Zoho Marketing Automation Update: Topics, Contacts, and List Management

Zoho Marketing Automation Update: Topics, Contacts, and List Management

At Zoho Marketing Automation, our highest priority is making it easier for you to use our product to accomplish your business goals. With that in mind, we are updating three of our pivotal features: Topic, Contacts, and List Management.
 
These existing features have been tweaked to be more user-friendly and intuitive. They are exclusively designed to give the end-user the power to choose the kind of content they want to receive.
 
Existing users have time till September 30, 2022 to migrate to the new system. We have ensured a seamless migration, not impacting the previous set up. However, you can always reach out to support@zohomarketingautomation.com if you need assistance. 
 
Here are some of the key developments 
 
List and Contact Management
 
  • When adding contacts (called "leads" within the app), you will have to choose a subscription type for each contact: a marketing contact, a non-marketing contact, or an unsubscribed contact.
  • When adding contacts, you can directly import them to the "All leads" database.
  • It is now possible to associate multiple Topics to contacts on the same list. When a user sends an email campaign to a list, only those contacts who are subscribed to the same Topic as the one associated with the email campaign will receive the email. For example, the campaign "Webinar promotion" is assigned to the list "New signups." Now only those contacts associated to the topic "Webinars" from the mailing list "New signups" will receive the email.
 
Topic Management 
 
  • Topics will be maintained at the organization level. This means when someone unsubscribes, the contact is removed from the organization. 
  • However, the "Manage preferences" link will be present in the confirmation page where subscribers will get to choose the Topics they are interested in.
  • Enabling Topics for all their email campaigns is now mandatory. Also, Topics must be assigned to automated emails that are part of journeys.
  • Topics will no longer be associated with a list. Instead, they will be directly associated with contacts.
 
These updates will be made available globally by September 21, 2021. 
 
We will enforce this new topic management setup for all users that sign up after September 21, 2021. 

 
For existing customers
 
  • Existing customers do not have to worry as any manual adjustments will not be required. The migration will be seamless and won't impact any previous setup that they might have had. 
  • An existing organization that doesn't have Topics enabled can enable it at any time until September 30, 2022. When enabled, we will enforce the new Topic Management system by creating a default Topic called "Marketing." Users can manage their organization's products and Topics as desired. 
  • Existing organizations that already use Topics can choose to migrate to the new Topic Management system anytime until September 30, 2022. Once enabled, this change cannot be reverted. We have put in place all the necessary implementations to make sure this transition is frictionless. 
 
A user can choose to opt for the new Topic Management system with just the click of a button. Beyond September 30, 2022, we will automatically enable new Topic Management for all existing users. 


Here is a side by side comparison of the old and the new topic management approach.
Highlights
Topics
Contacts
Marketing Types
Misc


FAQs

When do these updates go live?
You can adopt the new Topic Management approach any time before September 30, 2022. Once you switch, every functionality, from campaign sending to list and contact management, will take effect and you can experience hassle-free email marketing.

I've already set up topics in my Zoho Marketing Automation account. Will switching to the new setup erase all my previous topics? 
No, all your current topics will be seamlessly migrated to the new setup. We will provide any help you need.

I don't have even a single topic created in my account. What happens when I set up topic management? 
We mandate that your organization has at least one topic created. Zoho Marketing Automation adds a topic named Marketing by default when you configure topics for your account.  

What happens to my active journeys after these changes?
The active journeys remain unchanged.
 
 
We highly recommend you go through this page and watch this video to get a detailed breakdown of this update.

**Note: Release Notes Attached as PDF

      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          • Sticky Posts

          • Marketer’s Space - Automating CRM Actions with Journeys – Part 2

            Hello marketers! Welcome back to another post in Marketer’s Space. In our previous post, we explored how CRM actions in Journeys help marketing and sales teams work together by nurturing CRM leads and pushing only engaged prospects back to sales. If you
          • Introducing automation and utility conversations in WhatsApp marketing

            We’re excited to announce the addition of two new features to our WhatsApp integration: Automation and Utility conversations. These enhancements will allow you to streamline your marketing efforts and engage with your customers more effectively by automating
          • Tip of the week 02 - The art of 'seeing' your leads

