Personalizing with the Publisher

There are advanced personalization functions available within the Publisher so you can make very personalized newsletters. On top of that the Publisher makes personalization of your created emails very simple. Below, you'll find a few personalization examples.

Use of variables

With Smarty it is easy to store and use variables. Remember though, that there are important rules to keep in mind while working with Smarty:

  • Smarty is capital sensitive. {$profile.name} is different than {$profile.NAME};
  • Curcly braces can be used as symbol with literal.

Database variables

A personalization variable consists of a dollar sign $, profile or subprofile and the name of the variable placed between curly braces. The following variables can for example be used in a template or document:

  • {$profile.name}
  • {$profile.email}
  • {$profile.salutation}

These personalization variables only work when you have the exact same fields in your database. Of course, the receivers information must be stored in the database as well. If that's all set, you can use the variables like this:

Dear {$profile.salutation} {$profile.name},

You receive this email, because you subscribed 
with the following email address: {$profile.email}.

Load subprofile

You can retrieve profiles or sub-profiles in ascending or descending order, based on the value in a specific database or collection field.

You do this by adding the option as a parameter to the loadprofile or loadsubprofile tag

Example

You have a collection field 'fruit' and a number of subprofiles, which respectively have the values Apple, Banana, Lemon, Nectarine, Watermelon in the field 'fruit'

{loadsubprofile assign=loadedfruits multiple=true limit=2 orderby='fruit asc'}

I have in my fruit bowl a:
{foreach $ loadedfruits as $ loadedfruit}
{$ loadedfruit.fruit}
{/ foreach}

Result (asc):

I have one in my fruit bowl: Apple, Banana

Result (desc):

I have one in my fruit bowl: Watermelon, Nectarine

If you do not provide an order parameter in your load (sub) profile, the ID field is automatically sorted in ascending order. Here you can find more info.

Template variables

You can also use extra personalization variables by adding them in the Template menu. Here you define the name, the value should be specified when creating the document. You can use the value with {$property.name}, where name is replaced with the name of the property.

Let's say you want to give users a score based on their purchases and put it in your email. You don't need the score later (if you do, save it to your database!). You can then set a template variable score, calculate and assign the score and use it with {$property.score}.

Curly braces

Our software automatically tracks curly braces as it indicates that Smarty code is being stated. However, sometimes you want to use curly braces just as symbols.You have to write some code in order to make sure thatthe software does not make a mistake by interpreting the curly braces as Smarty. You can do it in two ways: you can use {ldelim} and {rdelim} or {literal} en {/literal}. The difference is that with literal you can turn of the Smarty engine for a whole set of text that goes in between these tags.

{literal}
    I love {curly braces}!
{/literal}

Where can you use personalization?

Almost everywhere. Check the list below to get some inspiration:

  • Subject line from email;
  • In email and webdocuments
  • Various email headers (from, CC, BCC, X-Mailer, etc.);
  • Personalized website content;
  • Webforms;
  • Hyperlinks;
  • Follow-up actions;
  • Etc.

More information