Privy allows you to collect information about your customers well beyond their email addresses. For example, you can ask your contacts for their names and product preferences, or you can infer information such as geolocation and traffic source. Putting this information to work and personalizing your campaigns is an effective way to increase engagement, drive traffic to additional content, and increase conversions.
How personalization works
Information collected about an individual is stored in fields on their contact profile (e.g., First Name). This information then becomes available for display in your campaigns via merge tags. When viewed by a known contact, these tags automatically reference and display the information to the viewer.
- A known contact has a contact profile in your Privy account that can be located by searching the Contacts Dashboard. The known contact must also be "cookied" by Privy so that their actions are tied to a specific email address. A tracking cookie is placed in their browser when they submit a Privy campaign or provide their email address and agree to receive marketing communications through the checkout flow for Shopify, Shopify Plus, and Weebly storefronts.
It is highly recommended that audience targeting is used in combination with these personalization tags, as this will ensure that the display has the intended impact by being properly populated.
Supported merge tags
The supported merge tags for known contacts are outlined below.
| Merge Tag | Information Displayed |
| {{ contact.email }} | The email address of the contact. |
| {{ contact.first_name }} | The contact's first name. |
| {{ contact.last_name }} | The contact's last name. |
| {{ contact.name }} | The contact's full name. |
| {{signup.coupon_code}} | The coupon associated with the display. This tag is only for the thank-you page and autoresponder components of your campaigns. |
| {{ contact.custom_fields.* }} |
The value stored in a custom field used to collect contact information. For example, {{ contact.custom_fields.favorite_color }} would show the contact's Favorite Color value. |
Example use-cases
Personalizing your campaigns is a small way to acknowledge your customers. You can create relevance on an individual level, which can make all the difference when someone is quickly deciding between dismissing or engaging with your content. With this in mind, here are a few situations where a bit of personalization goes a long way:
Welcome Back Message - This campaign is great for building rapport with your customers. Acknowledge your existing relationship and suggest products, content, or promotions they'll enjoy.
Rewards Reminder -This campaign is perfect if you're looking to turn your buyers into repeat customers. Promoting a loyalty or rewards program through tools like Smile.io allows you to serve up special messaging and promotions acknowledging your most loyal shoppers.
Create a personalized display
To better illustrate personalization in action, this example will outline how to create a banner campaign that both acknowledges a returning customer and highlights the rewards they have available to spend. To create this personalized display:
- Navigate to Convert and click the New campaign button.
- In the prompt, select the Build Your Own option, provide an internal name, and then click the Create Campaign button.
- In the Create step of the campaign builder, select Form fields card, uncheck the Enable Form? option, and then click Save.
- While still in the Create step, select the Add a display option.
- Select a bar template and then click the Choose selected option in the upper right.
- Customize the display's design and include the appropriate merge tags. In this case, the default First Name tag {{ contact.first_name }} and a custom Smile.io points balance tag {{ contact.custom_fields.smileio_points_balance }} were used.
- Select the Save option at the upper right.
Note: You won't see the merge tag populated in your preview. That's because Privy will add the contact's information while on your site, not from within the designer itself.
- Next, move to the Target step and ensure the When To Show setting is set to immediately. Also, update the Save.
- Select the Who To Show It To setting and click Add targeting condition.
- Add the two rules listed below with an AND operator and Save.
- User identity is known - This rule ensures we recognize the visitor and can look up their information (e.g., First Name and Rewards Points balance).
- Custom fields, Smile Points Balance, Number is greater than 250 - This rule ensures the customer has more than 250 points, which is this store's lowest redeemable balance.
- Select the How Long to Show It setting if you'd like the bar to expire. Save.
- In the upper right, click the Publish button and confirm in the prompt.
The rewards reminder campaign is now live and will appear to your qualifying customers.