Personalise a message with placeholders
If you add personalisation placeholders to your message and send it to a contact you have in your database, they will read personalised content, based on the information you have for them or custom functionality Flexmail generates for you automatically.
Click on the link to learn more about the different types of placeholders.
This article will give you practical examples how to include placeholders in your content with any of our three tools you can use to create a message - the Drag & Drop Builder, the Wizard Template and the HTML Editor.
Drag & Drop Builder
Text element
- Click on a Text editor element. Type in the fixed part of your message. Next, click on the personalisation icon in the text editing properties above your text.
- That will open the placeholders menu for you and you can choose personalisation placeholders to add to your text.
- Simply click on the one you chose and the menu will disappear, while the placeholder will appear in your text, where the cursor used to be. Wrong place? You can cut and paste the placeholder just like any other word.
Other elements
In the Drag & Drop Builder you can also add placeholder links to an image or a button. Especially used when you want your contact to link to a personalised message or page on your website.
- Drag and drop an Image or a Button element onto your canvas. Click on the element on the canvas to open its Properties.
- Under Action you choose Weblink. But instead of a weblink, you can enter a system placeholder, e.g. #update#, or you can add a custom placeholder which is linked to your contact database, with a personalised URL, e.g. #birthdaycardurl#. This way you can take your contact to their own personalised message or page.
Wizard Template
- In the Wizard template, you will find the personalisation placeholders at the bottom, below the Link Tracking button. Click on Personalise.
- Here, use the personalisation placeholders reference list to discover what is available and just copy the variable (text-based code, starting and ending on '#') and just add it to your text wherever you find it fits.
Alternatively, in your articles via the content editor (the WYSIWYG editor), you can use the placeholder button, similarly to the HTML Editor. See below for more instructions.
HTML Editor
- In the HTML Editor, place your cursor in the text, where you want to place a personalisation placeholder. Next, click on the personalisation icon at the top.
- From the list, select the variable you are looking for and click on it to place it where your cursor is.
Make sure you always have an unsubscribe link in your message to enable your audience to opt out of receiving your messages. How? The unsubscribe link will be added to the message automatically unless you deactivate the footer in the general settings. If the footer is deactivated, you will have to add #unsubscribe# to the message manually. Without the unsubscribe variable the email/campaign cannot be sent.