Use merge fields to personalise subject lines and body content with each contact's own data.
Inserting fields
Select a Rich Text block and click the @ button in its toolbar (tooltip: Personalise your email by replacing text with merge fields), or type @ in the text. A list of merge fields opens with a Search merge fields box — start typing to narrow it, then choose a field. The field appears in the text as a chip, for example @FirstName, and is replaced with each recipient's own value when the email is sent. The Subject line also supports merge fields.
What's in the list
The list starts with standard contact fields — for example FirstName, LastName, KnownAs, DateOfBirth, PrimaryOrganisationName, StakeholderLeaderName and RecipientEmail — followed by membership and subscription fields (fees, intervals, paid-to dates and so on, named after your plans) and then your account's custom fields. Which fields appear depends on your account: profile fields such as DateOfBirth and Gender only appear where they are turned on, and your custom fields are your own. On a campaign addressed to organisations, the list is limited to the fields that make sense for an organisation, such as Name, RecipientEmail and the stakeholder leader fields.
DateOfBirth merges in your account's date format — in Australia, 29/02/2000. It is a person field, so it is not available on a campaign addressed to organisations. Where a contact has no date of birth recorded, or the stored value cannot be read as a date, it merges as blank unless you have set a fallback.
Fallback values
Every merge field supports a default fallback for contacts who are missing that value. Click Edit merge fields in the toolbar to open the Edit merge fields panel — Email recipients see this text if the contact's data is incomplete — and enter a default for each field the email uses. For example, "Hi @FirstName" with a default of "there" reads "Hi there" for a contact with no first name, rather than "Hi ,".
Check before sending
Use Preview in the builder and select a contact to confirm the fields resolve correctly, then send a test email, choosing a recipient under Send test email for so the test is personalised with that contact's data, before the real send.
"Merge fields have changed" warning
In the Email Builder you may see the warning: "The following merge fields have changed. Please check/replace them before sending your email:" followed by the affected fields (for example @MemberNumber). This means one or more merge fields in the email (or the template it was built from) are no longer valid — usually because a custom field used as a merge field has since been changed or deleted. To resolve it, check each merge field in the email, replacing any that are no longer valid. Once they're all valid the warning clears and the fields will merge correctly when you send.