When you use personalisation to display the value of a contact data field in a campaign, page, or form, a blank space is displayed if a contact doesn't have a value stored against it.

This is where a default value comes in handy. It's a value that gets displayed instead of a blank space. For example, if you personalise a campaign with Hi @FIRSTNAME@ but a contact doesn't have a value for the FIRSTNAME contact data field, your email displays the default value, such as Hi Customer, instead of leaving a blank space after Hi.

Default values can be set against any of your contact data fields.

Please note that default values aren’t actually stored against your contacts; for instance, the default value isn't visible when viewing or editing an individual contact. They're only made use of in personalisation.

Default data field values also display in pre-populated pages or forms where form fields are linked to contact data fields, for contacts without a value in the relevant fields.