Placeholders
What are Placeholders?
You can use placeholders to create dynamic messages to your contacts, personalizing each message. At the time of sending, placeholders replace each placeholder word with the real value for the recipient! Placeholders are one of THE BEST ways to improve authenticity in your messages which in turn boosts engagement.
Send Message to a Group or Individual
One of the first places you encounter the opportunity to use placeholders is within the conversations and the messaging system.
For groups - it's helpful to make your recipient feel like you are speaking to them and not a number. A real human being!
Using Placeholders
Let's say you wanted to text message one of your groups. When you select "Text Group" the text authoring interface pops up.
When the message authoring box pops-up, the bottom of the box offers a field where you begin typing:
Start with an informal greeting like "Hi" then click on fields placeholder. The fields placeholder is accessed by clicking this icon "{...}"
(The messaging interface is the same whether messaging to an individual in conversations or messaging a group.)
When you click on the placeholder icon, search for the element you want to pull into the message. The default is set to 'name' in search, since this is the most common placeholder used.
Usually, you will just select the first name -
Notice that your message now includes the first name placeholder, but offers an OR "" at the end.
The OR "" allows us to add a substitute word like "there" - for the rare instances where one of our contacts did not include a first name on our contact list, it can read as "Hi there,". Type the substitution text between the quotes.
Start adding your message.
Can I pull other contact data into my message?
Yes. Placeholders can be used to pull other contact data in like Company Name (by typing company into the search field):
And you may include a substitution like "your organization" when the contact did not include a company name:
Once you have typed in your full message, and are ready to send, click on the SEND button at right to send your message:
Other Placeholder Opportunities
Another opportunity to use placeholders is from within your campaign settings. The first message people encounter from you in a campaign is often the confirmation message via text or email. It's a chance to use your voice - invite people in, and get them psyched for what they are about to experience.