NOTE: This article is for customers with the New Admin Experience interface (vertical left-navigation bar).
If your interface is different, view the "classic" version of this article.
Custom Fields are "personalization" features in your account. Custom Date Fields are date-specific Custom Fields.
NOTE: The values of these custom fields are inserted at send-time, so be mindful of how you use them. In particular, make sure that the data source contains current and correct information.
Enabling and permissions
- By default, the Custom Fields feature is enabled for all accounts.
- The Custom Fields feature is visible to everyone in the account, irrespective of your Enterprise Asset rules.
- Initially, all users have access to the feature. However, account admins can limit access to it with the Custom Fields permission.
Use in Landing Page Campaigns
Custom Fields can be inserted into a landing page campaign via a Form Field zone (see Zones) to simplify data-collection.
Custom Fields
Custom Fields are personalized keywords that you can insert into email messages to personalize the message, per recipient. For example, you could create a personalized greeting such as "Hello, <first_name>." Then, for each recipient, the <first_name> placeholder will be replaced with their first name (e.g., "Hello, John.") when the message is sent.
NOTE: Custom Fields have character limits; refer to Character limits and non-compliant fields, below. Fields that exceed this limit are considered non-compliant.
To access your Custom Fields:
- Access the Admin interface.
- Navigate to Contacts > Tools > Custom Fields.
The Custom Fields page shows the 30 fields that are available to your account. The fields can be either text or date fields, and they must be used in (top-to-bottom) order.
NOTE: Click Enhanced Fields in the upper right to go to the Enhanced Personalization Fields page.
To create or edit a Custom Field:
NOTE: Custom Field names cannot start with a number or be blank.
- Specify (or edit) a name for the field. Repeat for any additional fields.
NOTE: This is the field "label" that users will see in various places in your account.
- Optionally, check the Date Field box. (Refer to Custom Date Fields, below, to learn more.)
- Scroll to below the list and click Submit.
When creating and editing a Contact, you can complete custom fields in the Custom Fields tab of the Create Contact and Edit Contact dialogs.
Custom Field "In Use"
If you notice that a custom field name is populated with text such as "Custom 7 In Use", the likely cause is that a user has deleted the name of the field, but data remains in the database field. These fields can be renamed and re-used; however, they cannot be used as date fields if the field in the database contains non-date data and vice-versa.
Default Values
You can specify default values to be used if a custom field is empty in a Contact record. These values will be used only under the following combination of circumstances.
- A user is creating a message AND
- The user has inserted custom (i.e., personalization) fields in the message AND
- Any of these custom fields are blank in a Contact record.
Refer to Using Default Values, below, for an example of default values being used.
To manage your default values:
- Access the Admin interface.
- Navigate to Contacts > Tools > Default Values.
On the Default Values for Personalized Fields page, specify any default values that you want inserted in messages in the absence of the same data in a Contact record.
Using Default Values
Suppose you set the following default values.
Assume you are creating a message and sending it to 500 Contacts. At the opening of the message, you type:
Greetings, INSERT_FIRST_NAME. How's life in INSERT_CITY?
If Tim's (in Fulton) record was missing his first name and Ted's record was missing his city, their respective greetings would read:
"Greetings, Friend. How's life in Fulton?"
"Greetings, Ted. How's life in your area?"
As you can see, default values fill in the "personalization gaps" and prevent blanks in your content (such as "How's life in ?"). With these gaps filled, you can be more confident in the integrity of your messages and more likely to take advantage of adding personalizations to your messages.
Custom Date Fields
Custom Date Fields are date-specific Custom Fields that have been set to capture only date information in your account. They can be used to:
- Personalize messages, such as notifying members of upcoming expiration dates
- Search on specified dates or date ranges
Custom Date Fields are:
- Enabled by default for all accounts, but an admin can limit access to them by adjusting the Custom Fields permission.
- Visible to everyone in the account, irrespective of Enterprise Asset rules.
- Limited to 10 characters and must adhere to the format described below.
Custom Date Fields format
Custom Date Fields will not accept text characters, and dates that are specified must adhere to the format: MM/DD/YYYY (as in 12/04/2015). This is important to remember when uploading .csv files that have date fields.
WARNING: If any single date value in a .csv file does not conform to the format, the list upload will fail.
TIP: Use the cell-formatting feature in MS Excel or your spreadsheet application to format date cells as indicated above. Doing so greatly decreases the likelihood of non-compliance and a failed upload.
Manage Custom Date Fields
To manage Custom Date Fields:
- Access the Admin interface.
- Navigate to Contacts > Tools > Custom Fields.
The Custom Fields page shows the 30 fields that are available to your account. The fields can be either text or date fields, and they must be used in (top-to-bottom) order.
NOTE: Click Enhanced Fields in the upper right to go to the Enhanced Personalization Fields page.
To create or edit a Custom Date Field:
- Specify (or edit) a name for the field (e.g., "Expiration Date"). Repeat for any additional fields.
NOTE: This is the field "label" that users will see in various places in your account.
- Check the Date Field box.
- Scroll to below the list and click Submit.
When creating and editing a Contact, you can complete date-specific fields in the Custom Fields tab of the Create Contact and Edit Contact dialogs.
Custom Field "In Use"
If you notice that a custom field name is populated with text such as "Custom 7 In Use", the likely cause is that a user has deleted the name of the field, but data remains in the database field. These fields can be renamed and re-used; however, they cannot be used as date fields if the field in the database contains non-date data and vice-versa.
