A topic is a subject the person agrees to receive. It is not a tag (label) or a segment (filter). Tags mark; topics record consent per theme.
What is a topic?
A marketing theme in the workspace, e.g. Newsletter, Promotions, Launches. A person can accept one and decline another.
Analogy: general opt-in asks “can I send marketing?”. A topic asks which shelf interests them.
Topic × tag × segment
When to use?
Great for multiple marketing content types and MARKETING category templates. Transactional messages (order, password) do not follow the same topic rules.
How it works in practice
- Audience → Topics → New, name, stable slug, description, default opt-in for new contacts
- On marketing template, link the correct topic
- On send or campaign, system checks general marketing and topic subscription
- Generate preferences link on contact record (~90 day token)
- In email, use
{{preferences_link}}
- MARKETING templates also send RFC 8058 headers. See One-click unsubscribe
Keep slug stable once campaigns depend on it.
Relation to receiveMarketing
- Contact usually needs
receiveMarketing: true
- MARKETING template with topic requires subscription to that theme
- Those who fail the check do not enter the campaign queue, no per-person error
In the API
Scopes topics:read, topics:create, topics:update, topics:delete. Routes under Topics in the API reference.
Next steps
