Personalising with variables
A variable is a placeholder that fills in with each person’s own details when
the message is sent. Write Hi {{contact.name}}, and Sarah receives Hi Sarah,.
They work in the subject line, anywhere in the body, and in the SMS.
Inserting one
Section titled “Inserting one”Click into the field you’re writing and press +. The variable drops in as a blue chip, and moves and deletes as one piece — backspace takes the whole thing, not a letter of it.
What’s on offer:
| Variable | Fills in with |
|---|---|
| Name | their first name |
| Phone | their phone number, if you collected one |
| Custom name | the name of this custom |
| Results link | the address of their own result |
The results link
Section titled “The results link”Results link is offered in the body of the video delivery and in the delivery SMS, and not in the instant reply — at that point their result doesn’t exist, so a link to it would go nowhere. The subject line doesn’t offer it either.
In the video delivery it’s usually already in place, on the button. You only need to insert it by hand if you want the address in the text as well, or you’ve written the email without a button.
The SMS starts with it already in its message. If you rewrite the text, keep it in.
Write so it still reads when empty
Section titled “Write so it still reads when empty”A variable with nothing behind it comes out as nothing at all — no placeholder,
no leftover brackets. Someone who never gave a first name turns Hi {{contact.name}}, into Hi ,.
It’s worth a moment’s thought on the lines that lean hardest on a variable. Hi {{contact.name}}, is fine to lose the odd name from; Your plan for {{contact.name}} reads badly without one.
Send yourself the real thing
Section titled “Send yourself the real thing”Variables stay as chips while you’re editing — the editor shows you the token rather than a guess at what it will become. In the body of an email, Custom name is the exception: it already shows your custom’s name. To see a finished message, use Send test: it puts the email in your own inbox with the layout, the images and the fonts exactly as a recipient gets them.
A few things differ from a real send, all on purpose. The subject arrives
prefixed with [Test]; Name is filled with your own first name and
Phone with a sample number; the animated preview, if any, is your most
recent lead’s; and the results link points at a placeholder rather than a real
result — there’s no person behind a test, so there’s nothing for it to open. Everything else is what will go out.
Do this once before you publish. It’s the quickest way to catch an empty variable, or a link you meant to place and didn’t.