What are merge tags?
A merge tag is a code that allows you to personalise your campaign, using the subscriber’s first name, last name, or any other field you have populated when you imported your audience… When you insert a merge tag in a campaign, it will replace it with the content corresponding to the specific field (e.g. Hello *|FNAME|* will become Hello Nicholas).
When you use merge tags to personalise your campaign, it is recommended to set default values. You could set the default value for your first name tag to "valued customer” so when you use the *|FNAME|* merge tag in a campaign, it will read "valued customer” for contacts who don't have any data stored against that specific field (e.g. Dear Jason or Dear valued customer).
How to set default merge values
Select your audience -> Manage Audience -> Settings -> Audience fields and *|MERGE|* tags. In the column “default merge tag value”, type the default values for your merge tags. Save the changes.
How to check that merge tags display properly
Merge tags pull field data from your audience so they must be connected to a live audience to display correctly. That’s why merge tags do not display correctly in test emails. To check that merge tags work, you need to use the preview mode of your campaign and “enable live merge tag info”.
