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🔄Set up your Merge Tags, Custom Merge Tags, and Fallback Text
🔄Set up your Merge Tags, Custom Merge Tags, and Fallback Text

What, Why, and How to setup Merge Tags, Custom Merge Tags, and Fallback Text in your Content or Email Marketing Strategy

Yashal Vagadia avatar
Written by Yashal Vagadia
Updated over a week ago

Hello there, Saleshandy users! 👋

Are you ready to take your email game to the next level? 📧✨ Let me introduce you to the power of Merge Tags! 🎯

Merge Tags

What are Merge Tags?

Merge tags are placeholders or variables representing your CSV file's contact data. Whether it's their first name, last name, company, or any other information you have. Merge Tags allow you to customize your emails using this valuable contact data. 📝🎯

Why Merge Tag?

Imagine being able to tailor your emails specifically to each recipient, adding that personalized touch that makes a lasting impact. By dynamically inserting specific text areas into your email content, you can craft messages that speak directly to your reader's interests, needs, and preferences. 📝🎯

With Merge tags, you have the opportunity to enhance your copywriting and connect with your leads on a whole new level. 💪🤝

How to Set up (Insert) Merge Tags in your Email Campaign?

Saleshandy comes equipped with the essential merge tags right out of the box. But guess what? You have the freedom to spice things up even more by adding as many merge tags as your heart desires. How cool is that? 😎

Just a heads up: merge tags are case-sensitive, which means that "{{hi}}" is not the same as "{{HI}}." It may seem like a small detail, but it can make a big difference in your email personalization.

E.g.:

✅{{Last Name}} / ❌{{ Last Name }}

✅{{Last Name}} / ❌{{ LastName }}

⚠️Note: Always check that the braces are correctly opened and closed. When you're importing and matching multiple merge tags from different columns of your CSV file, it's crucial to ensure that the name of each merge tag matches what you've set in the first row of the CSV. If you send a test Email,, the merge tags will pick random data for any prospects from the CSV file you uploaded. We have not set any default Merge Tag.

📺Video Guide

🪜Steps to Follow

  1. Log into your SalesHandy account and navigate to the Sequence tab.

  2. Click on the Sequence button, and it will open up your Sequence, and click on your email.

    Sequence

  3. Two different Merge tags are available, one for the subject and one for your email body.

    Merge Tags

  4. From the drop-down, select the Merge Tags; we have chosen {{First Name}}. You can place a Merge Tag anywhere in the email body or subject line by clicking on it.

Mission accomplished; you've successfully added Merge Tags. 👏

Custom Merge Tags will be at the bottom of the drop-down once you've scrolled till the end. To learn more about Custom Merge Tags, you can click here.

List of predetermined Merge Tags Saleshandy provides which include:

System Field - Merge Tags

Type

Sample Value

First Name

Text

Piyush

Last Name

Text

Patel

Email

Text

Phone Number

Text

9825747907

Job Title

Text

Co-founder

Department

Text

Product & Engineering

Industry

Text

Information & Technology

Experience

Text

12 Years

LinkedIn

Text

Twitter

Text

Facebook

Text

Website

Text

City

Text

Ahmedabad

State

Text

GJ

Country

Text

India

Company

Text

Saleshandy

Company Domain

Text

Company Website

Text

Company Industry

Text

Information & Technology

Company Size

Text

523

Company Revenue

Text

$2,058,478

Company Founded Year

Text

2015

Company LinkedIn

Text

Company Phone

Text

917935612911

Creation Source

Text

CSV Import

You can use all the system fields as merge tags. However, you can also create custom fields and use them as merge tags.

You can also create a Custom Merge Tag as well. To learn more about how to create Custom Merge Tags, click here.

Custom Merge Tags

What are Custom Merge Tags?

Custom merge tags are like magic placeholders in your email templates ✨. They let you add personalized or specific information to your messages, making them tailored to each recipient. 📧

Why Custom Merge Tags?🤔

Custom merge tags are super helpful when you want to include unique details in your emails. While standard merge tags cover basics like first name or email address, custom merge tags let you go beyond. You can add custom fields like customer IDs, account numbers, or any other data points specific to your business. 📝

With custom merge tags, you have the power to adapt your templates to different scenarios or target specific groups. Whether it's a campaign, event, or promotion, you can create merge tags that suit the context and purpose. 🎯

Custom merge tags make your emails more personalized, efficient, and adaptable. You'll deliver relevant and engaging content to each recipient, creating a better connection. 💌

So go ahead and unleash the power of custom merge tags to level up your email game! 💪

How to Create Custom Merge Tags / Prospect Fields?

