What are Personalization Tags?
Personalization Tags help you tailor communications specifically to the contacts within your audience.
These variable tags act as placeholders within your messages, pulling unique information from individual contact profiles (like their name, email address, or location) so you're able to customize the email experience for every single person on your list!
Before Getting Started
It's important to know that in order for Personalization Tags to function, you must first capture the relevant information within a contact's profile inside your Sendlane account.
Please Note
Contact Profiles without data in Personalization Tag fields will see a blank space where that Personalization Tag is inserted in any email they receive. Personalization Tags will not populate with data when sending test emails.
Built-in Personalization Tags
You can also personalize your communications by copying and pasting in any tag you'd like to use!
Here's a full list of Personalization Tags available within Sendlane:
Tag Name | Tag Code |
Display Example |
Site name | VAR_SITE_NAME | Sendlane |
Site URL | VAR_SITE_URL | https://www.sendlane.com |
Unsubscribe | VAR_SITE_UNSUBSCRIBE | To update or remove your contact information please Manage Your Subscription |
Contact first name | VAR_FIRST_NAME | John |
Contact last name | VAR_LAST_NAME | Doe |
Contact full name | VAR_FULL_NAME | John Doe |
Contact email | VAR_EMAIL | john@sendlane.com |
Contact phone number | VAR_SUBSCRIBER_PHONE | 888-927-2664 |
Contact mailing address | VAR_MAILING_ADDRESS | Sendlane, 10620 Treena Street Suite 250, San Diego, CA, US 92131 |
Contact country | VAR_COUNTRY | United States |
Contact state | VAR_STATE | California |
Contact city | VAR_CITY | San Diego |
Contact opt-in date | VAR_SUBSCRIBE_DATE | 2020-05-01 |
Contact IP address | VAR_SIGNUP_IP | 172.16.174.1 |
Formatted date | VAR_FORMATTED_DATE | May 1, 2020 |
Date | VAR_DATE | 2020-05-01 |
Time | VAR_TIME | 16:32:41 |
Year | VAR_YEAR | 2020 |
Month | VAR_MONTH | May |
Day | VAR_DAY | Tuesday |
Time sent | VAR_TIME_SENT | 18:39:29 |
Date & time | VAR_DATE_TIME | 2020-05-01 16:32:41 |
Day, date & time | VAR_DAY_DATE_TIME | Fri, May 1, 2020 4:32 PM |
Day, date & time | VAR_DAY_DATE_TIME | Fri, May 1, 2020 4:32 PM |
Campaign ID | VAR_CAMPAIGN_ID | 1 |
Automation ID | VAR_AUTOMATION_ID | 2 |
Please Note
To avoid any possible keystroke issues, please be sure to copy and paste the Personalization Tag you'd like to use instead of typing it in directly.
Using Personalization Tags in Subject Line & Preheader
- To personalize a subject line/preheader, navigate to the Content page of your message
- Within the Subject or Preheader fields, select from the Personalization Tag dropdown to add your contacts' personalized details
Once you select a Personalization Tag, you'll see that placeholder appear in your subject line or preheader.
When you send your message, any contact who has information on file for that Personalization Tag will see it displayed in their custom subject line or preheader!
Using Personalization Tags in Campaigns
- To use a Personalization Tag in the content of an email, make sure you have a message open in the Email Builder
- Next, place your cursor where you'd like to add your contact's info and click on the Personalization Tag icon
- Select the variable you'd like to include within the body of your message
- Once you do, you'll see the tag populate within your content
When you send your message, any contact who has information on file for that Personalization Tag will see it displayed within the email!
Advanced Ways to Personalize Your Messages
Anytime a Custom Field is created within your account, it is assigned a unique VAR code, which means you can use custom fields as personalization tags!
You'll find all of your custom fields below the built-in tags within the Personalization Tag dropdown:
Testing Personalization Tags
As a best practice, we always recommend testing your messages before sending them out to anyone in your audience.
However, it's important to note that Personalization Tags will not function when sending a test email (because it's a test environment, not a real database pull) so please be sure that the tag details are correct within your content before hitting send!
Troubleshooting
My Contact's Personalization Tag isn't populating!
Contact Profiles without data in Personalization Tag fields will see a blank space where that Personalization Tag is inserted in any email they receive
I don't see populated Personalization Tags in my test emails!
Test emails (for Campaigns or Automations) will not populate any data in Personalization Tags because there is no associated profile to pull data from when sending a test email
Additional Resources
- The Ultimate Growth Hack: Hyper-Personalized Email Marketing (And How To Do it)
- Three Personalization Tips that Go Beyond a First Name
- How to Use Custom Fields to Create Hyper-Personalized Emails
TL;DR
Subject Line/Preheader: Content page → Subject/Preheader field → Personalization Tag icon → Select tag
Email: Email Builder → Place cursor → Personalization Tag icon → Select tag