Merge tags
Personalise the subject, preview text and body for each person, with fallbacks for missing data.
A merge tag is a placeholder that's filled in per person when an email is sent: Hi {{first_name}} becomes Hi Jane. Use them in the subject, the preview text, the body and signatures.
The tags
| Tag | Fills in |
|---|---|
{{first_name}} | Their first name |
{{last_name}} | Their last name |
{{full_name}} | Their full name |
{{email}} | Their email address |
{{company}} | The company they work at |
{{title}} | Their job title |
{{custom.key}} | One of your custom fields, by its key, for example {{custom.plan}} |
{{event.property}} | In automations: a property of the event that started the run, for example {{event.invoice_id}} or {{event.order.total}} |
{{unsubscribe_url}} | In a signature: where the unsubscribe link should go |
The editors have an Insert tag menu, so you don't need to remember the spelling.
Fallbacks
Add | and a fallback for people who don't have a value:
Hi {{first_name|there}},
I saw {{company|your team}} is hiring.What happens when a value is missing
If a tag has no fallback and the person has no value for it, Pedibee doesn't send them a half-finished email: the campaign or sequence skips that person with the reason Missing data (you'll see which tag in the preview and on their row), and a one-off email tells you before sending.
Give first_name a fallback
First names are the tag most often missing, especially on imported or API-created contacts. {{first_name|there}} is the safe habit. The Insert menu adds it that way.
Placeholders you still need to fill
Text in double square brackets, like [[product name]], is a note to yourself, not a merge tag. Pedibee refuses to launch a campaign or activate a sequence while any [[…]] is left in the subject, preview text, body or signature, so a draft never goes out with a placeholder in it.
Good to know
- Values are inserted as text, never as HTML, so a name with
<or&in it can't break the email. - Each email is merged exactly once. A merge tag that arrives inside a value (say an event property that contains
{{email}}) is shown as written, not expanded. - In one-off emails, merge tags are filled only inside the signature. The body is sent as you typed it.