Merge tags add a great personal touch for a wide range of emails: signup forms, welcome emails, weekly newsletters, and even subject lines (and it can also increase your engagement rates!).
Merge tags you should get used to using are:
*|FNAME|* This shows your recipient’s first name.
*|ARCHIVE|* This creates a view online link for your email.
*|DATE: F j, Y|* This automatically displays the date the email was sent, so you don’t have to update it every time you send a new email. You can change how the date displays with these PHP commands.
Conditional Merge Tags
What happens if we don’t know our recipient’s first name? Conditional merge tags provide a fallback to help us out in case the list information isn’t readily available.
Hello*|IF:FNAME|* *|FNAME|*,*|ELSE:|* Friend,*|END:IF|*This code for example, will display “Hello Joe” if you have Joe’s first name, if not, then it’ll display “Hello Friend” and you can change the generic greeting to whatever you like.
Another cool feature with Mailchimp merge tags is adding information related to list location or language. You can instruct Mailchimp to display content in specific languages according to the reader’s language settings, making it a seamless translation.
You can even display customized email content per region. Regional content allows you to cater to customers in different timezones, sending sales and coupons according to location. Customizing content according to region also makes for a great monetization opportunity, so you can work with advertisers and sell ad space per region.
How to Add Mailchimp Merge Tags
Copy and paste Mailchimp merge tags right from their knowledge base. They’ve got plenty of merge tags to choose from. Here’s a quick link to access the list.
Alternatively, you can add a merge tag by selecting the tag from the toolbar dropdown where it reads “Merge Tags.”
Testing Merge Tags
Before sending your email campaign, keep in mind that merge tags won’t appear in the Template Editor. You’ll need to either send yourself a test campaign, or view the template in Preview mode, and then select “Enable live merge tag info” to view the merge tag.
Always, always, always test your email template, including the merge tags, before sending the live campaign to your list.
Mailchimp merge tags make email personalization easy. The tags are a quick and effective way to make your company stand out while connecting with your customers.
Still wondering about Mailchimp merge tags? Drop us a line, and we’ll walk you through it.