A Demographics profile field is limited to an established set of values. The set of values is based on your selection of a Demographic Type, of which, there are three options:
- Standard - This gives you the ability to create your own custom demographic values. For example, you could create a demographic called Gender and the set of values could be Male, Female, and Prefer Not To Say.
- State - This set of values is pre-populated with the two-letter abbreviations of the 50 US states, the ten provinces and three territories of Canada, and Territories of the United States.
- Country - This set of values is pre-populated with the names of the world's countries.
Demographics profile field notes
When you create a Demographics profile field, it automatically becomes a target group, too. This makes it easier to isolate a subset of your contacts if, for example, you want to send a focused message to only some of your contacts (e.g., based on region, experience, or a personal interest).
Higher Logic cautions against deleting Demographics profile fields, because if a field is used in a data format or a compound and is then deleted, that information will be incomplete and the system will not be able to read it. If you do try to delete the information, the system will display an error message.
Selection Type & Display Type
When you create a Demographics profile field you have to set how the associated values will display to contacts. For this, you have to choose the:
- Selection Type - in which you choose whether contacts can select multiple fields or just a single field. This setting determines which type of selector displays (the Display Type, below).
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Display Type - is the selector that is presented to contacts.
- Single-Select has two options: Dropdown List and Radio Buttons.
- Multi-Select has two options: Listbox and Checkboxes.
NOTE: Demographics for a Demographics profile field can be brought into your account via the Upload Contacts feature. If you do this, make sure that the incoming data values are exact matches to corresponding values in your Demographics profile field.
Create a Demographics profile field
- Access the Admin interface.
- Navigate to Contacts > Profile Fields.
- Click the plus sign to the right of the page title.
- Select Demographics from the dropdown.
- Complete the form to configure your profile field.
Profile field settings
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Field Name | (Required) Give the field a name. This displays on a subscription form. |
| Demographic Type |
(Required) Select the type of values that you want to capture:
|
| Default Value | (Optional, but Recommended) If you use personalization in your messages and the field in a contact's record doesn't have a value, the default value is inserted in order to prevent a blank space where the personalization field was inserted. |
| Selection Type | (Required) Choose whether contacts can select a single demographic or multiple demographics. |
| Display Type | (Required) Choose how the demographics display to contacts. |
- Click Save to create your Demographics profile field.
- Review the list and verify that your new Profile Field is listed.