Subscription Groups

Manage your audience with Brew’s subscription groups. Learn how to create, segment, and optimize your contact groups

Subscription groups allow your contacts to choose which types of emails they want to receive from you. By organizing your emails into categories and letting subscribers manage their preferences, you can build a more engaged audience that values your communications.

Subscriber control

Give contacts the power to choose exactly what they want to receive

Retain audience

Decrease full unsubscribes by offering granular subscription options

CAN-SPAM compliant

All emails include required elements to help you follow CAN-SPAM regulations

Subscription groups are a powerful tool for organizing your email content into categories that subscribers can choose from. They work alongside Audiences (which are for internal targeting) to give you a complete contact management system.

Subscription Groups vs. Audiences

Brew offers two powerful ways to organize your contacts, each serving a distinct purpose in your email marketing strategy. Understanding when to use subscription groups versus audiences will help you create more effective campaigns and give your subscribers a better experience.

Subscription Groups

• Visibility: Visible to subscribers in the Preference Center
• Quantity: Usually have 3-5 groups (e.g., “Weekly Newsletter,” “Product Updates”)
• Control: Subscribers choose which groups they want to join or unsubscribe from
• Purpose: Used for broad content categories

Audiences

• Visibility: Internal only, not visible to subscribers
• Quantity: Can have many different segments
• Control: You define and manage them
• Purpose: Used for targeted sending based on behavior and properties

Creating a Subscription Group

1. Access subscription groups settings

   1. Go to Settings in the main navigation
   2. Select Subscription Groups

2. Create a new group

   Click the Create a group button in the bottom right corner to start creating a new subscription group.
3. Configure group details

   Fill in the details for your new subscription group:

   • Name: A clear, descriptive name for the group (e.g., “Weekly Newsletter”)
   • Description: Explain what subscribers will receive (shown in the Preference Center)
   • Color: Choose a color for easy identification within your Brew account

   Use clear, benefit-focused descriptions that help contacts understand what they’ll get by subscribing to each group. For example, “Get weekly tips and insights to improve your marketing strategy” is more compelling than “Marketing newsletter.”

4. Group is automatically saved

   Your subscription group is automatically saved as you create or edit it. There’s no need to click a save button - simply click elsewhere on the page and your changes will be applied.

   Your new group will immediately appear in the list of subscription groups and will be available in the Preference Center for your contacts.

Managing Subscription Groups

Once you’ve created subscription groups, you can manage them from the Settings page:

View group statistics

The Subscription Groups page displays key statistics for each group:

• Number of subscribers
• Unique identifier (useful for API integration)
• Description visible to subscribers

This helps you track which groups are most popular and identify opportunities for growth.

Edit existing groups

To modify a subscription group:

1. Click on the edit icon next to the group you want to change
2. Update the name, description, or color as needed

Changes are automatically saved and will be immediately visible to subscribers in the Preference Center.

Delete a group

To delete a subscription group:

1. Click on the delete icon next to the group you want to remove
2. Confirm the deletion in the popup dialog

Deleting a subscription group will remove all contacts from that group. This action cannot be undone.

Adding Contacts to Subscription Groups

There are several ways to add contacts to subscription groups:

To comply with CAN-SPAM regulations, contacts who unsubscribe from a subscription group cannot be re-subscribed by your team. Only the contact themselves can resubscribe through the Preference Center.

Manually

For individual contacts:

1. Go to the Audience page
2. Click on the contact you want to modify
3. In the contact details panel, go to the Subscriptions section
4. Toggle the subscription groups you want to add/remove
5. Click Save Changes

For individual contacts:

1. Go to the Audience page
2. Click on the contact you want to modify
3. In the contact details panel, go to the Subscriptions section
4. Toggle the subscription groups you want to add/remove
5. Click Save Changes

For multiple contacts at once:

1. Go to the Audience page
2. Use filters to select the contacts you want to modify
   • You can use the AI prompt box to describe your target audience in natural language
   • Example: “Contacts who purchased in the last 6 months”
3. Click the ••• (more options) menu in the filter bar
4. Select Add contacts to subscription group
5. Choose the group(s) to add the contacts to
6. Confirm the action

Using natural language is much faster than applying filters manually. Simply describe the audience you want to target and let Brew’s AI handle the complex filtering for you.

