Can I use another field in place of a default value?

You can include the personalization from one field of the same contact source, and use it as the default for another.

About this task

For example, let's say that you have a single opt-in database and the field names are:

  • Email
  • FirstName
  • DateOfBirth

Most of your contacts have their first name entered but because it is not a required field, some first names are blank. Rather than use something like 'Valued Customer' for the default value when personalizing the email subject line and email body, you want the contact's email address to display instead.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the desired database fields and take note of the actual field name for email address exactly as it displays.
  2. Edit the field FirstName and enter %%Email%% as the default value for that field (Email is whatever the actual field name is for your database).

Results

Now, when sending the email, the personalization will provide for the email address to default when the first name is not given.