Custom fields

How to use custom fields to personalize email content and collect data on forms

Zoltan Wagner avatar
Written by Zoltan Wagner
Updated over a week ago

This article is part of a series of articles about personalizing emails. You can check out other ways to personalize your messages.


In addition to the standard contact fields (name, email, website, etc.) you can create unlimited custom fields on any billing plan on the Custom Fields page to store data that is specific to your organization only.

Custom fields can be merged into emails to display personalized content and they can also be used on forms to collect data. You can also create dynamic links using custom fields.

Are custom fields the best option?

Custom fields should be used to store free form data where the values aren't pre-determined, for example IDs, names or dates.

For "yes/no" type values or where there is a set number of possible answers/values use tags or subscriptions instead, for example "Are you a client (yes/no) or "Contact type" (a finite list of options).

Custom field types

  • Text: Displayed as standard input fields on forms. Displayed as text in emails.

  • Date: Displayed with a date selector on forms. Displayed as text in emails.

  • Note: Displayed as a "textarea" - long input field - on forms. Displayed as text in emails.

The character limit for custom fields is 65K (!) to accommodate very long entries.

Merging custom fields into email messages

Custom fields can be merged in emails using the {@my-fieldname} format to personalize messages.

For example if your custom field is called Card_number then the merge field becomes {@my-Card_number}

Previewing emails that use merged custom fields

It isn't possible to preview how different contacts will see the emails with the merged custom fields. To give you peace of mind that the merge fields work we recommend that you add custom fields to your own contact record. This record is shown when you preview emails.

Search for your contact record on the list of contacts page using the email address you use to login to Envoke, click on it to edit fields, update the custom fields then click Save.

Importing custom fields

Step 1: Create a field in your list file with the custom field.

Step 2: On the import settings page map the custom field in to the custom field in your account.

Custom field display on forms


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