Subscription 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. Subscription Groups dashboard in Brew

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

Access subscription groups settings

Go to Settings in the main navigation
Select Subscription Groups

Create a new group

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

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.”

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

Edit existing groups

Delete a group

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.

For individual contacts:

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

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:

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

Audience selection screen for campaigns in Brew

For Automations

Create a new automation or edit an existing one
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
Select the specific subscription group to trigger the automation
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

Create logical groupings

Use clear names and descriptions

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:

Navigate to the Audience page

Go to the Audience tab in the main navigation menu.

Filter for unsubscribed contacts

Click on the Filter button at the top of the audience table
Select Subscription Status from the dropdown menu
Choose Unsubscribed to see only contacts who have opted out

Filtering for unsubscribed contacts in Brew

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.

Need Help?

Our team is ready to support you at every step of your journey with Brew. Choose the option that works best for you:

Search Documentation

Type in the “Ask any question” search bar at the top left to instantly find relevant documentation pages.

AI Assistant Chat

Click the sparkle ✨ icon next to the “Ask any question” search bar in the top left to chat with our AI assistant that’s been trained on our entire documentation.

ChatGPT/Claude Integration

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

Get Started

Emails

Audience

Integrations

Settings