When you add personalization, you can tailor the email message, subject line, address settings fields, and links so that they are specific to each contact who receives your email. You can add information from your custom or system database fields, such as given name, surname, and birth date. You can also insert data in table format. When contacts view or open the email, they see information that is specific to them. For example, if you insert personalization for the FirstName field, contacts see their given name.

Add database personalization

1. In content blocks containing a text editor, place your cursor where you want the personalization information to appear.
2. Click the Personalization icon. The field names (columns) appear.
3. Select the field name, such as First_Name, to use for populating the information. The placeholder appears in the format %%[field name]%% until you send the email.

You can insert personalization into any of the following areas in your email:

• Email body
• Subject line
• Address settings
• Links, including clickstream and email (mailto) links

Personalization with relational table data

To personalize an email subject line or address settings with relational table data (From name, From address, and Reply-to address fields), you must include a formatted placeholder and add it to the appropriate field.

The format for this placeholder is %%RT::path to query::field name%%. "Path to query" must have a leading slash and include the full path of the relational table query, including "shared" or "private". It is not case-sensitive.

Example:

Hello %%RT::/Shared/All_Parents_New::Parent First Name%%

Result: Hello Donna

Personalize with child relational table data

Use the following format to add child relational table personalization to your email subject line or address setting (From name, From address, and Reply-to address) fields.

%%RT::path to query::child table name.field
name%%

Separate the child table name and the field name with a period. The following example shows child relational table data in the subject line:

%%RT::/Shared/Male_Children::Child Info.Child First Name%%
Result = T-shirt is Ready for Michael

Add date and time personalization

You can include date and time personalization in your emails. Check out Add date and time personalization.

Dynamically add a send date

You can dynamically add a send date to the email body by using the %%MAILING_SEND_DATE%% personalization tag. You can either manually type in the tag or select it from the Insert Personalization menu in the content builder.

Limitations for personalization

• Personalization is not case-sensitive.
• For personalized links, make sure that there are no spaces in the field name or within the data. Underscores are acceptable.
• You can insert relational table data from relational tables that are associated with the database.
• Personalization using child relational table data in conjunction with send time optimization (STO) on a program email step is not supported.
• You can't add an RecipientID to an email for the purposes of personalization. The RecipientID is not intended to be a customer-facing value.

Tips

• Add a default value to list fields that are used in personalization. The default is used if there is no value in that field.
• When you use personalization, be careful to not change the email list that is associated with your message. If you do change the list, make sure to update the personalization fields. Any personalized fields that do not match the fields in the new list are not merged but are displayed as they are in the editor.
• Use %%format%% to add personalized dates, currency, and other numbers to the email body, such as:

  %%format(Price, "#,###.00")%%
  %%format(Price, "####")%%
  %%format(blankNumeric, "##.##")%%
  

  For example, if your database has a custom column "RAND", you can add %%format(RAND, "#,###.00")%% to get the correct currency format in the email body.