---
title: Personalize email content
slug: data-platform/docs/legacy-personalize-email-content
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-08-10T12:05:20.000Z
---

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**

Email and SMS channels are legacy features and not offered to new customers.
:::

Personalization can increase engagement with your email campaigns and drive traffic to your other content. You can personalize your emails with any information in customer and product fields.

- **Customer** – Tags for customer field values in your database, including tags for first name, last name, and email.
- **Product** – Tags for product field values in your product catalog, including the product brand, name, price, and image.

Personalization requires a known value for the **Customer** and **Product** fields being used as a tag. If the customer does not have a known value, you see a configured default option or a blank area instead.

## Add personalization tags in email content

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**

You cannot include personalization tags in web campaigns at this time.
:::

1. Go to **Activations > Overview**.
2. Select the campaign you want to edit or [create a campaign](docId\:DKxtgWwkAXLkkLOufg8mT).
3. Edit the email touchpoint you want to personalize. Personalization tags are represented by a lightning icon in the **Subject**, **Preheader**, or text body (**Dynamic Grid**) of the email. If a dynamic grid is not present, click and drag it into your email from **Elements** > **Layout**.
4. Click the lightning icon in the **Subject**, **Preheader**, or text body of the email and select **Customer Tag** or **Product Tag**. If you are inserting a personalization tag into the text body (dynamic grid) of the email, you can place your cursor where you want to insert the tag or highlight text to replace it with the tag, then click the lightning icon and select the tag type.
   For example, your email body starts with "*Thanks for shopping,*" and you want to insert the customer's name after that. Place your cursor after "*Thanks for shopping,*" click the lightning icon, and select **Customer Tag**.

   ::Image[]{src="https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/f5Ehge5DAcTQEsXKV9CCZ-20260720-145722.png" size="100" isUploading="false" showCaption="false"}
5. Complete the following fields, then click **Save**. The field displays.
   - **Field** – Select the field you want to reference, like *First Name*.
   - **Text Format** – (Optional) Select the format for the text that the personalization tag will insert, like *Uppercase*.
   - **Default Value** – (Optional) Set the default value for the tag to use when the customer does not have a value for the selected field, like *FRIEND*. If you highlight the text instead of placing the cursor, the highlighted value is automatically set as the default, but you can update it as needed.

     ::Image[]{src="https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/wLZdOGhWhDjgJZX6jvwaU-20260720-145722.png" size="100" isUploading="false" showCaption="false"}

     ::Image[]{src="https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/2cjjnFdmsIpwyPsAg4onK-20260720-145722.png" size="100" isUploading="false" showCaption="false"}
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each personalization tag you want to insert.
   For example, to complete the email shown in the previous image, highlight \[BRAND NAME], \[ADD CODE], \[OFFER], and the second \[BRAND NAME], and then select the lightning icon, tag type, and tag variables for each.

   ::Image[]{src="https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/SEuexn6g-ppPAbPlyGWil-20260720-145722.png" size="100" alt="Personalize-customer-tag-cust-prod-variables.png" isUploading="false" showCaption="false"}

## Preview and test personalized content

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**

You must have the PII Viewer role to preview and test a campaign.
:::

### Preview personalized content

1. Click **Preview**.
2. Enter the **email address** or **customer ID** of someone in the campaign's reachable audience to preview their version of the content.
3. Click **Preview**.

### Test personalized email content

1. Click **Test**.
2. Enter recipients (separated by commas) of the test email in the **Recipient Email Address**.
3. Expand **Render Template with Customer (Optional)** and search for the email address or name of someone in the campaign's reachable audience to preview their version of the content. Leave the field blank to preview the email as an unspecified customer.
4. Click **Send**.

## Add personalization to a coded template

If you build a custom-coded template, you can add personalization tags to the template. The tag must contain the supported variable along with your desired field name.

For example, use the **First Name** customer field by including the name with its appropriate variable as shown in the following code snippet:

```auto
{{ customer.first_name }}
```

Add a default value as a backup if you do not have a first name for all recipients:

```auto
Hi {{ customer.first_name | default: 'there' }},
```

You can also use a custom field called Loyalty Tier:

```auto
Thank you for being a {{ customer.loyalty_tier }} member!
```

You can set the "thank you" text to only show if there is a `loyalty_tier` value for a customer:

```auto
{% if customer.loyalty_tier %}
Thank you for being a {{ customer.loyalty_tier }} member!
{% endif %}
```

The ODP templating and personalization language is based on the [Shopify Liquid templating language](https://shopify.github.io/liquid/).

[ODP can extend Liquid functionality](docId:-Di1AHoIIlIV3Xu5tcUP8) for more advanced use cases.

See your customer success manager before proceeding with advanced personalization.