Personalizing communications

Add data fields to communications or templates

1. Click Data Sources and then Add Data Source (this is optional).
2. In the editor, click to mark the insertion point.
3. Click Add personalization and select the data field from the list. This lists all the available fields in the data source and the System Fields. You can use the option Add custom personalization to specify a field that exists in one of your data sources but not in the currently selected data source. A dialog is displayed for you to insert the field name and default value.

   A red field is a reminder that the field is not in the current data source, or there is no data source selected:

   

   Note: You can set a default to be used if a record in the data source does not have a value for the field. In the example above, colleague will be used when there is no firstname value. To set a default later, go to the editor and click the data field.

Using dates (system fields)

The system fields always insert the current date at the time of sending the campaign. If you want fixed dates then enter these as text. These fields are empty when sending a test email (so you need to enter the date you want to use as the current date when you send the test email).

Using curly brackets

As an alternative to selecting a data field from the Add personalization dropdown, you can include a variable in the text or subject line by enclosing the variable name in two sets of curly brackets. For example, {{surname}} would display the value of the variable called surname.

You can also set the default value within the curly brackets, for example:

{{firstname or 'Dear colleage'}}

Testing the communication

Preview the communication and click through the records in the data source to check that the data (and any defaults that you have set) work with the communication. For both email and SMS, you can also send some test emails or messages.