When importing contacts via CSV:

1. Follow the standard CSV import process
2. On the review screen, toggle on Add to subscription groups
3. Select the groups you want to add the imported contacts to
4. Complete the import

Learn about CSV Upload

Discover how to import contacts using CSV files

When creating a sign-up form:

1. In the form creation/edit screen, go to the Groups section
2. Toggle on Add to subscription groups
3. Select the groups that form subscribers should be added to
4. Save your form

Learn about Sign-Up Forms

Discover how to create forms to collect new contacts

When using the Brew API to create or update contacts, you can include subscription group information. You can find group IDs in the Subscription Groups settings page or by using the API’s subscription group endpoint.

Sending Campaigns and Triggering Automations

Subscription groups make it easy to target the right contacts for your emails and automations:

For Campaigns

When creating a campaign or automation on the Create page:

1. Select the appropriate subscription group from the audience dropdown
2. Only contacts in the selected group will receive the campaign

For Automations

1. Create a new automation or edit an existing one
2. Set up a trigger based on subscription activity:
   • “Contact added to subscription group” - Starts when someone joins a group
   • “Contact removed from subscription group” - Starts when someone leaves a group
3. Select the specific subscription group to trigger the automation
4. Configure your email sequence to provide relevant content

The Preference Center

The Preference Center gives your contacts an intuitive interface to manage their subscription preferences. When users click the “Unsubscribe” link in any of your emails, they are automatically taken to the Preference Center where they can:

• See all available subscription groups with descriptions
• Choose which groups to stay subscribed to
• Unsubscribe from specific groups or all communications
• Update their email preferences without completely unsubscribing

This approach significantly reduces complete unsubscribes by giving contacts more granular control over what they receive.

Learn about the Preference Center

Learn how to customize the appearance of your Preference Center, add your company logo, and create a seamless subscription management experience for your contacts

Subscription Group Best Practices

Respect unsubscribes

• Never try to re-subscribe contacts who have unsubscribed
• Honor group-specific unsubscribes (don’t send that content type again)
• Provide clear descriptions so contacts know what they’re signing up for

This builds trust and helps maintain compliance with email marketing regulations.

Create logical groupings

• Group by content type (e.g., “Product Updates,” “Industry News”)
• Group by frequency (e.g., “Weekly Digest,” “Monthly Newsletter”)
• Group by interest (e.g., “Marketing Tips,” “Developer Resources”)

Avoid creating too many groups, as this can be overwhelming for contacts. 3-5 well-defined groups typically work best.

Use clear names and descriptions

• Use descriptive names that clearly indicate the content type
• Include the frequency in the name where appropriate
• Write benefit-focused descriptions that explain what subscribers will get
• Keep descriptions concise (1-2 sentences)

For example: “Weekly Marketing Tips” with the description “Get actionable marketing strategies every Tuesday that you can implement in under 30 minutes.”

How Brew Handles Unsubscribes

Brew automatically manages the entire unsubscribe process for you, ensuring compliance with email regulations while maintaining a good relationship with your audience.

Automatic Unsubscribe Handling

When you send emails, Brew automatically:

• Adds legally required unsubscribe links to all marketing emails
• Processes unsubscribe requests immediately when clicked
• Directs users to your Preference Center for a better experience
• Skips unsubscribed contacts when sending campaigns or automations
• Still delivers transactional emails (like password resets or order confirmations)

How Unsubscribes Affect Different Email Types

Email Type	Effect of Unsubscribe
Campaigns	Unsubscribed contacts are automatically skipped
Automations	Unsubscribed contacts are automatically skipped
Transactional Emails	Always delivered regardless of subscription status

Transactional emails are still delivered to unsubscribed contacts because they contain essential information directly related to individual transactions or account activity, not marketing content. This approach complies with CAN-SPAM regulations, which permit sending transactional emails to people who have unsubscribed from marketing communications.

Viewing Unsubscribed Contacts

Maintaining a clean contact list is essential for good deliverability. Brew makes it easy to view and manage contacts who have unsubscribed from your emails:

1. Navigate to the Audience page

   Go to the Audience tab in the main navigation menu.

2. Filter for unsubscribed contacts

   1. Click on the Filter button at the top of the audience table
   2. Select Subscription Status from the dropdown menu
   3. Choose Unsubscribed to see only contacts who have opted out
3. Review unsubscribe details

   Click on any contact in the filtered list to see:

   • When they unsubscribed
   • Which subscription groups they’ve opted out of
   • Their subscription history timeline

   This information helps you understand patterns in unsubscribe behavior and improve your email content accordingly.

Regularly reviewing your unsubscribe data is a good practice for maintaining audience health. Look for spikes in unsubscribes after specific campaigns to identify content that may not be resonating with your audience.

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Click “Open in ChatGPT” at the top right of any page to analyze documentation with ChatGPT or Claude for deeper insights.

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