Merge codes are placeholders that fill in per person at send time. They work in the subject line, the body, and inside links, in broadcasts, sequences and automations alike. The Insert row above every editor drops them at your cursor.
The basics:
- {{first_name}}, {{last_name}} and {{email}} fill from the subscriber record
- {{first_name|friend}} uses the word after the bar when the field is empty, so "Hi {{first_name|friend}}" never says "Hi ,"
- {{site_name}} and {{today}} fill from your site
- {{unsubscribe_url}} and {{view_in_browser_url}} are added to the footer automatically, you rarely need to type them
Tag codes:
- {{tags}} prints all of a subscriber's tags, comma separated
- {{tag_1}}, {{tag_2}}, {{tag_3}} and so on print one tag at a time, in the order they were stored, which for imported people is the order in your CSV
The key=value trick, per-person links:
Save a tag in the form key=value and it becomes addressable by name. Import a tag like aff=kevin123 and {{tag.aff}} prints kevin123. That means one broadcast can hand every affiliate or partner on your list their own custom link:
https://youroffer.com/?a={{tag.aff}}
Each recipient gets their own URL, click tracking still works, and anyone without the tag simply gets an empty value, or use {{tag.aff|yourname}} to fall back to a default.
Where the tags come from:
Add a tags column to your import CSV and map it during import, tag people from the Subscribers screen in bulk, or let automations add tags as people move through your flows.
Custom field merge codes:
Every custom field you create (during an import, on a form, or via the API) is automatically a merge code. A field named aff_id can be used as {{aff_id}} or {{custom.aff_id}} anywhere in an email, including inside links.