Update: All 12 of our email service providers now have mergetag functionality.

This past month, we launched mergetags for Mailchimp.

We'll be releasing mergetags for MailerLite next and keep working down the list till all our email service providers can use mergetags.

What are mergetags?

Mergetags let you personalise emails with subscriber's names, emails, and more. They are bits of code that dynamically add subscriber-specific data into your emails.

In our case, we've created a standard mergetag format inside Newsletter Glue. Our plugin then detects which email service provider you're using and converts it automatically to the correct code format.

Here are some of the mergetags you can now add to your newsletters:

  • First name
  • Email address
  • Subscriber address
  • List name
  • Read online links
  • Unsubscribe links
  • Admin address
  • and more!

Quick tour of mergetags

If you're connected to Mailchimp, here's how you can use the new mergetags feature:

  1. Create a new post in the newsletter editor, then search for the {{ }} icon in your toolbar and click on it.
  2. Click on any of the 3 categories (Personalization, Read online, Footer) to expand them.
  3. When you hover over a tag, you'll see a pencil icon that represents "edit". Click on it and you'll see some additional options appear. Here you can add or edit whatever you like.
  4. Finally, click on the tag name itself to add it to your newsletter.

Create fallbacks

Fallbacks are displayed when the tag or data doesn't exist.

Here's an example: You've added the first name tag to your newsletter, but haven't actually collected any first names for your subscriber list. In that case, instead of showing a blank, it'll show the fallback.

In the screenshot above, we can see the fallback says friend. So your email newsletter will say Hello friend.

In addition, the online version of your newsletter will also say Hello friend. This keeps your web view looking good while your subscribers see their name in the email you send to them.

To create fallbacks:

  1. Hover over the relevant tag and click on the pencil icon. The fallback feature will expand and you can add your fallback there.
  2. Alternatively, add or edit fallbacks after you've inserted the tag into the newsletter editor (see screenshot below).

Create read online links and buttons

When you add a Read online tag, we generate a text link for you, and the URL of the link is https://newsletterglue.com/blog/product-updates/mergetags/ or https://newsletterglue.com/blog/?view_newsletter=4eec6b70bf87cd0c57ee7c9f51128638&id=1894.

You can now auto-generate as many read online links or buttons as you want. You can even choose if you want to direct subscribers to your blog post or email HTML.

When you click on the pencil icon, you'll see a dropdown option to customise your link text.

You can also customise it after you've added your Read online link to your post.

How to use a read online tag inside a button

Our friend Matt Medeiros uses Newsletter Glue to send out an email newsletter about his podcast The WP Minute. And at the end of each newsletter, he adds a button directing readers to listen to the podcast episode.

To create something similar, simply create a button, then add https://newsletterglue.com/blog/product-updates/mergetags/ or https://newsletterglue.com/blog/?view_newsletter=4eec6b70bf87cd0c57ee7c9f51128638&id=1894 as the button URL.

Create your own footers (and replace your email provider's defaults)

You can completely customise your default footers by adding an Unsubscribe link and Admin address to your newsletters. Mailchimp will see that you've added the necessary tags (which are compulsory by law), and bypass their own default footer.

If you're using a free Mailchimp account, you'll also need to add the Rewards tag to replace the Mailchimp default footer.

Here's a simple example of a footer you can now create on your own:

And here's how the footer will load in your email:

I highly recommend testing this feature out before sending a campaign to your subscribers.

Lastly, rather than creating the footer manually each time (and risk forgetting), add the default footer into your newsletter pattern so that it'll be added every single time.

Watch this video if you're not sure how to create a newsletter pattern.

Summary

The easiest way to learn more about mergetags is to play with them. All the features are in the toolbar. Play around and add tags to a blank post to learn everything you need to know about how they work.

If you have more questions, don't hesitate to reach out! We are happy to help.

Update: All 12 of our email service providers now have mergetag functionality.

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