New Features: Segment with Tags and Send Broadcast Newsletters to Tagged Segments

It’s no secret that sending personalized emails is the best way to ensure the right content gets delivered to the people who want it most.

It’s also no secret that the best way to do so is by sending targeted emails with contextual content to specific subscriber segments. Targeted emails can drive up to 77 percent of your overall email ROI, which makes them an essential component to any successful email marketing strategy.


Many are already using tags to trigger targeted automated campaigns.

With the latest feature updates, you’ll be able to segment and send targeted broadcast newsletters based on tags as well.

(Not using tags and automation yet? Learn more about our features!)

Let’s dive deeper into what this means for you, your email strategy and your business.

Use tags to do more with email

With tags, you can apply specific tags (or labels) to each of your subscribers (based on things like whether they are a customer or prospect, where they signed up, interests, geographic location, etc.,) in order to send targeted broadcasts and trigger campaigns.

Now, you can create automatically updating subscriber segments based on those tags, which opens the doors for more opportunities to send targeted emails.

By sending emails to various subscriber segments, you deliver hyper-relevant content to those who are most interested in it – which makes it even easier for your audience to understand the value of your emails and your business.

So if you want to do things like send content only to subscribers based on information they filled out on your sign up form or an existing tag they may have, it’s possible!

It works like this: When building a sign up form, create and add a tag to ensure it’s applied to subscribers who opt-in to your list. You can also build your form and apply tags to subscribers based on information they select in a custom field.

To send specific subscribers an email, create a new segment in Manage Subscribers based on the tag. Create your broadcast email and send to your new subscriber segment!

Not using AWeber’s forms? Many of our trusted integration partners, like Unbounce, OptinMonster, and Interact now support tags. You can also apply tags when importing subscribers, or manually from your Manage Subscribers page.

Send a contextual broadcast email

Here’s a specific scenario in which you might use tags: Let’s say you’re a food blogger who’s planning a webinar on the vegan diet.

Add a sign up form to collect email addresses from registrants. (In addition to creating tags in AWeber forms, you can also apply tags using one of our trusted integrations, or when importing subscribers.)

As you create your sign up form, make sure everyone who signs up to your list receives the tag “vegan-webinar.” By tagging subscribers this way, you’ll know exactly who joined your list as a result of the webinar.

Since you know these subscribers are also interested in vegan content, you can send targeted broadcast emails with information like vegan recipes, ebooks and other resources after the webinar.

Simply search for subscribers with the tag “vegan-webinar” in Manage Subscribers, create a new segment and send.

Related Post: 16 Ways to Segment Your Subscribers and Boost Email Engagement

Trigger a contextual campaign

After the webinar is over, you can then trigger an automated campaign to tagged subscribers with more content.

Share an invite to download another bonus incentive, such as a vegan meal plan or promo code to purchase a recipe book. Add as many emails to your campaign as you need to maintain regular communication. Your subscribers will remain engaged with content they’re interested in, and you can nurture them to become a loyal customer!

The groundwork for more advanced automation

As the team here at AWeber HQ continues providing customers with the tools they need to send smarter emails, better connect with subscribers and save more time, these changes are only the beginning.

In fact, they open the door for other automations like engagement-based tagging.

We have a lot in store for you in the coming months!

Do more with targeted emails

Check out our Subscriber Management Resource Hub for how-to articles and segmentation inspiration. Or, reach out to our AWesome customer solutions team if you need a helping hand!

Not an AWeber customer? Sign up today for your free 30-day trial!

32 Comments

  1. Angela Minelli

    8/1/2017 2:48 pm

    What’s the difference between tagging and simply creating a separate list?

  2. David Watson

    8/1/2017 3:14 pm

    Can I use the API to add tags to my subscribers based on information that I collect from them at my website separate to the Aweber subscription forms … in other words from data in my own customer database?

  3. Chris Guthrie

    8/1/2017 3:51 pm

    Can I send an email to a specific tag even if that tag is shared across multiple email lists?

    e.g. I want to write an email for the tag “fans”

    Will my email go to everyone with the tag “fans” regardless of which email list they’re on?

    (Please merge everything to one list and use the tag system only…)

  4. marco

    8/1/2017 4:43 pm

    You can do a video tutorial to better understand how to use tags. It would be nice to do it on you tube in mod that I can turn the translation into italian

  5. Chris Brisson

    8/1/2017 6:20 pm

    Great feature! Definitely makes things a whole lot easier!

