{"id":3665,"date":"2018-12-13T19:09:58","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T19:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/?p=3665"},"modified":"2022-12-30T22:30:59","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T22:30:59","slug":"warning-wrong-mail-merge-tags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/warning-wrong-mail-merge-tags\/","title":{"rendered":"New! We’ll warn you if you use the wrong mail merge tags"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve just updated GMass with an enhancement that will save you from crushing embarrassment. Sending a mail merge<\/a> campaign with the wrong merge tags is one of the most feared mistakes of any email marketer. Now, if you use the wrong merge tags<\/strong> in your Subject<\/strong> or Message<\/strong>, GMass will warn you and give you the option of proceeding or canceling.<\/p>\n

Let’s say you’re sending to contacts in this spreadsheet:<\/p>\n

\"\"Notice that the column headings are:<\/p>\n

fname, lname, email<\/strong><\/pre>\n
Let’s say I mistakenly use “first” in my campaign instead of “fname”, like this:<\/p>\n
\"\"I now hit the GMass button. A warning popup appears telling me that I have a merge tag that doesn’t quite belong, and now I have the choice of continuing or not.<\/p>\n
What would cause you to accidentally use the wrong merge tag in the first place?<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Maybe you are sending to a new spreadsheet, but you selected an old template<\/a> from the Load Content<\/strong> dropdown that had different merge tags.<\/li>\n
  2. While we recommend that you use the one-click merge tag buttons in the GMass Settings<\/a> box, you might decide to type them manually.<\/li>\n
  3. The one-click merge tag buttons don’t work in the Subject<\/strong> line, but you can manually copy\/paste or type them into the Subject<\/strong> line.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    Other ways to prevent personalization failures<\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. The easiest way to prevent an embarrassing personalization mistake is to use fallback values<\/a>. In the case above, if the first line of my email said:\n
      Hi {first|stranger},<\/pre>\n
      Then even if “first” isn’t a valid merge tag, and if I hit OK to the warning causing my email to send, the emails would start “Hi stranger,” instead of “Hi ,”.<\/li>\n
    2. If you want to be absolutely certain that your emails will look how you intend, you can always choose to Just create drafts<\/a>, which will create all of your emails as Drafts<\/strong> first, so that you can review them, and then send them with one click when you’re ready.<\/li>\n
    3. You should always send a test email<\/a> to yourself before sending your actual campaign.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      Resources<\/h3>\n
      See our complete guide to mail merge personalization<\/a> and the list of top reasons why personalization fails<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
      We’ve just updated GMass with an enhancement that will save you from crushing embarrassment. Sending a mail merge campaign with the wrong merge tags is one of the\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4255,4263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-features","category-personalization"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nNew! We'll warn you if you use the wrong mail merge tags<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Using the wrong merge tags in an email campaign is embarrassing. 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