How do you use the interests module in Mailingwork?

Introduction

Mailingwork's Interest Module helps you send personalized newsletter content based on an automatically generated interest profile of your subscribers. Every click on a link in your mailings helps to continuously sharpen and refine the profile.

The big advantage: You benefit from significantly simplified target groups and can automatically sort newsletter articles according to the preferences of each individual subscriber.

Important: Please note that interest enrichment requires the profiling consent of your subscribers in accordance with GDPR. Without this consent, no interest points can be collected.

The Process in Three Steps

The implementation of the Interest Module is straightforward and takes place in three steps. First, you create the desired interest categories under Subscribers > Interests that are relevant to your target group. In the second step, you link the links in your mailings with the corresponding interests. As soon as you send your mailings, your subscribers automatically collect interest points with every click on a linked link. After sending several mailings, you can use the resulting interest profile to create interest-based target groups, automatically sort articles, or perform statistical evaluations.

Creating Interests

Basic Settings

Before you can start interest profiling, you first need to create the relevant interest categories in your Mailingwork account under the menu items Subscribers > Interests. For each interest, you enter a meaningful name, such as "Camping", "Hiking" or "Product Updates". Optionally, you can also add a description that will help you better categorize the interest later.

Advanced Settings

Icon

In the advanced settings of the interest, you have the option to select a suitable icon for each interest. This icon is displayed in addition to the name on the interest tab of the statistics and facilitates the visual distinction between different interests.

Automatically Assign Link URLs

A particularly useful function is the automatic assignment of links to interests. Here you enter a text pattern for your link URLs. For example, if you enter the pattern "camping" or "Camping", all links whose URL contains this string will be automatically assigned to the interest "Camping". You can also enter multiple text patterns separated by commas, but you must note that the capitalization is taken into account.

A practical example: If you use a link like "https://www.shop.de/camping/zelte" in your mailing and have entered "camping" as a text pattern, this link will be automatically assigned to the corresponding interest. This saves you a lot of manual work, especially if you regularly send newsletters with many links.

Decay Period

The decay period is a central setting that determines how quickly older clicks lose value. This mechanism is important because interests can change over time and newer clicks are usually more relevant than older ones.

The functionality is best explained with an example: Imagine a subscriber clicks on a camping link on day 0. Their camping interest is now 1 point. After 20 days, the value of this first click has already dropped to 0.8 points. If the subscriber clicks on a camping link again on day 20, a "fresh" point is added, so their camping interest is now 1.8 points.

Another 60 days later, on day 80, the first click has hardly any effect and has dropped to 0.2 points. The second click, which is now 60 days old, has also reduced to 0.4 points. The current camping interest is therefore only 0.6 points. If the subscriber has developed other interests with higher values in the meantime, the camping article will appear further down in the newsletter or even be omitted entirely if a maximum number of interest articles is programmed in your template.

You can set the decay period between 1 and 2000 days. The default setting is 365 days, which works well for most use cases. If you select the option "-", interest points never expire, meaning that every click, no matter how old, counts 100% in the calculation.

How to Use Interests in Mailingwork

Linking Links with Interests

After you have created your interests, you assign the corresponding interest to each relevant link via the "Interests" tab when creating your mailing. This works in two ways: Either you manually select the appropriate interest from the list for each link, or you use the automatic assignment if you have stored text patterns for URL assignment. The automatic variant naturally saves you considerable time, especially with newsletters with many links.

Collecting Interest Points

As soon as you have successfully linked your interests and sent the mailing, the automatic interest profiling process begins. Each click by a subscriber on a linked link increases their interest by 1 point by default. The points are continuously adjusted according to the decay period you have defined, and the interest profile is automatically created individually for each subscriber. You don't have to worry about anything else – the system works fully automatically in the background.

Creating Interest-Based Target Groups

After sending several mailings, you can use the collected interest data for precise target group segmentation. You create target groups (Subscribers > Target Groups) based on specific interests and can combine multiple interest criteria to make your segmentation even more precise. Additionally, you can define minimum point values within the target group to identify qualified prospects. For example, you can create a target group that only contains subscribers with at least 5 points in the "Camping" category.

Automatic Article Sorting

One of the most powerful features of the Interest Module is the automatic sorting of newsletter articles based on the individual preferences of each subscriber. Articles on topics that a subscriber has clicked on more frequently automatically appear higher up in their newsletter. Articles on topics with low point scores are placed further down or even hidden if necessary. This results in each subscriber receiving a personalized newsletter that is tailored exactly to their interests.

Statistical Evaluation

Use the detailed statistics to continuously optimize your email marketing strategy. You can analyze which interests are particularly popular in your target group, identify trends and changes in user behavior, and optimize your content strategy based on the collected data. These insights are particularly valuable when it comes to creating more relevant content and increasing the engagement rate of your readers.

Best Practices

Planning and Structure

Start by defining clear interest categories. Five to ten main interests that are relevant to your target group are completely sufficient to start with. Avoid too many categories, as this dilutes data quality and makes evaluation more difficult. Choose meaningful names that are still understandable after months.

Technical Implementation

Be sure to use the automatic link assignment function. Define text patterns for recurring URL structures to save time and ensure that no relevant link is forgotten. Alternatively, you can also manually assign URLs to an interest within the interests tab in your mailing. Use an appropriate decay period – for most use cases, 100 to 365 days are sufficient. Mark all relevant links in your mailings with interests, because the more data points you collect, the more precise the interest profile becomes.

Content Strategy

Send your newsletters regularly, because a consistent newsletter frequency enables you to create better interest profiling. Vary your topics and offer different content to identify the different interests of your readers. Test article sorting with A/B tests to find the optimal personalization for your target group. What works excellently for one target group does not necessarily have to work just as well for another.

Privacy and Compliance

Be sure to obtain the profiling consent of your subscribers – without this consent, you are legally not allowed to collect interest points. Inform transparently about how you use interest profiling and respect the preferences of your subscribers.

Practical Example: Online Shop for Outdoor Equipment

An online shop for outdoor equipment wants to personalize its newsletters and sets up the Interest Module as follows: The shop defines five main interests – Hiking, Camping, Climbing, Cycling, and Winter Sports. For the interest "Hiking", the URL text patterns "wandern", "hiking" and "Wanderschuhe" are stored. For "Camping" they are "camping", "zelt" and "Schlafsack". The other interests are configured accordingly.

The shop selects a decay period of 100 days because outdoor interests are highly seasonal. A customer who searches extensively for hiking equipment in spring may be more interested in ski equipment in winter. The shorter decay time ensures that interests adapt more quickly to current preferences.

After three months, the first results are already visible: The click-through rate increases by 25% through personalized article sorting. The shop can precisely segment target groups for seasonal campaigns – for example, all customers with high winter sports interest for a ski promotion in autumn. The conversion rate for interest-based product recommendations improves significantly, and the unsubscribe rate decreases thanks to more relevant content.

Summary

Mailingwork's Interest Module is a powerful tool for personalizing your email marketing campaigns. Through the systematic recording of click behavior, a detailed interest profile is automatically created for each subscriber. You benefit from automatic interest profiling without manual effort, precise target group segmentation based on real user behavior, and personalized content presentation for each individual subscriber. Continuous optimization through statistical evaluations helps you sustainably increase the relevance and engagement rate of your newsletters.

Invest the time in careful planning and setup of your interests – the resulting improvements in engagement and conversion will convince you. Good luck with implementation!