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4.2. How Salutations Work in eMessages & Mailing Labels (Contact FirstName, LastName, DearName)
Updated 09.05.18
Make sure your data is formatted correctly to work most efficiently with your eMessaging and Mailing Labels features. Here's how:
Our system pulls eMessage salutations from the DEARNAME field; if that field is empty, we pull from the FIRSTNAME field. Mailing labels pull FirstName and LastName, NEVER DearName.
- PREFIXES (Dr., Mr., Mr. & Mrs., etc.) should be entered into the FirstName field in order to appear on MAILING LABELS and can optionally be entered into the DearName field if you want the prefix to appear in email communications.
- In most cases, we do not automatically insert the word "Dear" (or "Hi" or "Hey" or any other greeting). If we do, you'll see it before the merge tag, like this:
Dear *|Contact_DearName|*, - The merge tags pull the data that's in your contact record. If you want an opening greeting and we haven't added one, add it before the merge tag, like above.
For records with:
1. Same last name, same email address
FIRST: Bill and Sue
LAST: Smith
DEARNAME: (Null) or Bill and Sue
2. Different last names, same email address
FIRST: Bill
LAST: Smith and Sue Jones
DEARNAME: Bill and Sue
3. Same last name, different email addresses
RECORD 1:
FIRST: Bill and Sue
LAST: Smith
DEARNAME: Bill
ENTER BILL'S EMAIL ADDRESS
ENTER AN ADDRESS FOR THIS RECORD
RECORD 2:
FIRST: Sue
Last: Smith
DEARNAME: (Null) or Sue
ENTER SUE'S EMAIL ADDRESS
NO PHYSICAL ADDRESS => the mailing label will be generated from BILL'S record (or if you add a physical address for SUE, another label will be generated)
4. Different last names, different email addresses
RECORD 1:
FIRST: Bill
LAST: Smith and Sue Jones
DEARNAME: Bill
ENTER AN ADDRESS FOR THIS RECORD
ENTER BILL'S EMAIL ADDRESS
RECORD 2:
FIRST: Sue
Last: Jones
DEARNAME: (Null) or Sue
ENTER SUE'S EMAIL ADDRESS
NO PHYSICAL ADDRESS => the mailing label will be generated from BILL'S record (or if you add a physical address for SUE, another label will be generated)