Using date fields in your account
When you configure Custom Date Fields, you can maximize their ability to simplify your work, as in the following examples.
Perform searches based on a date or date range
EXAMPLE: Generate a list of all Contacts who have employment anniversaries this week.
Personalize a message with a date
EXAMPLE: "Your subscription expires on 12/02/2019."
Create date-based campaigns using the Campaign tool
EXAMPLE: Send greetings to Contacts on their employment anniversaries.
Search on a Custom Date Field
You can search on Custom Date Fields.
- Navigate to Contacts > Tools > Advanced Search.
- Click the plus symbol next to Custom Date Fields to expand the list.
- Check the boxes for the fields you want to search on (e.g., Anniversary) and click Search.
On the Custom Fields page, the following mutually exclusive search options are available.
Select Period option
Use this option to select a single time period (today, yesterday, this week, next month). If you select Any Year, the search will include historical account data (including the current year), rather than just the current year (This Year). For example, assume today is January 24th, 2019:
| Period | "This Year" will query | "Any Year" will query |
|---|---|---|
| Today | Jan. 24, 2019 | Jan. 24 (regardless of year) |
| Yesterday | Jan. 23, 2019 | Jan. 23 (regardless of year) |
| This Week* | Jan. 24 – Jan. 30, 2019 | Jan. 24 – Jan. 30 (regardless of year) |
| Last Week** | Jan. 17 – Jan. 23, 2019 | Jan. 17 – Jan. 23 (regardless of year) |
| This Month*** | Jan. 01 – Jan. 31, 2019 | Jan. 01 – Jan. 31 (regardless of year) |
| Last Month*** | Dec. 01 – Dec. 31, 2018 | Dec. 01 – Dec. 31 (regardless of year) |
NOTE: * This week is today and the next six days.
** Last week is the seven days prior to today.
*** The month options are calendar months.
Select No. of Days option
Use the Select Next/Last No. of Days option to specify a range of days (type a number in the field) as the search parameters.
EXAMPLE: Find all contacts whose anniversary will occur in the next xx days.
Select Date Less/Greater option
Use the Select Date Less Than/Greater Than option and type a date in the field to specify an end (i.e., before and/or on) date or a start (i.e., on and/or after) date as the search parameters.
EXAMPLE: Find all contacts whose anniversary is on and/or after MM/DD/YYYY.
From/To option
Use the From/To option to specify a date range (type a date in each field) as the search parameters.
EXAMPLE: Find all contacts whose anniversary occurs between MM/DD/YYYY and MM/DD/YYYY.
Character limits and non-compliant fields
Each field in an upload file that is mapped to a field in the system has a maximum-character limit. These character limits are listed below.
NOTE: Fields that exceed the character limit are considered non-compliant.
| Field | Character Limit |
|---|---|
| Email, Address 1, Address 2, all Custom Fields | 100 |
| First Name, Last Name, Phone, Fax, City, State, Zip | 50 |
| Company | 200 |
| Enhanced Personalization Fields | 250 |
Identify non-compliant fields
You can check your upload files before performing the upload to ensure that the fields comply with the character limits.
- Open the .csv file.
- Double-click the vertical (cell-separator) line between columns A and B to expand column A.
- Repeat this procedure for all of the columns that have data.
- If any of the columns seem unexpectedly wide, some cell data might exceed the character limits.
- Identify the wide cells and either shorten or delete the non-compliant value.
NOTE: Any fields that exceed the character limits will be highlighted in your Reject file.
Personalize a subject line
You can use personalization keywords in the subject line as well as the message. The notable difference is that, for the subject line, you will have to manually enter the keywords.
NOTE: For more information on subject line personalization and character limits, see Message Personalization.
Troubleshooting
Below are some common problems encountered when working with Custom Fields.
- I can't delete a Custom Field - Custom Fields will always require a value. You cannot delete Custom Fields but you can remove the Contact details by uploading a .csv file with NULL values. You can also rename the Custom Field and repurpose it.
- I can't create a Custom Field - Does the name start with a number? Custom Field names must start with a letter. Also, there are some words and phrases that are blocked by our application. Try specifying a different field name.
- I can't see my Custom Field choice when I am uploading - Your session might need to be refreshed, especially if you are uploading via an integration. Log out and log back in and you should be able to view this field. If this is an Enhanced Personalization Field then it is probably owned by another individual or Enterprise Team.
- Some of my uploaded records return an invalid date field in my Reject file - Did your upload contain a Custom Date Field? Date fields must be properly formatted in your .csv file. Many date formats are automatically converted, but it is still recommended that your field has the format MM/DD/YYYY.
- I'm using international characters and the information is skewed when I preview personalization - There are some character sets that Custom Fields cannot interpret. For international characters, use Enhanced Personalization Fields.
Below are some common problems encountered when working with Custom Date Fields.
- I can't delete a Custom Date Field - Custom Date Fields will always require a value. You cannot delete Custom Date Fields but you can remove the Contact details by uploading a .csv file with NULL values. You can also rename the Custom Date Field and repurpose it as a different date field.
- I can't see my Custom Date Field choice when I am uploading - Your session might need to be refreshed, especially if you are uploading via an integration. Log out and log back in and you should be able to view this field.
- Some of my uploaded records return an invalid date field in my Reject file - Date fields must be properly formatted in your .csv file. Many date formats are automatically converted, but it is still recommended that your field has the format MM/DD/YYYY.