In this article, we will explain how you can personalize your emails with contact attributes (first name, last name, email address, etc.) to engage your email recipients and improve metrics, such as open rates and response rates, using Brevo.

❗️ Important

This procedure is different according to the Drag & Drop version you're using. Check our dedicated section Personalize your email content in the Drag & Drop Editor.

Good to know

Contact attributes placeholders can be used in email templates and campaigns.
We recommend you always double-check and test your placeholders before sending your emails.

How do contact attributes work?

Your Brevo contacts list contains contact attributes that refer to information you store about each of your contacts. You can customize your emails using contact attributes by inserting placeholders in your email templates and campaigns.

What are contact attributes placeholders?

These placeholders are tags that pull contact-specific information (first name, email address, phone number, etc.) into your emails. When you insert a contact attribute placeholder into your email template, it will be automatically replaced by the personalized information stored for each contact at the time your email is sent.

How are contact attributes placeholders structured?

Each contact attribute corresponds to a unique placeholder, which is structured as {{ contact.ATTRIBUTE }} where ATTRIBUTE is the name of your contact attribute exactly as it appears on your contacts list.

➡️ For example

To include your contacts' first names in your email, the {{ contact.FIRSTNAME }} placeholder is inserted. When your contacts will receive the email, their own name will appear where the placeholder was placed. To learn more, check our dedicated sections to learn how to insert placeholders in the New Drag & Drop Editor, Classic Drag & Drop Editor, and in your email setup.

Personalize your email content in the Drag & Drop Editor

Check out this video tutorial to learn how to add personalized salutation in an email using the New Drag & Drop Editor 🚀.

Insert simple personalization

When designing your email, place your cursor where you want to insert your placeholder and click 👤 Add personalization in the formatting toolbar.
In the Insert personalization popup, search and browse through the list of contact attributes to locate the attribute that you would like to insert as a placeholder.
Add a fallback text that will be displayed if the contact attribute is empty for a recipient. Example "Hey there" if you want to send "Hey FIRSTNAME".
Click Insert.
When personalization is inserted, a red placeholder with the name of the contact attribute will be visible.

In the above example, if the email is received by a recipient named Paul then she would see her name displayed in the email in place of the FIRSTNAME placeholder. The word "there" would be displayed for recipients with an empty FIRSTNAME attribute in your contact list.

Insert advanced conditions

Use this personalization when you want to display contact information according to a set of conditions like according to the gender of the recipient or their favorite color.

To insert advanced conditions:

When designing your email, place your cursor where you want to insert your placeholder and click 👤 Add personalization in the formatting toolbar.
In the Advanced (conditions) tab you can:
- Add multiple cases to suit your needs. For example, adding different greetings for male and female recipients.
- Add multiple conditions on your contact attributes and also specify the text to be displayed for each case.
  
  ❗️ Important
  Be careful to write the attribute exactly how it appears in your contact lists because it is case-sensitive. For example, if for the contact attribute GENDER you wrote "Female" in your contact lists but you put "female" in the Advanced (conditions), the contact attribute will not be retrieved and the fallback text will be used instead.
Click Insert.
An If/Else placeholder is added to your email template.
The specified text entered in the Insert field for each case will be displayed in your email depending on the conditions you set. If the contact attribute is empty, the fallback text from the Otherwise field is displayed.

Case 1 Case 2 Otherwise

You can edit the placeholder anytime by clicking on it from the new Drag & Drop Editor.

Check out this video tutorial to learn how to customize an email using the classic Drag & Drop Editor 🚀.

If you are using the classic Drag & Drop Editor, you can use the Personnalize option from the formatting bar and select a contact attribute. In this editor, the contact attribute placeholder will appear as plain text instead of a red tag. To understand how to use the contact attribute placeholder in plain text, check the dedicated section How are contact attributes placeholders structured.

Personalize your email content manually

If you prefer to create your emails in the Rich Text or Paste Your Code editors, you must manually add your contact attributes placeholders following the format {{ contact.ATTRIBUTE }} where ATTRIBUTE is to be replaced by the name of your contact attribute exactly as it appears in your contacts list.

Input	Output
{{ contact.FIRSTNAME }}	Louis
{{ contact.EMAIL }}	louis@example.com
{{ contact.SMS }}	+1-541-754-3010

Personalize your email setup

Brevo also allows you to personalize the information that appears first in your recipients' inbox before they even open it which can increase your conversation rate.

Personalize your subject line and preview text

From the new campaign creation flow, click 👤.
In the Insert personalization pop-up window, choose from the drop-down list the attribute you would like to use.
In the text field type a default value to insert if your contact's attribute is empty.
Click Insert and drag and drop the attribute anywhere in the text fields.

If the email is sent to the contact paul.brownie@example.com, whose contact attribute for FIRSTNAME is Paul, the email subject will appear as follow in his inbox:

Personalize your From name

Your From name is the name that appears in your recipients' inbox to identify the sender. Its purpose is to build trust with recipients and generate more openings. By default, the name of the sender is your company name but you edit it with any name that you want from the From step in your campaign creation flow.
Take personalization to another level by using contact attributes: type {{ contact.ATTRIBUTE }} in the From (>) Name text field, where ATTRIBUTE is to be replaced by the name of the contact attribute exactly as it appears in your contacts list.

For example, if your company assigns an account manager to each contact, you might want to insert this person's name as the sender of the email, rather than inserting your company's name so that your contacts are more inclined to open the email.

If the email is sent to the contact paul.brownie@example.com, whose contact attribute for ACCOUNTMGR is James from Your Company Name, the email will appear as follow in the recipient's inbox:

⏩ What's next?

🤔 Have a question?

If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.

Case 1	Case 2	Otherwise