How to Add a First Name to your Mailchimp Campaign
Learn how to add a first name to a campaign and to a subject line when you send out your email.
Head over to Mailchimp and sign in
I’ve signed in to my Mailchimp account, now I’m going to go to campaigns and choose the campaign that I’ve written specifically for this. I’m going to do edit my design.
I thought this would be the perfect place for a first name. Right here, I could say, “Amy, is it just me or do you hear it, too?”
So I’m going to add the first name, I’m going to put my cursor all the way at the beginning. Go up here to merge tags, click on first name
Now the first name is in. Now I’m going to put a comma, a space, I’m going to take out this capitalization.
So now, when I save and close it and go to preview and test, I should see a first name there as when I enable the live merge tag info. Yes, “Shea, is it just me, or do you hear it, too?”
Add a first name to the subject line
All right let’s go to the subject line. So I’m going to save and close the newsletter editor. Then I’m going to go to the blast editor. Right here is the subject.
Now you can see that what I did was I copy and pasted the first name tag into the subject line.
So now when it’s sent, it will say, “Shea, this is 2020 in Barbara Walters voice.”
Here’s a list of all of the Mailchimp merge tags and how to use them, just in case you want to use more.
If you have any questions, please put them in the comments below.
Want more tutorials on Mailchimp? Check out my Mailchimp tutorial section.
Ok so I found you just googling around mailchimp vs constant contact. These tutorials help, but what makes you choose one over the other? Do you have a post on that?
Hi Dan,
I don’t have a post on Constant Contact vs Mailchimp. All email platforms have their pros and cons and the best email service provider is the one you will use.
If you like the Constant Contact interface better go with that. If you like Mailchimp better, like I do, go with that.
If you’re not sending emails it doesn’t matter which email platform you’re using cause you’re not using it. So go with the one that’s easy for you to use.
Hi Amy,
When I send a Mailchimp eblast some recipients get additional text which says ‘Website help’ in the subject line. Is there anyway at all to fix that at my end?
Thank you!
Hi Sylvia,
The only way that could be in the subject line is that text is in your subject line. You’ll need to remove it in the setup area of your campaign. If you don’t see it in the subject line area can you send me a screenshot of the setup area so I can see what’s going on?
I have a big list of contacts- some have names input, some do not. What does MailChimp do if there’s no first name in the database?
It leaves the first name field blank. If you’re asking what does it do when you’re adding a first name in the content or at the beginning of the email… it leaves it blank.
I have the first name merge tag in the Subject line, but when I send a test email, it doesn’t replace the code with the name?
Hi Susan, It won’t add in the first name for a test. A test doesn’t have an email address associated with it like a regular send. If you have a test tag or group that you send to the first name should show up in the subject line then.
Hi,
I have first name merge tag in the email. But the test email just has the code. No first name. We use the free mail chimp version for the temple. Is this option available for the free version? Please let me know. Thanks!
The first name merge tag, *|FNAME|* will only fill with a name when you send the actual email and not a test.
Hello, Amy. When I click on “enable live merge tag info” and it turns on, I then click on the X to go back and it still shows *|FNAME|* – even on my sample email it shows *|FNAME|*. Has this occurred to you? I’m somewhat stuck here. Thanks a mill!
The first name merge tag, *|FNAME|* will only fill with a name when you send the actual email and not a test.
I Have been looking for this feature for a while!
THANKS
AMY
My contacts just have name tab. How can I segment contacts to First Name Last Name so I can use the *|FNAME|* tag?
The names have to be separate before they go into Mailchimp. There is no way to separate the names in Mailchimp. You can export your audience and separate the first and last name and they upload the audience again.
So useful!! Thank you for doing this! I have a question, when i send a test email it appears in my inbox and after the subject line and preview text [https://mcusercontent.com5875t4er7t8387fgf8w3… this text follows? Is there any way to remove this?
Test emails are completely different from emails that you send. So the subject line may look different in a test email than an email you send. Try sending the actual email to only yourself to see what the real subject line will look like.