  6. Jeff Saxton

    8/2/2017 12:12 am

    Im guessing “Tagging” allows you to know for example in your Dog subscriber list, if someone opted in for information on another aspect of dog owning (stop barking) but didn’t necessarily buy anything. It just allows you to micro target that sub group without having to make new list after new list for every webinar someone signs up for, or for everytime someone responds to a survey.
    After a while, you have to send out a broadcast to 7 different lists who really are in the same list but you have a unique piece of info

    Only time I personally really need to make seperate lists is for buyer whom I do not want to get anymore offers for what they already bought.

  7. Gideon Shalwick

    8/2/2017 2:56 am

    yeah… so perhaps I’m a little thick here… but not sure what the point is of having tags in the way you’ve implemented it.

    Seems the same as just creating another list.

    And like Chris Guthrie said…

    “Please merge everything to one list and use the tag system only…”

    That would make more sense – I have so many lists now and it’s a mess. I wish it was just one list that I could apply an infinite number of tags to!

    Is this in the plan as well? Cos that would be ACE!

  8. Astrid von Weittenhiller

    8/2/2017 3:39 am

    Great news!
    Can a list member get a tag automatically by clicking at a link in a mail?
    That would solve a lot of my problems and make the message much more specific.

  9. javier

    8/2/2017 8:16 am

    Any videos showing how to do it?

  10. Tom Tate

    8/2/2017 10:08 am

    Hi all, thanks so much for the great comments! I’ll answer each question here, but also send a direct email to ensure we’ve provided enough information and clarity.

    @Angela, difference between a lists and tags… this is a great question. With this release, you can decide exactly how you’d like to structure your account. Some marketers prefer to have multiple lists, while others prefer to have fewer lists with tags handling the segmentation. (I.e. one list for prospects and one list for customers, or one list for all subscribers, but using a prospect tag and customer tag to group them.) You can also use a combination, where you have a prospect list and customer list, but tags with each list to create additional segments.

    Using Campaigns, you can also create multiple automated email sequences and trigger them based on tags. This allows you to move away from a multi-list model, if you choose, and simply have one or a few lists with tags. Both lists and tags are essentially used to accomplish the same goal: create relevant groupings of subscribers so that you can deliver more effective emails to the right people. Hope this helps, and I’ll send you an email so we can keep the conversation going if you have additional questions. 🙂

  11. Tom Tate

    8/2/2017 10:11 am

    @David– our public API supports tags! If your comfortable navigating the technical language of our API, this page will lead you to the right documentation: https://help.aweber.com/hc/en-us/articles/218755798-How-Do-I-Update-A-Tag-Through-The-API-

    If you need more details, I’ll quickly email you directly and I can get you in touch with the best AWeber team member to support your request here. Thanks!

  12. Tom Tate

    8/2/2017 10:28 am

    @Chris– Fantastic question… can you email to tagged subscribers across multiple lists?

    When you schedule a broadcast to be sent to a segment based on tags (i.e. tag is “fans”), the broadcast will only be sent to active subscribers on that list that are tagged with “fans”. The same filters that you define in your segment will also be applied to other lists that you specify when scheduling the broadcast with the “Include List” functionality. (i.e. If you send to a segment of subscribers tagged “fans” on List A, and include List B and List C as additional lists, the broadcast will only be sent to subscribers on any of the three lists that have the tag “fans”). This article is helpful to understand the Include Lists functionality: https://help.aweber.com/hc/en-us/articles/204030546-How-Do-I-Send-A-Broadcast-Message-To-Multiple-Lists-

    I’ll email you directly as well if you need more details. 🙂

  13. Tom Tate

    8/2/2017 10:33 am

    @Marco and @Javier, thank you for the feedback!

    I’ll put together a quick video demo to showcase how this works and share it.

    I’m also planning to do a full demo and instructional session later in August and all registrants will receive the recording to watch at your own leisure: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/5838084970970205698?source=Blog+Post

  14. Tom Tate

    8/2/2017 10:36 am

    @Jeff, thanks for the comment.

    Your example is spot-on. You can use tags to create sub-segments within your segments (webinar attendees, survey respondents, etc.) It all depends on how you’d like to structure your account. Your example also points out where it may be valuable to still have a few multiple lists… i.e. some may prefer to have one list with a tag for prospects and a tag for customers, but it may actually be very beneficial to keep customers and prospects on two separate lists. This release will offer you the choice.

    I’ll reply via email to see if there’s anything else we can help with. 🙂

  15. Tom Tate

    8/2/2017 10:42 am

    Hi Gideon!

    Managing your subscribers with tags can significantly cut down on the need to have multiple lists. For example, if you do a weekly webinar, rather than having a new list per webinar created each week, you can have one list for “webinar attendees” and tag them accordingly, or based on which webinar they attended. You can also have multiple automated campaigns in a single list that correspond to different offers or opt-ins, again tagging subscribers accordingly.

