
Mautic is an open-source marketing automation platform designed to help businesses automate and manage digital marketing tasks without being limited by subscription costs or restrictive platforms. Unlike tools such as HubSpot or ActiveCampaign, Mautic gives you full control over data, customizations, segmentation, email delivery, and workflow automation. This makes Mautic perfect for businesses that want power, flexibility, and complete independence.
Why Mautic Exists
Traditional marketing platforms often limit features based on pricing tiers. Mautic was created to break this barrier. It offers enterprise-grade automation tools for free, enabling marketers to manage personalized customer journeys effectively.
What You’ll Learn in This Tutorial
This comprehensive guide covers:
- What Mautic is
- Why use it
- Key features
- Benefits
- Installation
- Contacts & segmentation
- Forms & landing pages
- Email campaigns
- Automation campaigns
- Tracking & analytics
- Integrations
- Best practices
- Common mistakes
- Professional tips
This is a complete roadmap to mastering Mautic.
UNDERSTANDING MAUTIC: FEATURES, BENEFITS & PURPOSE
What is Mautic?
Mautic is a central hub for managing leads, sending personalized emails, tracking visitor behavior, automating customer journeys, and running targeted marketing campaigns. It is open-source, meaning you can host it anywhere and customize it endlessly.
Why Do Businesses Use Mautic?
Businesses use Mautic because it:
- Automates repetitive marketing tasks
- Reduces costs
- Gives full data ownership
- Integrates easily with any tool
- Allows highly personalized experiences
- Supports advanced segmentation
- Offers enterprise features for free
Main Features of Mautic
1. Email Marketing
Create, schedule, and automate personalized email campaigns with testing, templates, and tracking.
2. Segmentation
Automatically group users by behavior, demographics, interests, or custom rules.
3. Campaign Automation
Build visual workflows that react to user actions, send emails, apply tags, or move contacts between segments.
4. Contact Tracking
Track page views, links clicked, forms submitted, email opens, and overall interactions.
5. Forms and Lead Capture
Create forms to collect leads and trigger campaigns automatically.
6. Landing Pages
Design built-in landing pages with tracking, forms, and dynamic content.
7. CRM & App Integrations
Connect with thousands of apps including WordPress, Salesforce, WooCommerce, Zapier, and more.
INSTALLATION, CONFIGURATION & DASHBOARD SETUP
Types of Installation
Self-Hosting (recommended for flexibility)
You can install Mautic on VPS or shared hosting with PHP 8+, MySQL, and Composer.
Benefits: full control, unlimited automation, low cost.
Cloud Hosting (easy for beginners)
Third-party providers manage updates, security, and performance for you.
Installation Steps
- Create a database
- Upload Mautic files
- Run Mautic installer
- Connect database
- Create admin login
- Configure email settings
- Log in to dashboard
Configuring Email Sending
Go to: Settings → Configuration → Email Settings
Configure SMTP using providers like:
- Gmail
- Mailgun
- Amazon SES
- SendGrid
- Postmark
Correct configuration ensures email deliverability and prevents spam issues.
Dashboard Overview
The Mautic dashboard shows key marketing metrics:
- Total contacts
- Email stats
- Recent activities
- Campaign performance
- Page visits
- Engagement trends
This acts as your daily marketing command center.
CONTACT MANAGEMENT, SEGMENTS, TAGS & LEAD SCORING
Contacts Overview
Contacts are the core of Mautic. Each contact has:
- Personal details
- Engagement history
- Tags
- Segments
- Lead score
- Email statistics
- Page view logs
Ways Contacts Enter Mautic
- Form submissions
- CSV import
- API integration
- CRM sync
- Tracking scripts
- Manual add
Segments
Segments automatically group contacts by rules you define.
Examples:
- “Opened last newsletter”
- “Visited pricing page”
- “High-engagement leads”
- “Country: USA”
Segments update dynamically as contacts meet or lose conditions.
Tags
Tags are instant labels that track behaviors or group contacts manually.
Examples:
- “Webinar interest”
- “Clicked offer”
- “Inactive 30 days”
- “Signed up for trial”
Lead Scoring
Assign points to actions to identify hot leads.
Examples:
- +10 for clicking link
- +20 for form submission
- +5 for email open
- +30 for pricing page visit
High scores = sales-ready leads.
FORMS, LANDING PAGES, EMAILS & CAMPAIGN AUTOMATION
Forms
Forms collect leads automatically and assign them to campaigns or segments.
Types:
- Standalone forms
- Campaign forms
- Popup forms
- Embedded forms
Landing Pages
Mautic includes a page builder for creating:
- Lead magnet pages
- Webinar pages
- Product previews
- Email signup pages
Landing pages support dynamic content, forms, and tracking.
Creating Emails
Emails are created under Channels → Emails.
Features include:
- Drag-and-drop editor
- Templates
- Dynamic content
- A/B testing
- Personalization
- Attachments
Automated Campaigns
The campaign builder is where Mautic truly excels.
You can:
- Send a sequence of emails
- Add delays
- Apply conditions
- Check email opens
- Branch contacts into different paths
- Add/remove tags
- Score leads
- Notify sales teams
Example Campaign Flow:
- User submits form
- Send welcome email
- Wait 2 days
- If opened → send offer
- If not opened → send reminder
- Apply “engaged” tag
- Notify sales team
TRACKING, ANALYTICS, INTEGRATIONS & BEST PRACTICES
Tracking
Mautic uses a tracking script to monitor:
- Page visits
- Button clicks
- Scroll activity
- Form submissions
- Referral sources
- Device details
Tracking gives deep insight into user behavior.
Analytics & Reports
Mautic offers detailed metrics for:
- Email performance
- Landing page conversions
- Form submissions
- User activity timelines
- Campaign flows
- Segment growth
- Contact engagement
These insights help optimize every marketing step.
Integrations
Mautic integrates with:
- WordPress
- WooCommerce
- Shopify (via API)
- Salesforce
- Zoho
- HubSpot
- Zapier
- Make
- Twilio (SMS)
- Google Analytics
- Stripe / PayPal (via plugins)
Integrations help create a fully connected marketing ecosystem.
Best Practices
- Optimize your sending domain
- Keep contact lists clean
- Use double opt-in
- Personalize content
- Test every email
- Monitor bounce rates
- Use segmentation wisely
- Avoid over-complicated workflows
- Always warm up IP/domain
COMMON MISTAKES, PRO TIPS & CONCLUSION
Common Mistakes
Avoid these for smoother performance:
- Improper email configuration
- Skipping domain authentication (DKIM, SPF, DMARC)
- Overloading campaigns
- Using purchased email lists
- Ignoring bounce handling
- Not testing workflows
- Forgetting security updates
Professional Tips
- Use conditional content to personalize pages
- Create multi-branch campaigns
- Use tags to track micro-behaviors
- Maintain a dedicated email sending subdomain
- Define clear lead scoring rules
- Set up re-engagement campaigns
- Track UTM links for accurate analytics
Conclusion
Mautic is one of the most powerful automation tools available today. Its open-source flexibility, cost-effectiveness, deep personalization features, and enterprise-level automation make it a must-have for any serious marketer or business. With proper setup and strategy, Mautic can automate sales, nurture leads, and transform your digital marketing operations completely.