Use interests

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

If you have not created any interests yet, start with "Create and manage an interest". If you are setting up interests for the first time, "Get started with interests" guides you step by step through the entire process.

Prerequisites

• You have created at least one interest via Contacts > Interests.
• For private interests, you need a Pro plan or higher.
• For link tracking, you need a published campaign message with tracked links enabled.
• For 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 views the form. Contacts can adjust their selection before confirming, and they can always update their interests later on their profile page.

This is useful if you know that contacts subscribing through a specific form, such as a form on your product page, are likely interested in a particular topic. Pre-ticking the relevant interest saves them a step and increases the likelihood that they stay subscribed.

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 is skipped. Only the contact themselves can re-subscribe to an interest from which they unsubscribed.
• If you want to assign the same interest to all contacts in an import, you do not need a column in your file. You can do this 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 a contact's detail page and click Adjust next to Interests. Select interests from the dropdown menu or type to search. You can also create a new interest directly from this screen. Remove an interest by clearing the tick box, then click Save.

Via link tracking

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

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

Interests assigned via link tracking rely on clicks. Flexmail tracks clicks for all recipients, regardless of their open tracking consent, as long as link tracking is turned on for the link. This makes it a reliable way to see who is interested in a topic, even if your open tracking is limited.

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. This is useful for welcome sequences tied to a content category. When someone subscribes to "Events", automatically send them an overview of your upcoming events.

Trigger: contact unsubscribes from an interest

Start a workflow when a contact leaves an interest. This is 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 follow one path, while contacts who do not follow the other.

Action: add or remove an interest

Use a contact action in your workflow to add or remove an interest based on another trigger, such as campaign interaction, form submission, 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 who are currently subscribed.
• Is not subscribed to: contacts who have never subscribed or were removed.
• Is unsubscribed from: contacts who were once subscribed but unsubscribed.
• Is not subscribed to any public interest: contacts without any public interest subscription.
• Is subscribed to any of these interests: contacts subscribed to at least one interest from a list.
• Is subscribed to all of these interests: contacts subscribed to every interest in a list.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Pre-ticking too many interests on an opt-in form. Contacts who see a long list of pre-ticked interests can feel overwhelmed or untick everything. Limit pre-assigned interests to those genuinely relevant to the form context.
• Not testing link tracking before sending. Always verify that the correct interest is linked to the right 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 work well for individual contacts, but use import or a workflow action for bulk updates.
• 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 a workflow that the contact assigned themselves. If a contact subscribed to an interest via a form, removing it via a workflow without their knowledge can damage trust. Use workflow interest removal deliberately and only for clear operational reasons.

Next steps

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