Overview
When you use personalisation to display the value of a contact data field, a blank space is displayed if a contact doesn't have a value stored against it.
That's where a default value comes in handy. It's a value that gets displayed instead of the blank. For example, if you personalise a campaign with 'Dear @FIRSTNAME@' but a contact doesn't have a value for the FIRSTNAME contact data field, your email will display the default value, such as 'Dear Customer', as opposed to an embarrassing 'Dear '.
Default values can be set against any of your contact data fields.
Please note that default values don't actually get stored against your contacts' data fields (for instance, the default value isn't visible when viewing or editing an individual contact). They're only made use of in personalisation.
Setting a default value for a contact data field
To set a default value for a contact data field, follow these steps:
- Mouse over Contacts in the navigation bar and then select Contact data fields from the dropdown displayed
- You're taken to where your contact data fields are listed in two separate tabs - Default data fields and My data fields, the latter containing the contact data fields that you've created.
Click on the Properties icon alongside the contact data field for which you wish to set a default. - The properties of the contact data field are displayed
Type the value you wish to use in the 'Default value' field. In this example for 'FIRSTNAME', 'Customer' has been entered.
- When happy, click Save