Personalization by Merge Tags

One of the ways to personalize a message is to substitute personal data from the values of contact fields automatically.

The most common example of personalization is the %FIRSTNAME|% variable substituted as a customer's name from the corresponding field of the contact card.

%FIRSTNAME|% variable and substituted contact's name

%FIRSTNAME|% variable and substituted contact's name

The variable will be replaced if the corresponding field is filled in the contact profile; if the field is empty, the variable will be skipped.

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Note

You can create additional fields for personalization.

Personalization is used for bulk and triggered campaigns in all communication channels.

Additional fields can contain any contact data you send to our CDP when importing historical data or sending data via the API

To see all personalization options available for your account, go to your profile settings → Additional fields

Additional fields

Additional fields

You can use all variables from the additional fields to personalize messages in all channels.

Variables in additional fields

Variables in additional fields

Add Data from contact fields to a message using a special menu in the message editor.

Personalization Menu in eSputnik Editors

Email

  1. Go to Messages, click the Email tab, and open the message.
  2. Click the Text block. The Merge tags tab will open on the top panel of the editor.
Email message personalization

Email message personalization

  1. In the drop-down list, select the field for substitution or find it through the search.

SMS, Web Push, Mobile Push, Viber, App Inbox

The SMS, Web Push, Mob Push, and Viber editors have a similar interface. The icon with a person indicates personalization fields.

Let's look at personalization using mobile push notifications as an example.

  1. Go to Message → Mobile Push and open message.    
  2. Go to the field with the person icon and click it.      
Mobile Push message personalization

Mobile Push message personalization

In the drop-down list, select the field for substitution or find it through the search.

Using a Constant Value When There is No Data in Additional Fields

The system automatically adds a “|” sign after each variable in message editors, when adding variables

A “|” sign after variable

A “|” sign after variable

If you need to add an alternative value for additional fields that do not contain information, enter the required text after the “|” character

Alternative information

Alternative information

The contact will receive the following message:

  • If they name is known.
The name is known

The name is known

  • Alternative title if a name is missing.
The name is unknown

The name is unknown

Examples of Using Variables for Personalization

Let's look at an example of the message with the substitution of the following field values from a contact profile:

where: 

  • %FIRSTNAME|% — contact name; 
  • %EVENT|% — some event;
  • %PERSONAL.BONUS|% — number of active bonuses on the card;
  • %MANAGER.PHONE|% — manager phone.
  • %MANAGER.NAME|% — manager name;.
  • %PERSONAL.PROMOCODE|% — client's personal promo code.
Template with variables & email with substituted data

Template with variables & email with substituted data

Variable names can differ depending on the contact field names you have in your account.

To add a variable for an image, click the image block → URL and insert the variable (for example, %PERSONAL.QRCODE%) in the Image path.

Adding a variable for an image

Adding a variable for an image

Or you can add a variable as an src attribute straight to code:

Adding a variable as an src attribute

Adding a variable as an src attribute

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Important

The variable value should be a link with an absolute path, for example: https://example.com/qr_code.png

Substituting Data From an Event

Using variables in the message text allows to unify all messages or its blocks. But this method is devoid of variability — substitution happens or doesn’t happen without additional content management capabilities.

Sometimes, the value of an entire block is lost due to the absence of several parameters in a message. If there is insufficient contact information, data substitution will not occur. For example, the promotional code and QR code may be absent:

No data available

No data available

You can hide an entire message block and display it only when all the necessary components are available or use data passed from the even. For these cases, use variables with Velocity functions.