            What's the last page that your lead visited before signing up for your brand? What was the page that first convinced your lead to explore more about you? Where are your leads coming in from? Well, these are some perennial questions today's marketers live upon. And, knowing the answers to these questions is crucial, considering the vitality of leads in every business. In the journey of finding lead opportunities, it's important to understand that every detail about a lead is useful. While the channels
          • Zoho Marketing Automation Update: Topics, Contacts, and List Management

            At Zoho Marketing Automation, our highest priority is making it easier for you to use our product to accomplish your business goals. With that in mind, we are updating three of our pivotal features: Topic, Contacts, and List Management.   These existing
          • Important: Zoho MarketingHub is now Zoho Marketing Automation

            Hello Everyone,   We hope you all are doing well. We'd like to notify you that we have rebranded Zoho MarketingHub to Zoho Marketing Automation. We'll discontinue using the term "MarketingHub" from May 26, 2021. However, there will be no changes in the

          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

            Zoho Books Resources


              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                Zoho Projects Resources


                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                    Zoho Orchestly Resources


                      Zoho Creator Resources


                        Zoho WorkDrive Resources



                          Zoho CRM Resources

                          • CRM Community Learning Series

                            CRM Community Learning Series


                          • Tips

                            Tips

                          • Functions

                            Functions

                          • Meetups

                            Meetups

                          • Kbase

                            Kbase

                          • Resources

                            Resources

                          • Digest

                            Digest

                          • CRM Marketplace

                            CRM Marketplace

                          • MVP Corner

                            MVP Corner




                            Zoho Writer Writer

                            Get Started. Write Away!

                            Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                              Zoho CRM コンテンツ






                                ご検討中の方

                                  • Recent Topics

                                  • Recruit paid support?

                                    Hi all, Could anyone who has paid support package advise if it provides value for money with regards to support response times? Exploring the idea as unfortunately when we have faced issues with Recruit it has been a 7+ day timescale from reporting to
                                  • Related Lists filter

                                    I have Contacts showing in our Accounts module. I customized the Contacts module with an Employment Status field, with the following picklist options: "Primary Contact", "Secondary Contact", "Active Staff(not a main contact)", and "No longer employed".
                                  • Stock count by bin location

                                    Is there a configuration to make a stock count by bin or area and not by product. these is useful to manage count by area Regards
                                  • Standalone custom function not generating logs

                                    Why dont't standalone custom functions generate logs when the're called from another function? I have some functions (workflow, buttons and blueprint) that have common parts, so I put that part in a standalone function which is called from the others.
                                  • Automated log-out/session end

                                    I'm concerned about security of our data. Is it possible to set an automatic time-out for user sessions on Zoho CRM, after a certain period of inactivity or when the session reaches a certain duration (12 hours perhaps)? 
                                  • Add "Reset MFA" Option for Zoho Creator Client Portal Users

                                    Hello Zoho Creator Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to request an important enhancement related to Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for client portal users in Zoho Creator. Currently, Creator allows us to enforce MFA for portal users,
                                  • Support Bots and Automations in External Channels

                                    Hello Zoho Cliq Team, How are you? We actively use Zoho Cliq for collaboration, including with our external developers. For this purpose, external channels are a key tool since they work seamlessly within the same interface as all of our other channels
                                  • Urgent Security Feature Request – Add MFA to Zoho Projects Client Portal Hello Zoho Projects Team,

                                    Hello Zoho Projects Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to submit an urgent security enhancement request regarding the Zoho Projects Client Portal. At this time, as far as we are aware, there is no Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) available
                                  • Creator HTML page refresh

                                    Hi, I have added around 5 different html snippets in single creator page. I understand, I can refresh the entire page from page script using Navigational URLs https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/creator/developer-guide/others/url-patterns/articles/navigational-urls
                                  • Zoho Desk - Custom Module Related List Columns on Tickets

                                    I have a custom module in Zoho Desk called Asana Tasks, each task has a lookup to a Ticket. On the Ticket I want to see the columns of the Asana Tasks in the related list . Is there a way to do this? Right now it just has the name of the record and I
                                  • Google Analytics import data inaccurate (as of October 11, 2025)

                                    We have Zoho Analytics connected to GA4 to import daily event data. This has been running without issue for a couple of years. However, a month ago we started noticing discrepancies. All data until October 10 lines up perfectly - October 11 onward is
                                  • What is your opinion of the new UI?

