How to create and use subscriber tags

Subscriber tags are a simple and effective way to segment, analyze, and engage with your audience. They allow you to organize your subscriber list based on various criteria, such as acquisition source, subscriber types, custom categories, and more. Using tags helps you organize your audience and improve your engagement strategies.

Custom fields, on the other hand, are specific data points you collect from subscribers that go beyond standard information like a subscriber’s email address. These fields can include details such as name, preferences, interests, or any other data relevant to your publication. While tags help you categorize and segment your audience broadly, custom fields provide detailed, individualized information that can be used to personalize your interactions and content even further.

---

When to use tags vs custom fields 

Custom fields are invaluable tools for collecting subscriber-specific data points, such as name, age, interests, income, and more. Essentially, they allow you to create custom field values for any information subscribers choose to share with you.

For example, you can create a custom field named 'Age' and gather this data from your subscribers through surveys or manual input, populating the custom field with age data for each subscriber. Additionally, custom fields enable you to personalize your newsletters by incorporating merge tags to pull in values from fields such as 'Name,' thus addressing each subscriber by their name within an email post for a more customized experience.

Tags serve a different purpose from custom fields, focusing on internal organization rather than collecting data on subscribers. They allow you to categorize subscribers based on various criteria. 

For example, you might tag subscribers in your account who only receive your weekly newsletter or classify family and friends who subscribe as 'Family and Friends.' Additionally, you can tag subscribers who promote your newsletter for payment as 'Affiliates,' enabling you to send targeted emails to each of these groups.

---

How to create subscriber tags

1. From the left hand Dashboard, go to Audience > Subscribers. Your subscribers dashboard will open on the Subscribers tab, switch to the Tags tab instead.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. To create a new tag, click the New Tag button on the right.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. A form will open on the right side. Give the tag a Name (required), designate a Color for the tag (required), or leave Default selected for the color to be automatically assigned.
   
   You can also manually add (or paste) in specific subscriber emails to apply the tag to (there are also other places to do this that are covered below.) When finished, click on Save in the bottom right corner.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Once saved, you’ll receive a quick success message at the top of your screen and will be brought back to your subscriber dashboard where the new tag and any others you have created are accessible. 
   
   
   
   
   
   Each tag will show the number of subscribers below its color. You can also Edit or Delete the tags from here by clicking on the 3 dots menu for the tag.  
   
   
5. Additionally, you can view the tags associated with your audience from the Subscribers tab of the dashboard. There is a column for Tags that lists them for each subscriber.
   
   
   

---

How to apply subscriber tags in bulk via segments

1. From the left hand Dashboard, go to Audience > Segments.
   
   
2. Create a new segment for the subscribers you would like to add a tag to based on qualifying conditions.
   
   
3. From the segment, make sure you are on the Overview tab, then go to the Quick Export menu on the right. Click the arrow to reveal the options, and select Apply Tags to Subscribers.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Choose the tag you’d like to apply and then click on Add.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. You can also filter your subscriber data by tag within a segment using the condition for Attribute > Subscriber Tags.
   
   
   

You have the option to add a tag to a subscriber when importing subscribers via a CSV. For more details on how to do this, please refer to our article on importing free subscribers with tags. 

---

How to apply subscriber tags for individual subscribers 

Another way to apply tags to your subscriber is from their individual subscriber profile pages.

1. From an opened subscriber profile page, navigate to the left panel and click on the Tags section.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Choose a tag from the dropdown list of your available options.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. After adding a tag, you can also remove tags from the subscribers profile by clicking on the X.
   
   
   
   
   
   

---

Ways to use tags in automations 

Enroll a subscriber into an automation based on tags

When creating or editing automations in your account, you can add tag conditions to any automation trigger so that only subscribers who take the enroll action and have a specific tag or do not have a specific tag are enrolled into the automation.

 

Add a tag condition to a step

The Send Email, Update Subscription, True/False Branch, and Enroll in Automation steps all allow for you to add the Subscriber Tags condition to the step. This can be used to confirm the tag is still present before moving the subscriber to the next step in the automation.

Add a tag to subscriber within an automation

You can also add a tag to a subscriber within an automation by using the Update Subscription step.