Enforcement for Outdated Plug Parameters in Zobot Canvas

      Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, Greetings, We’d like to suggest an important usability and quality improvement for working with Plugs inside Zobot. Current Behavior: When we update the code of an existing Plug, any Zobot card using that Plug requires manual resaving.

    • Announcement: Zoho DataPrep to Deprecate Password-Only Authentication for Snowflake Connections on July 31, 2025

      As part of our ongoing commitment to security and in alignment with Snowflake's pledge to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Secure by Design initiative, Zoho DataPrep will no longer support single-factor password authentication.

    • Text on Zoho Sign confirmation dialouge is very small compared to text used everywhere else on Zoho Sign.

      I've reported multiple times through Zoho's support email that the text on this notification is very small in contrast to all the other text on the Zoho Sign app. I think it's a bug and it just needs the font size to be increased. It's very minor but

    • Error Message: None of the rows can be imported

      I have been using zoho sheets to download my CSV file for about 2 years now, this month, October 2021, for some reason when I download it to upload to zoho books I get a message saying "None of the rows can be imported". I have been using the same process,

    • Invalid Element place_of_contact, Invalid Element gst_no, Invalid Element gst_treatment

      so this is the body contact_name: orderData.customerName, company_name: orderData.customerName, email: orderData.email, contact_type: 'customer', currency_code: 'INR', gst_treatment: 'business_gst', gst_no: 'i using proper gst no i just removed it from

    • Not able to item an item to non taxable via api, despite sending is_taxable as false

      Hi everyone, I'm trying to update an item via books api and even when sending is_taxable as false, the item still shows Taxable in zoho, I get no errors as well when I update, any help appreciated in this!

    • Collection & Payment Mapping Automation

      We book Sales Invoices and Purchase Invoices against Same Projects. Both Sales Invoices & Purchase Invoices can have one or multiple Projects mentioning the Project ID. We prefer to Make vendor Payments Once we have received The Collections from Clients

    • Nested Sub-forms (Subform within subform)

      Hi Team, Whether there is any possibilities to add sub-form with in another sub-form like Main Form       -> Sub form A             ->Sub form B If we tried this, only one level of sub form only working.  Any one having any idea about this? Thanks Selvamuthukumar R

    • Restore Trashed Records Anytime Within 30 Days

      Access the recycle bin from the Data Administration tab under the settings page in Zoho Projects, which gives better control over the trashed data. When records like projects, phases, task lists, tasks, issues, or project templates are trashed, they are

    • Avoiding Inventory Duplication When Creating Bills for Previously Added Stock

      I had created several items in Zoho Books and manually added their initial stock at the time of item creation. However, I did not record the purchase cost against those items during that process. Now, I would like to create Purchase Orders and convert

    • Applying EUR Payments to USD Invoices in Zoho Books

      Hello, I have a customer to whom I issue invoices in USD. However, this customer makes payments in both EUR and USD. I have already enabled the multi-currency feature in Zoho Books Elite, but I am facing an issue: When the customer makes a payment in

    • How to prevent users from editing mail merge templates from Zoho crm

      We want users to use public mail merge templates. They should not be able to edit templates but only preview data merge and send emails. We did prohibit "manage mail merge template" in the user profile. But they can still edit the template in the zoho

    • Customer Addresses cannot be edited/deleted in invoices

      In the invoices we have an option to change the customer address and add a new address Now I dont know why for some reason if we add an address through this field, the address doesn't appear in the customer module We cannot delete the addresses added

    • Custom Fields connected to Invoices, Customers, Quotes, CRM

      I created the exact same custom fields in Books: Invoices, Customer, Quotes, and in CRM but they don't seem to have a relationship to one another. How do I connect these fields so that the data is mapped across transactions?

    • Accelerate Github code reviews with Zoho Cliq Platform's link handlers

      Code reviews are critical, and they can get buried in conversations or lost when using multiple tools. With the Cliq Platform's link handlers, let's transform shared Github pull request links into interactive, real-time code reviews on channels. Share

    • Heads up: We're going to update the VAT Summary table's visibility (UK and Germany Editions)

      Hello users, Note: This change only applies to organisations using the UK and Germany editions of Zoho Books. Currently, if you've enabled the VAT Summary table in a template, it will be displayed only in PDFs sent to your customers whose default currency

    • Partial payment invoicing

      Greetings I have questions related to payments and retainer invoices: 1. When I want to issue a partial payment invoice, I can't specify the portion to be paid or already paid, then balance to be shown as Due. 2. Retainer invoice is only available as

    • Inputting VAT Pre-Registration expenses for first VAT Return

      Hi Zoho, I've just registered for VAT and am setting up Zoho to handle calculations and VAT return submissions. I'm struggling to figure out how to input the last 4 years worth of expenses into Zoho so that they're calculated in the VAT module. When I

    • Anyone else experiencing very slow loading of pages in Zoho Projects?

      I reported this yesterday only to be told there are no issues but is anyone else experiencing stupidly slow loading of pages. On our loading screen, it is taking often as long as 60 seconds to load a page and just stays on this screen for ages! Other

    • Zoho Desk Lookup Field Reporting

      Thank you for adding the ability to add additional lookup fields for desk tickets. My question is how do you report against these fields? For example: Associating related accounts to the primary desk ticket account, I am not able to add the lookup fields

    • Integrating asana will cause notification messages to pop up continuously

      When I create or edit a task in Asana, the Asana bot keeps updating messages to group chat, which causes the cliq to keep popping up notifications.

    • Entire notebook that had notes has disappeared

      I don't know how tf this happened. All I did was uninstall and reinstall the mobile app after fixing a bug I had. After I reinstalled the app, everything was synced back except for one folder which had a bunch of notes in it. None of those notes are in

    • My site has disappeared from web builder

      www.mproperties.uk My site above is still working. However it has completely disappeared from my Zoho sites' web builder. I am therefore unable to edit my site whatsoever. Please help.

    • Trying to trigger email notification based on rollup summary field

      Hi there, I'm trying to trigger an email notification via Workflow Rules wherever the rollup summary field "Total Shipments" goes from empty to not empty. However this field is not available from the picklist of options in the Workflow rule. Can anyone

    • zia data enrichment - switch to webamigo Extension

      Hello, I have so far used data enrichment via Zia. Now I have installed the Webamigo extension to expand personal data. Unfortunately, nothing has changed after the installation; are there any additional steps needed to switch from the previous method

    • Export Timeline

      With the new Timeline features, it would be really helpful to have the option to export a timeline. When handling customer complaints, having the full breakdown of everything that happens on a module is great but we usually have to send this to another

    • Interactions Tab in Zoho CRM: A 360° Omnichannel View of Every Customer Touchpoint

      Hello Everyone, Hope you are well! We are here today with yet another announcement in our series for the revamped Zoho CRM. Today, we introduce Interactions Tab a new way to view all customer interactions from one place inside your CRM account. Customers

    • How to resubscribe a contact marked as "Unsubscribed (Marked by Recipient)" without using a form?

      Hello, I have a question regarding Zoho Marketing Automation functionality. Is there a way for an administrator to change the subscription status of a contact marked as "Unsubscribed (Marked by Recipient)" back to "Subscribed" without using a form? Ideally,

    • Next Page