Customizing your internal communications with data such as first name, last name, and more is a great way to boost open rates and increase read times. Learn how to personalize your ContactMonkey internal communications.

Personalizing messages for your recipients can help you save time, increase accuracy, and improve the effectiveness of your email communication. ContactMonkey offers the ability to personalize your messages through the use of Merge Fields. Merge Fields can be used to automatically sub in data in bulk such as first name, last name, or other data.

Getting Started

Merge Fields work across all platforms and are supported for the following sending types: 

• Distribution lists
• CSV uploads
• Contact lists

When getting ready to send your email, Individual Tracking must be enabled as your tracking option in order to use merge fields. Learn more about your email tracking options here.

Before using Merge Fields, you’ll need to know which version of ContactMonkey you are using- Gmail, Office 365, or Outlook On-Premise.

• Add Merge Fields to subject lines in Outlook
• Add Merge fields to email bodies in the ContactMonkey email builder

Using Merge Fields In Office 365

Customize your email body with Merge Fields while creating it within ContactMonkey.  Customize your subject line with Merge Fields while getting ready to send it within Office 365. Learn more about sending emails with Office 365 here. 

How you add your contact information can affect your merge field options:

Distribution Lists: The subject line and email body can be personalized using the {{FirstName}}, {{LastName}} and {{DisplayName}} merge fields. These fields can be accessed via the subject line's sidebar and within the editor's Merge Tags option.

CSV: The subject line and email body can be personalized using any heading or date you have in your CSV file. If you have a heading like First Name or Department, you would need to use the {{First_Name}} or {{Department}} merge fields. 

Contact Lists: If the List Management feature is enabled for you, you can personalize the subject and the email body with any fields you have uploaded with the integration. The field headings would need to be inserted into your merge field like such: {{Heading1}}. 

Previewing Merge Fields With Office 365 

Previewing your merge fields is a vital step in ensuring your communication is sent correctly to your contacts. 

To preview your merge fields, follow these steps: 

1. Click Count Recipients in the sidebar 
2. Click the number of recipients as it loads

This will pop up a preview of how each recipient will see the merge fields for their email:

Using Merge Fields In Gmail 

Merge fields are added to your subject line while sending through “Compose & Send” within ContactMonkey. They can be added to the body of your email during email creation. Learn more about sending emails with ContactMonkey and Gmail here. 

CSV: The subject line and email body can be personalized using any heading or date you have in your CSV file. If you have a heading like First Name or Department, you would need to use the {{First_Name}} or {{Department}} merge fields. 

Contact Lists: If you have the List Management feature enabled, you can personalize the subject and the email body with any fields you have uploaded with the integration. The field headings would need to be inserted to your merge field like such: {{Heading1}}. 

Using Merge Fields In Outlook On-Premise

Customize your email body with Merge Fields while creating it within the ContactMonkey email builder.  Customize your subject line with Merge Fields while getting ready to send it within Outlook. Learn more about sending emails with Outlook On Premise here. 

Distribution Lists: The subject line and email body can be personalized using the {{FirstName}}, {{LastName}} and {{DisplayName}} merge fields. These fields can be accessed via the sidebar for the Subject Line and within the Merge Tags option in the Editor.

CSV: The subject line and email body can be personalized using any heading or date you have in your CSV file. If you have a heading like First Name or Department, you would need to use the {{First_Name}} or {{Department}} merge fields. 

Previewing Merge Fields In Outlook On-Premise

Previewing your merge fields is a vital step in ensuring your communication is sent correctly to your contacts. 

To preview your merge fields, follow these steps:

• Launch Outlook
• Click Preview in the sidebar

This will pop up a preview of how each recipient will see the merge fields for their email. 

Now that you know the different ways to use merge fields with the different versions of ContactMonkey, you can create customized and personalized email content with very little effort.

Frequently Asked Questions