Owlat Docs

Topics

Topics are explicit audience groups — you control exactly who is on each topic. They're ideal for managing opt-in subscribers, imported cohorts, and...

Topics are explicit audience groups — you control exactly who is on each topic. They're ideal for managing opt-in subscribers, imported cohorts, and organized contact groups that you target with campaigns.

When to use topics vs. segments

TopicsSegments
MembershipManual — contacts are explicitly added or removedAutomatic — based on rules that update in real time
Best forImported cohorts, explicit opt-in groups, partner/customer bucketsDynamic rules based on behavior, properties, or engagement
MaintenanceYou manage membership directlySelf-maintaining as data changes

Use topics when you have a defined group of contacts. Use Segments when your targeting depends on changing data.

Creating a topic

  1. Open Audience > Topics.
  2. Click New Topic.
  3. Enter a name and description for your topic.
  4. Choose whether to enable double opt-in (see below).
  5. Save the topic.

Use clear, descriptive names like "Monthly Newsletter" or "Product Updates" rather than generic names like "Topic 1". You'll reference these topics across campaigns, forms, and automations.

Double opt-in

Double opt-in (DOI) adds a confirmation step when someone joins a topic. It's a best practice for public-facing signup forms because it verifies that the person actually owns the email address.

How double opt-in works

  1. A contact is added to the topic (via form, import, or manually).
  2. Their status is set to Pending.
  3. A confirmation email is sent automatically.
  4. The contact clicks the confirmation link.
  5. Their status changes to Active — they're now eligible for campaigns.

Contacts with a Pending status will not receive campaigns. Only Active members are included in campaign sends.

When to use double opt-in

  • Public signup forms — strongly recommended to prevent fake signups and verify email ownership
  • Partner imports — helps confirm interest before you start sending
  • Compliance-sensitive contexts — some jurisdictions require confirmed consent

For internal topics or topics populated through your own application, single opt-in (no confirmation step) is usually fine.

Adding members

You can add contacts to a topic in several ways:

  • From the dashboard — use the contact management interface to add individual contacts or bulk-add from your existing audience
  • During CSV import — assign imported contacts to a topic as part of the import process
  • Through forms — link a Form to your topic so new submissions are added automatically
  • Via the API — add contacts to topics programmatically (see API documentation)

Removing members

Remove contacts from a topic through the dashboard. Removing a contact from a topic doesn't delete the contact from your audience — it only removes their membership in that specific topic.

Using topics in campaigns

When creating a campaign, you can target one or more topics as your audience:

  1. In the campaign's audience step, select the topics you want to send to.
  2. You can combine topics with segments for more precise targeting.
  3. Recipients are automatically de-duplicated — if a contact appears in multiple selected topics, they'll only receive the email once.

For a monthly newsletter, you might target your "Newsletter Subscribers" topic and exclude a "Recently Churned" segment — giving you precise control over who receives each send.

Next steps

Next Segments