                                    Hi Everyone, I would like to see what everyone thinks of the new Zoho One Dashboard. I don't get it, but perhaps I'm missing something. What are your thoughts?
                                  • What are the OAuth scopes needed to access the Zoho MCP server?

                                    I think I'm authenticating with the MCP server endpoint successfully using a bearer token but I can't successfully initialize an MCP session. I'm using the official MCP Python sdk (https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/python-sdk). I get as far as here
                                  • Support Uploading YouTube Videos Longer Than 60 Minutes

                                    Hi Zoho Social Team, How are you? We would like to request support for uploading YouTube videos longer than 60 minutes directly through Zoho Social. Your support team informed us that Zoho Social currently cannot upload videos over 60 minutes due to “API
                                  • Account blocked for IMAP use

                                    Hello, My email client (Evolution) can't sync mail anymore. It gives the error: "Your account is temporarily blocked for IMAP use. This may happen if you exceed the maximum number of simultaneous IMAP connections allowed. Kindly try again after some time."
                                  • Is SMTP included in the free plan?

                                    My client has a Zoho Mail Free 14 day trial that ends tomorrow. She has set up a domain email address with SMTP on a third party app and is wondering if it will continue working once her plan downgrades to the free forever plan. Thanks
                                  • Zoho mail issue.

                                    I have verified my domain ohhoexpress.online by adding necessary TXT and MX records. But when I am sending email to any external email id, it is showing as zohomail.com. Also while I am sending mail to internal mail id, it is saying user not found whereas
                                  • My email is blocked from sending

                                    I get this message when I try to send any message .. > Unable to send message, Reason 554 5.1.8 Email Outgoing Blocked We have urgent emails to send and the issue continues to persist from yesterday. Please help us with this issue as soon as possibl
                                  • [WEBINAR] Smooth year-end closure with Zoho Books (KENYA)

                                    Hello there, This webinar is for all Kenyan businesses looking to wrap up their financial year smoothly! Join our free session to learn how Zoho Books can simplify your year-end process. What to expect from this webinar: - All the latest updates in Zoho
                                  • cannot recieve or send emails

                                    we are not recieving or cannot send emails.Shows sysytem error
                                  • Zoho Sites - contact us form

                                    I have added a contact us form to my website. I wanted to change the layout so I deleted the section of Contact Us form. When I again try to add the section of Contact Us form, it shows error that "This form already exists on this page."  I am unable
                                  • Setting checkbox value on template in Sign from Creator

                                    Good day, Please help me understand how do I set a tick from a checkbox in Creator into a checkbox on a Sign template. Below is the only values on the Sign template and the code from Creator, "field_boolean_data": {}, "field_date_data": {}, "field_radio_data":
                                  • Zoho Forms - Improve the CRM integration field to query data from more than one module

                                    Hi Forms team, Something I get stuck on regularly is pre-populating a form with data when that data is spread across 2 or 3 modules. For example Contacts, Accounts and Deals. I don't want to duplicate the information in CRM so I end up writing a function
                                  • switching from POP3 to IMAPI do I need to change settings in Web email?

                                    hi so I am using Outlook with My Zoho mail, also have Verizon email /AOL. they no longer support POP3 and said imapi is much better, so I want to switch my ZoHo to imapai. I googled and it said i need to change it in my account....i looked at my account
                                  • What functionality is new in the Z025 Spaces UI dashboard compared to the previous Zoho One dashboard?