📺Video Guide

🪜Steps to Follow

1️⃣ Log into your SalesHandy account, navigate to the settings tab, and click the Prospect Fields tab.

Custom Field

2️⃣ Click on Add Prospect Fields, and create the Custom Field.

3️⃣ From the pop-up, Enter the Field Name, Field Type, and Fallback Text (Optional), and then click on Save.

Field Name: The field name refers to the specific name or label assigned to a data field or column in a dataset or CSV File. It is used to identify and differentiate different types of information within the dataset. 😀

Field Type: The field type refers to categorizing or classifying a data field based on the type of data it represents. It determines the format and constraints applied to the data within that field. Saleshandy has two common field types😊

  1. Text: Used for alphanumeric characters, such as names, addresses, or descriptions.💬

  2. Number: Represents numerical values, including integers or decimal numbers.🔢

⚠️Please be cautious about duplicate fields, which often occur with default fields.

Fallback Text: Fallback Text is used to place a fixed value to a custom field (variable) when a particular value for the custom field is missing for any prospect. To learn more about Fallback Text, Click here.😀

How to Use Custom Fields in the Sequences?

Once you have created your desired custom fields, adding them to your sequence is very easy.

Follow these steps:

  1. To add/use custom fields in your cold emails, you first need to navigate to the Prospects Tab and import the CSV file containing your prospect data. It's crucial to ensure that the CSV file has the same fields as the column headers that you want to include in your email.

  2. After uploading the file, you can map all the fields from your CSV, and your custom fields will automatically appear.

  3. To personalize your email content with custom fields, you can insert variables in both the email subject line and the body. This allows you to add specific custom field data for each contact, making your emails more targeted and effective.

When the sequence sends the emails, the system automatically picks the data for each contact from the uploaded file and sends personalized emails to each prospect.

Fallback Text

What is Fallback Text?

Fallback Text is used to place a fixed value to a custom field (variable) when a particular value for the custom field is missing for any prospect.😀

Why Fallback Text?

Suppose you upload a CSV file to import prospects, and the file is missing some attributes for some of the prospects (As shown below):

Using a fallback text, you can set up a default value for each custom field where the Company Name and Phone were missing for any prospect.😊

In another way, think of the fallback text as a helpful assistant that supports:

Dynamic Content: In situations where personalized or specific data is temporarily inaccessible, Fallback text serves as a practical placeholder, offering a generic but meaningful representation of the intended content.😄

For Example:

Hello {{First Name}},

For some of your contacts, the First Name is empty, it'll display 👇

Hello ,

It doesn't look good, and your contacts may feel like the email is automated.🥺

👉 That's why you can add a fallback text which will be used if the custom field is empty.

In Saleshandy, it'll look like this:

Hello {{First Name|'Friend'}},

Fallback Text Format: {{custom field | fallback}}, where the custom field is First Name, and the fallback is 'Friend'😊.

If the First Name is empty, it'll then display:

Hello Friend,

Example:

How to set fallback text for a Custom/System field?

📺Video Guide

🪜Steps to Follow

  • To set a fallback text, navigate to the Prospect Fields tab under Settings.⚙️

  • Click the Actions button for the Custom Fields/System Field that you wish to set a fallback value.

  • Enter Fallback Text in the given space and hit the Save button.

  • You can directly set Fallback Text in Email Editor as well. But it will be limited to that specific Email. We have added Fallback Text as a "Friend."

NOTE: If there is missing data for a prospect for any of the custom fields and you don't set up fallback text for that custom field, the system won't add blank space or ##{{custom_field}} in the email content.

Mission accomplished; you've successfully added Fallback Text. 👏

Best practices

  • Ensure that you close your custom fields accurately to reflect the relevant data in your email.

  • Choose the appropriate field type for the type of data you want to send, such as text for textual information and numbers for numerical data.

  • Additionally, setting up the necessary fields to personalize your email and avoid cluttering your message with excessive fields is important.

  • To avoid sending blank custom fields, always set up the fallback text as a precautionary measure.

  • Make sure that your CSV file's column headings correspond to the custom fields you want to add to your content.

  • Finally, sending yourself a test email to check if your custom fields are working is essential before sending out the final email to your contact list.

Wishing you a delightful experience! ❤️

Happy Selling. 🤝

Warmest regards,

Saleshandy Team

👉 Next Steps

Check out the below article If you want to know more about


💡 Tip

Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. We're available on chat and ready to provide you with prompt assistance. 🤗

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