What are Smart Codes?
Smart codes are snippets of placeholder text that you can add to the Body of your Direct Mail letter. Simply enter a smart code in your letter and the system will automatically substitute the smart code for the relevant piece of information from the Contact's profile and transactions when you Generate your Direct Mail.
How does a Smart Code look?
Here is an example of how the smart code will look in your letter.
Here is an example of how the smart code will populate in the generated letter.
Where can I find Smart Codes?
When you Design Your Direct Mail, you can access a list of available smart codes by clicking on the Smart Code button in the Text Box editor.
What fields are compatible with Smart Codes?
- Full Name
- Preferred Name
- First Name
- Middle Name
- Last Name
- Name Title
- Name Suffix
- Company
- Position
- Primary Email
- Primary Phone
- Primary Address
- Receipt Password (learn more here)
- Last Donation Amount
- Last Revenue Amount
- Date of Last Donation
- Date of Last Revenue
- Dedication of Last Donation
- Campaign of Last Donation
- Campaign of Last Revenue
- Impact Area of Last Donation
- Impact Area of Last Revenue
- Total Donations Last Fiscal Year
- Total Donations This Fiscal Year
- Total Revenues This Fiscal Year
- Total Revenues Last Fiscal Year
What does the "Smart Name" smart code do?
Of all of the smart codes, Smart Name is the most special. It's a dynamic smart code that will automatically pick the best name option for your Contact! The smart name code will automatically check the names that are available on your Contact's profile and update itself with the best one in the following order:
(1) Preferred Name
Does your Contact have a nickname or perhaps a middle name that they prefer to be referred to as? Are you sending this email to multiple people from the same household? If you have something populated in the Preferred Name field, the smart name will choose it first.
(2) First Name
Not everyone has a nickname. If this is the case, the next stop on the list will be the first name of your contact.
(3) Full Name / Organization Name
If your Contact doesn't have the two name types listed above, the system will automatically replace the smart name code with either the Contact's Full name or, if they are an Organization, their Organization's name.
(4) No Name
In the case where a Contact does not have any of the above three names filled in, the Smart Name field will remain blank. For example, rather than reading 'Hello {Preferred Name}' it will read 'Hello'.
FAQ
Why isn't my Smart Code working?
In order for a Smart Code to work, it needs to be able to pull the information that it needs from your Contacts' profiles. If you use a smart code, and this chosen name type is not listed on a Contact's profile, there will be no information to replace the smart code with. This is why using the Smart Name smart code is really useful - if a name type in the contact information is missing, it will look for another name type in that specific contact to replace the smart code with. In both situations, the smart code will appear as it was originally inputted into the email (ie. {{firstname}})
A few of my contacts have more than one Company and Position linked to their account. How will this work?
The {{Company}} and {{position}} smart codes take the first instance in the associations' list. Any subsequent companies or positions will not be included.