How to set a default value for a personalization tag

Overview

Personalization tags like {{ contact.first_name }} add information from your contacts' profile to emails and SMS messages, which makes messages feel individualized instead of generic. However, this strategy can backfire when contacts don't have information like their first name saved in their contact profiles.

Read on to learn how to set default values for personalization tags and ensure contacts receive messages that flow even when personalization data is unavailable.

If contacts' profiles do not have data for a personalization tag, they will see a blank space where it was inserted if a default value is not specified.

To create a default value for a personalization tag:

1. Click the Audience icon
2. Click the Personalization tab
3. Click the Custom Field's tag to copy it
4. Paste the Custom Field where you want it to appear in your email or SMS
5. Add | default('') before the closing curly brackets
6. Enter the default value between the quotation marks

If you wanted to default the first name personalization tag to friend, the final personalization tag would look like  {{ contact.first_name | default('Friend') }}