In the same way that you can use personalisation and dynamic content in your email content, you can also use these tools for subject lines and from names.
Personalisation
Inserts data stored against your contacts, for example, FIRSTNAME or ACCOUNT_MANAGER.Dynamic rules
Are logical rules used to determine what should display, for example:
If the contact's country is United Kingdom show New t-shirt colours released, otherwise show New t-shirt colors released.
This means you can send one campaign with multiple targeted messages for different groups of customers. Which message each group receives depends on the rules you set.
You can use personalisation and dynamic rules in both standard and triggered email campaigns.
Before you start
Dynamic rules in email campaigns can only use contact data fields. You can't base a variation on Marketing preferences or Insight data.
You can't use advanced personalisation or Liquid markup in a dynamic subject line or from name.
Your subject line and from name don't appear in the campaign preview. To check what contacts see here, send a test. Learn more in the Test your subject lines and from names section.
Personalise your subject line and from name
When creating your subject line and friendly from name, you can insert a placeholder for a contact data field.
Contacts with no value
If a contact has no value stored for the data field you choose, a blank space appears in its place. For example, Hi @FIRSTNAME@ becomes Hi ,. To avoid this, set a default value for the data field, or use a dynamic rule with the Is empty operator to show those contacts a different subject line. Learn more in Set a default value for a contact data field.
On the Campaign details page, select the personalisation icon next to the Subject line or Friendly from name field. This shows a list of all of your contact data fields.
Select the contact data field you want to use.
A placeholder, for example, @FIRSTNAME@, is added to the subject line or from name. When the campaign is sent, the value stored against each contact for that data field is populated.
Dynamic rules for subject lines and from names
Dynamic content consists of three main elements:
Default content
This is the default subject line, or default from name, that your contacts see if none of the rules that you set apply to them.
Variations
These are the alternative versions of the subject line or from name that you want contacts to see who meet specific criteria set in your rules.
Rules
These are the criteria you set to determine whether contacts see the default content, or a variation. For example, these rules could be GENDER must be equal to "Male", or AGE greater than 65.
Set up dynamic rules
On the Campaign details page, select Campaign settings.
For Dynamic content, select Subject line. If you also want to enable a dynamic from name, select From name.
It’s not possible to only enable a dynamic from name. If you want to do this, enable both, but enter the same subject line for all variations.Select Apply.
Create variations
You see the dynamic content window surrounding your subject line and from name. It shows the Default variation. First, enter the content you want to use as default.
Then, to add your variations:
Expand the Variations drop-down menu and select New variation.
In the popup, enter a variation name to identify this particular variation.
Select select another contact data field, select the data field you want to use in your rule.
Expand the drop-down menu and select the operator you want to use.
Different data types have different available operators.Where required, enter a value to segment on in the input field to complete your rule. The value must match the value stored in the contact data field. For example, if your data stores ES, a rule using Spain doesn't match.
Select Okay.
To add another rule to the variation, repeat steps 3–6. Between each rule is the AND/OR toggle. And indicates that all rules created must be true for a contact to see your variation. You can toggle to Or, which indicates that at least one of your rules needs to be true for a contact to see the variation.
When you’re happy with the variation rules, select Apply.
Repeat these steps to add more variations. You add up to nine variations.
You can add personalisation to the default and to each variation. For example, keep @FIRSTNAME@, your order is ready as the default, and add a variation for contacts whose FIRSTNAME Is empty that reads Your order is ready.
Available operators
Available operators
For text type contact data fields, you can set rules for:
Equal to
Not equal to
Contains
Does not contain
Starts with
Ends with
Is empty
Does not begin with
Does not end with
Is not empty
For date type contact data fields, you can set rules for:
On
Before
After
Is empty
Is not empty
For number based contact data fields, you can set rules for:
Equal to
Not equal to
More than
Less than
At least (that is greater than or equal to)
At most (that is less than or equal to)
Is empty
Is not empty
For Boolean (yes/no) contact data fields, you can set rules based on the answer being yes (true) or no (false).
You can see what variation is currently being displayed by its name to the right of Variations.
To switch between variations, expand the Variations drop-down menu and select a variation from the dropdown. Enter the subject line and from name, if applicable, that you want to display to contacts who match the applied rules.
Using the Variations drop-down menu you can also:
Add another variation
Edit the rules for a variation: select the Edit (pencil) icon
Duplicate the variation: select the Copy (pages) icon
Remove the variation: select the Remove (cross) icon
Rearrange the order of the rules by dragging the variation names up or down.
The default variation is always the last one in the list.
Test your subject lines and from names
The campaign preview doesn't show your subject line or from name. To check which variation a contact receives, send a test to yourself after editing your own contact data to match the variation's rules.
To edit this data or view your test list:
Go to Audience > Lists.
Select the Test list.
Find and select your email address.
Select the Data fields tab.
Edit your data to match the rules of the variation you want to check.
Select Save.
Send a test of your campaign.
Repeat these steps for each variation you want to check. Alternatively, set up several test contacts who each meet the rules of a different variation.
Learn more in Test your campaign.
Dynamic rules and other features
If your campaign is set up for split testing, each split version needs to have dynamic rules set up as required.
If your campaign is set up to use ReMail, the same dynamic subject lines will be used in the ReMail. You won't get the option to edit the subject line of the Remail the way you can when using a static subject line. If you want to be able to change the subject line of the ReMail, you must ensure you're using a static subject line.