Use interests

Once you've created your interests, there are several ways to assign them to contacts and put them to work in campaigns, workflows, and segmentation. This article covers each method in detail.

If you haven't created any interests yet, start with "Create and manage an interest". If you're setting up interests for the first time, "How to start with interests" walks you through the full process step by step.

Prerequisites

• You have at least one interest created in Contacts > Interests.
• To use private interests, you need a Pro subscription or higher.
• To use link tracking, you need a published campaign message with tracked links enabled.
• To use workflow actions, you need an active workflow.

Via opt-in forms

When you create or edit an opt-in form, you can pre-assign up to five public interests to new subscribers. These interests are ticked by default when the contact sees the form. Contacts can adjust their selections before confirming, and they can always update their interests later on their profile page.

This is useful when you know that contacts subscribing through a specific form, for example, a form on your product page, are likely interested in a specific topic. Pre-selecting the relevant interest saves them a step and increases the chance they'll stay subscribed to it.

Via import

To assign interests when importing contacts, add an Interests column to your CSV file. List the interest names for each contact, separated by commas if there are multiple.

A few rules to keep in mind:

• If a contact has previously unsubscribed from an interest, that interest will be skipped. Only the contact themselves can re-subscribe to an interest they've opted out of.
• If you want to assign the same interest to all contacts in an import, you don't need a column in your file, you can do it in the final step of the import flow.
• Interests are never overwritten by an import. New interests are added on top of what a contact already has.

Manually on a contact's detail page

Open any contact's detail page and click Adjust next to Interests. Select interests from the dropdown or type to search. You can also create a new interest directly from this screen. Remove an interest by unchecking it, then click Save.

Via link tracking

Link tracking lets you assign an interest to a specific link in your email. Every contact who clicks that link is automatically subscribed to the associated interest.

To set this up, go to Link tracking in your message editor. Flexmail lists all the links in your message. For each link, you can enable tracking and optionally select an interest to assign when clicked.

Via workflows

Workflows give you the most flexible control over interests. There are three ways interests connect to workflows:

Trigger: contact subscribes to an interest

Start a workflow when a contact is added to a specific interest. Useful for welcome sequences tied to a content category, for example, when someone subscribes to "Events", automatically send them your upcoming events overview.

Trigger: contact unsubscribes from an interest

Start a workflow when a contact leaves an interest. Useful for re-engagement flows or clean-up actions.

Condition: check if a contact has an interest

Add an if/else condition in your workflow to branch based on whether a contact is subscribed to an interest. Contacts who have the interest go down one path; those who don't go down the other.

Action: add or remove an interest

Use a contact action in your workflow to add or remove an interest based on any other trigger, campaign interaction, form completion, date, or anything else. For example: when a contact completes a purchase form, add the interest "Customer". When they unsubscribe from all communications, remove all interests.

Segmenting on interests

To send a campaign to contacts with a specific interest, create a segment first. In the segment builder, add a condition and select Interest. Then choose one of the available operators:

• Is subscribed to, contacts currently subscribed.
• Is not subscribed to, contacts who have never subscribed or have been removed.
• Is unsubscribed from, contacts who were once subscribed but opted out.
• Is not subscribed to any public interest, contacts with no public interest subscriptions at all.
• Is subscribed to any of these interests, contacts subscribed to at least one from a list.
• Is subscribed to all of these interests, contacts subscribed to every interest in a list.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Pre-assigning too many interests on an opt-in form. Contacts who see a long list of pre-ticked interests may feel overwhelmed or uncheck everything. Keep pre-assigned interests to those that are genuinely relevant to the form's context.
• Not testing link tracking before sending. Always verify that the correct interest is linked to the correct link in your message before the campaign goes out.
• Manually assigning interests at scale when import is more efficient. Manual adjustments on the contact detail page are fine for individual contacts, but for bulk changes, use import or a workflow action.
• Using "is not subscribed to" when you mean "is unsubscribed from". These two conditions return different contact groups, be precise about which one you need.
• Removing an interest via workflow that was assigned by the contact themselves. If a contact subscribed to an interest through a form, removing it via a workflow without their knowledge may damage trust. Use workflow interest removal deliberately and for clear operational reasons.

Next steps

• See "Get started with interest" for an overview of how interests work across Flexmail.
• Build a segment using an interest condition in Contacts > Segments.
• Set up a workflow that triggers on an interest subscription in Workflows > Create workflow.

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