    This allows you to cut down on multiple subscribers residing on multiple lists, get a better sense of how many different touch-points a single subscriber interacted with, and more. There are pros and cons to single-list with tags, and multi-list with no tags… and in many cases you may want to use a combination of both. It will greatly depend on how your marketing strategy is structured, but this release gives you more options.

    I’ll send you a direct email– would love to support you in any way to help you make the best use of this feature and AWeber.

    Regarding merging, we don’t have an actual ‘merge tool’ built just yet, but our Customer Solutions team can help take a look to see if there are any merging quick wins we can do to simplify your lists. Thanks!

  16. Tom Tate

    8/2/2017 10:46 am

    👋 Hi Astrid,

    Fanastic question– Can a list member get a tag automatically by clicking at a link in a mail?

    Automatically tagging a subscriber that clicks on a link is a feature we’re actively building. This will be incredible once released! In the interim, you can still accomplish tagging subscribers who click on a link by doing a quick search and bulk applying a tag.

    This article will walk you through how to see who clicked on a specific link: https://help.aweber.com/hc/en-us/articles/204029766-How-Do-I-See-Who-Has-Clicked-a-Link-in-My-Message-

    And this article will show you how to apply the tag: https://help.aweber.com/hc/en-us/articles/215872618-How-Do-I-Bulk-Add-A-Tag-To-Subscribers-

    I’ll send a quick email directly if there’s anything else I can help with. Thanks!

  17. Grace Conyers

    8/2/2017 1:10 pm

    Can we have a recorded webinar instead of live? I’m working with clients at the offered days and time.

  18. Susan Marshall

    8/2/2017 1:14 pm

    Is there a target or projected date for the new feature you’re working on to add tags based on links clicked in an email? This is what I’ve been waiting for!

  19. Caleb

    8/2/2017 3:25 pm

    Astrid von Weittenhiller comment is the definite addition Aweber needs because if we had the ability to add subscribers to a certain tagged list based on a url link they click THAT would be awesome!

  20. Tom Tate

    8/2/2017 4:24 pm

    Hi Grace,

    We’ll definitely send the recording to anyone who registers and make that available after the first webinar.

    Hi Susan and Caleb,

    There’s no projected date for the adding a tag to a subscribed based on a clicked link, but we’re actively working on this and hope to release very soon. We understand how vital this functionality is to automating your marketing efforts. In the interim, you can certainly create those segments now based on clicked links, apply tag(s), and even trigger automated emails based on those tags using Campaigns.

    I’ll send a quick email to you as well if there’s anything I can help out with. 🙂

  21. Chris Guthrie

    8/2/2017 6:09 pm

    Tom thanks for the reply. I think the challenge for long term Aweber users with a lot of subscribers and a bunch of lists is that we can’t really use the tagging feature in the current state if it’s not possible to just simply email any subscriber (regardless of what list they are on) with a specific tag.

    I’ve got like 30 lists (maybe more) ranging from 1,000 subscribers to 15,000+ subscribers. It would be great if there was a way for Aweber to merge all the lists together into one and to simply tag those subscribers with their old list name.

    In the past when I’ve spoken to Aweber team members about merging emails I was told that Aweber’s policy is that emails like “contact@somedomain.com” aren’t allowed to be merged without those subscribers opting in again. It doesn’t matter if it’s a perfectly valid email address.

    Basically even with this update the only way for me and other multi list long term users to mail in bulk is by selecting lists. The same way I’ve been doing it since April, 2009 when I first started paying for Aweber.

    Add another vote to the column of offering the ability to merge lists and just tag those subscribers with the name of their old email list. Or some sort of system along those lines.

  22. Jack

    8/3/2017 5:56 pm

    Hi, there i think that it is a amazing new features add up Segment with Tags and Send Broadcast Newsletters to Tagged Segments.Really helpful for me.

  23. Warren

    8/5/2017 6:28 am

    Hi Tom

    I have been working with the tags from the start of your beta testing.
    I have run into some major issues when trying to use the tags.

    It also seems that there is confusion amongst your support staff as to the ins and outs of how it all works.

    Two days ago I spoke to your support and they said that you cannot activate a campaign after placing a tag on a lead. He sais that I must first create the campaign with the tag and then place the tags on the list.

    You seem to be saying the opposite in this article,

    Quote…
    “To send specific subscribers an email, create a new segment in Manage Subscribers based on the tag. Create your broadcast email or campaign and send to your new subscriber segment!”

    So you are saying different things. You saying we can tag our leads before creating the campaign.

    Can you confirm for me that if I go and tag leads now and THEN create a campaign that those tags will be picked up by the new campaign?