                                    My company is interested in creating a revamped dashboard this coming year, and are trying to weigh different platform options. The new Spaces UI is said to be a more "feature-rich" dashboard experience than the previous. Could a developer please explain
                                  • Collections Management: #5 Convenience on Offer, using Self-Checkout

                                    "Is this the right page? Oh, now, it wants my address again. Why am I being redirected?" These were the exact thoughts running through Karan's mind as he tried to subscribe to an application he genuinely liked. He clicked "Buy Now", expecting a quick
                                  • Uploading a signed template from Sign to Creator

                                    Good day, Please help me on how to load a signed document back into Creator after the process has been completed in Sign. Below is the code that I am trying, pdfFile = response.toFile("SignedDocument_4901354000000372029.pdf"); info pdfFile; // Attach
                                  • Tip #50- A Closer Look at the Unattended Access Dashboard- 'Insider Insights'

                                    Having complete visibility and quick access to everything you need certainly makes managing multiple remote devices a lot easier, and that is precisely what the Unattended Access Dashboard in Zoho Assist is designed to offer. Once you go to the Unattended
                                  • Zoho CRM Portal User Timeline History Unavailable

                                    Hi Support Team, We have noticed a feature limitation in the Zoho CRM portal. We created a portal for our vendors to edit records directly, but when vendors make updates, the Modified Time and Date fields are not being updated. Additionally, these updates
                                  • New in Smart Prompt: Record Assistant for contextual assistance, and support for new AI models

                                    Smart Prompt helps teams stay informed and move faster by providing relevant suggestions where work happens in CRM. With this update, Smart Prompt becomes more adaptable to your organization’s AI preferences. You can now choose which Large Language Model
                                  • Almost all Flows are being queued

                                    A few days ago I saw one of my Flows status was Queued. This was the first time this had ever happened. Now, almost every Flow that triggers is Queued for at least a few minutes. If I re-trigger the Flow (which causes separate problems) they sometimes
                                  • Zoho Map integration tasks have changed - you need to "Locate all instances of Zoho Map integration tasks in your Deluge scripts by searching for the v1 marker... before 16 January 2026"

                                    Details of an issue specific to Zoho CRM + Deluge Functions (originally posted in this forum) can be found here: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/zoho-map-integration-tasks-have-changed-you-need-to-locate-all-instances-of-zoho-map-integration-tasks-in-your-deluge-scripts-by-searching-for-the-v1-marker
                                  • How to update custom multi-user field in Zoho Projects?

                                    I'm trying to update custom multi-user fields in Zoho Projects via a Deluge function in CRM. The code I have so far is below. It works for updating standard project fields and single-line custom fields, but it does not work to update multi-user fields.
                                  • Tip of the Week #75– Manage your social media messages from a single shared inbox.

                                    Are you tired of jumping between apps or browser tabs to reply to your business's Facebook and Instagram DMs? Handling customer messages on social media might seem simple, but switching between multiple platforms can easily lead to lost messages, duplicate
                                  • Zoho Map integration tasks have changed - you need to "Locate all instances of Zoho Map integration tasks in your Deluge scripts by searching for the v1 marker... before 16 January 2026"

                                    The Zoho Map deluge integration task has been changed (as at 21 October 2025) to provide a more structured, JSON-like response. This change affects all three Zoho Map integration tasks (Geocode, Reverse Geocode, and Distance Between). More details can
                                  • Using files from Zoho CRM in Gemini/ChatGPT/Claude

                                    Hi all, I’ve got subscriptions to Gemini and a few other AI tools which I use for tasks like data enrichment, email composition, etc. In our workflow, we often receive various documents from clients — such as process workflows, BRDs/requirement documents
                                  • Zoho Analytics & Zoho Creator - Modified Time value

                                    I'm trying to use the Zoho Creator system field 'modified time' in Zoho Analytics, but it's consistently showing 12 hours 'out' In Zoho Creator In Zoho Analytics Is this a constant difference that I just need to correct with a timezone change - or is
                                  • Zoho CRM - Option to create Follow-Up Task

                                    When completing a Zoho CRM Task, it would be very helpful if there was an option to "Complete and Create Follow-Up Task" in the pop-up which appears. It could clone the task you are closing and then show it on the screen in edit mode, all the user would
                                  • Portal For Different Apps

                                    I found some older threads on this but didn't see anything very recent. I'm new to Zoho One so forgive me if my terminology is off a bit. I was hoping set up a single point of entry into Zoho One. So, many of the apps could be found in one single place
                                  • Calls undetected

                                    Zoho Voice records indicate my last call ended at 6:00 PM. All incoming and outgoing calls occurred between 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM.
                                  • Next Page