    Thanks

  24. Hazel

    8/5/2017 6:20 pm

    Can you add a tag to someone already on a list and then trigger a campaign for them? Or does it only work on new subscribers?

  25. Marjan

    8/6/2017 4:55 pm

    Dear Tom,

    I am interested in this functionalities, because I have multi-lists I would like to merge into one with tags.

    I have a couple of questions:
    1. to start a new list and intend to use afterwards campaings for each segment of subscribers. If I have 3 different aweber webforms to add subscribers this list (each will be tagged accordingly), how do I set uo for each webform a confirmation email that is customized to reflect what the subscriber was signing for (I have 3 different e-books – each would add appropriate tag to a subcriber on the list). Is this possible to do or is there only 1 version of confirmation email/list possible?
    2. How to autotag a contact, when they fill up a contact form 7 on a website, is this possible?
    I thank you in advance for any tips

  26. Debra Marrs

    8/6/2017 5:01 pm

    I have the same question that Hazel posted re: Can you add a tag to someone already on a list and then trigger a campaign for them? Or does it only work on new subscribers?. (Thanks, Hazel!

    Tagging has been something I’ve wanted (and needed!) since I started paying for Aweber in 2011. My biz coach is nudging me to go to another email marketing system for this reason. It’s good news to me that Aweber is adding tagging. Will be eager to learn more. I’ve signed up for the August webinar. Thank you!

  27. Tom Tate

    8/7/2017 10:36 am

    Hi Warren, Rik, Hazel, and Debra,
    The quoted section is the blog post is a poorly worded. I’ll be sure to edit.

    If you apply a tag called “customer” to a subscriber that is already subscribed and does not yet have that tag, any active campaign that is set to trigger based on the tag “customer” will be sent. The campaign has to be active, and the subscribers have to meet all the tigger requirements.

    If you tag your subscribers “customer” and there is no active campaign associated with that tag, the subscribers will be not be sent any emails. If you activate the campaign after the users are tagged, they will still not receive any emails. Only applying the tag (manually to current subscribers, through web forms, or automatically to new subscribers,) after the campaign is active will trigger the campaign to kick off for those subscribers.

    I hope this helps clarify a few things, as the wording in the post wasn’t clear!

    Thanks,
    Tom

  28. Debbie Drum

    8/8/2017 11:29 am

    Can you tag someone based on if they opened or clicked an email?

  29. John

    8/10/2017 10:41 am

    Are tags used differently than the segmentation. Anything that helps send better targeted emails is worth having.

  30. Thomas

    8/11/2017 3:26 am

    Hi Tom,

    How are yo doing? Many thanks for your feedback here. I’ve been following this thread for a while now.

    Could you kindly tell me if you have a solution to the question that Chris asked? It’s spot on. This is exactly what we are looking for.

    Question:

    ‘Tom thanks for the reply. I think the challenge for long term Aweber users with a lot of subscribers and a bunch of lists is that we can’t really use the tagging feature in the current state if it’s not possible to just simply email any subscriber (regardless of what list they are on) with a specific tag.

    I’ve got like 30 lists (maybe more) ranging from 1,000 subscribers to 15,000+ subscribers. It would be great if there was a way for Aweber to merge all the lists together into one and to simply tag those subscribers with their old list name.

    In the past when I’ve spoken to Aweber team members about merging emails I was told that Aweber’s policy is that emails like “contact@somedomain.com” aren’t allowed to be merged without those subscribers opting in again. It doesn’t matter if it’s a perfectly valid email address.

    Basically even with this update the only way for me and other multi list long term users to mail in bulk is by selecting lists. The same way I’ve been doing it since April, 2009 when I first started paying for Aweber.

    Add another vote to the column of offering the ability to merge lists and just tag those subscribers with the name of their old email list. Or some sort of system along those lines.’

  31. Tom Tate

    8/11/2017 8:21 am

    Hi Debbie,
    Yes, you can create tagged segments based on opens and clicks when managing your subscribers.

    Hi John,
    Tags are a solution to both segment your list and send targeted automated email campaigns.

    Hey Thomas,
    Merging / consolidating lists is absolutely possible, but the complexity and constraints will be determined mostly by how many lists you have, how many subscribers, any list automation rules you have active, and a few other qualifiers. We’re working on the best solution to recommend for customers who’d like to consolidate their lists.

    Hope this helps!

  32. Tom Tate

    8/11/2017 8:29 am

    Thanks everyone for the fantastic feedback and comments. We are very excited to deliver these enhanced segmentation capabilities as we continue to build out ever more features that our customers want and need the most! If you have any additional questions, or feedback, please direct those to help@aweber.com, so we can ensure a swift response.