📔 Learning Lowdown: Profile fields store all sorts of contact-level data. Learn how to create, edit, and utilize these profile fields.
Why are Profile Fields Important?
Profile fields are fields attached to individual contact records in the NextGen platform that can be used to store a variety of contact-level data. Profile fields can be used to personalized any triggered or broadcast marketing campaign or as a filter for either message type.
📌 The more contact-level data you add to the Listrak platform, the more personalized the messages can be and you can better nurture the contact relationship with micro-targeted messages.
Common Uses for Profile Fields
Personalized Subject Lines: Personalized subject lines insert the value stored in a specific field for a contact into the subject line. The most common use case is to include the name of the contact in the subject line. A default can be used if a contact does not have a value in the field.
Dynamic Subject Lines: Dynamic subject lines takes message personalization to the next level by using the value stored in a profile field to determine which subject line a contact should receive. For example, send different subject lines based on a contact's loyalty tier. Dynamic subject lines can be paired with personalization to display data, such as first name, in the dynamic subject line.
Personalized Message Content: The value stored in a profile field can also be dynamically inserted in any text element of a message (e.g. email body text or SMS content) to nurture the relationship with contacts. Feature a contact's loyalty status or current loyalty points to incentivize additional purchases.
Segments: Any custom fields you create can be evaluated as part of a NextGen segment. You can evaluate the fields to identify if contacts have a specific value, a set of values, or no value.
Profile Field Decision Split: This NextGen-specific Journey Hub feature allows you to evaluate the values in a contact's profile field as they flow through a journey. You can evaluate the fields to identify if contacts have a specific value, a set of values, or no value and create journey paths that contain different logic or messages based on these values.
Segment Decision Split: This Next-Gen specific Journey Hub features allows you to evaluate if a contact is or is not a member of segment. You can use profile fields as part of the criteria when building segments. You can create multipath splits to evaluate different segments and create customized experiences.
Creating Profile Fields
You can create new profiles any time you identify a new piece of contact-level data you would like to store following the process below.
⚠️ Profile Field Group and Field Names must be unique. To ensure that you are not re-using a name and to ensure you are not importing data that already exists, check the Contact Data Summary for a list of all fields. Access the Contact Data Summary under Analytics > General Contact Data Summary.
Profile fields are managed under the Contacts menu in your account.
Navigate to Contacts > Profile Field Management Profile Fields.
Identify the Field Group you would like to use to easily group your fields by theme or goal.
Click on the group name to open an existing grouping.
⚠️ The Standard Field Group cannot be edited and fields cannot be added.
Click Create Field Group and give the new group a name in the popup, if needed.
💡 To reduce possible issues with encoded spaces, use camel case or characters, such as a dash, instead of spaces when naming fields and field groups.
Give the new field a name in the input at the bottom of the field list.
Select the data type that will be collected in the field from the next dropdown. Refer to the chart below for more details on each type.
If needed, adjust the size field which controls the character count.
💡 All fields except Contact Content Blocks can contain a maximum of 255 characters.
Click the Floppy Disk icon to save the new field.
Repeat this process for any additional fields.
Text | Used to store alphanumeric values.
Numeric values cannot be used to count or calculate.
Filter options include: equals, contains, and does not contain. |
Numeric | Numeric values ONLY.
Can be used to count or calculate.
Filter options include: greater than, equal to, or less than.
⚠️ Scientific notations or non-numeric characters will not allow numeric filtering. |
Radio Button | Used to collect mutually exclusive data from a form (only one option can be selected).
Filter options include: Is on, Is off |
Check Box | Used to collect inclusive data from a form (multiple options can be selected).
Filter options include: Is checked or Is not checked |
Comment Area | Used for larger amounts of text, such as a comments section.
For larger amounts of text or HTML, use a Contact Content Block.
Filter options include: equals, contains, and does not contain. |
Date | Used to collect a date formatted as MM/DD/YYYY.
Filter options include: equals a specific date, before a specific date, or after a specific date. |
Contact Content Block | Used for large quantities of text or HTML that surpass the 255 character limit of other data types.
Filter options include: equals, contains, and does not contain. |
Adding Data to Profile Fields
In addition to integrations, such as loyalty or reviews providers, which add data to profile fields based on the integration type, you can add data to a contact's profile in a variety of ways.
List Imports: Using the list import for email or SMS contacts, you can add data into a new field or update data in an existing field. Add a default value for all contacts or specify values in the import if the value differs across contacts.
Single Contact Update: Use the email or SMS search function to update the data stored for an individual contact.
Subscription Points: When a contact is subscribing to the program, you can collect profile field data on the signup form. For example, save name and address to profile fields when checking out.
API: Add data to a contact's profile using Listrak's email or SMS API.
Journey Hub Data Management Step: Update profile field data as a contact engages with a Journey flow using the data management step. Use the step to add data to a new field, update a field, or clear a value from a field.
Commonly Asked Questions
Is there a limit to the number of profile fields?
No, you can include as many profile fields as you need to store contact-level data that supports your marketing goals.
Is there data that should not be stored in profile fields?
While you can store any types of data, there are two major things to consider. The first, is if data is also collected via other means, like your integration or data file feeds. For example, you do not need to store data about the items a contact browsed, because this is already collected by Listrak's browse code. The second thing to consider is if there is any sensitive information that would be stored in these fields. For example, if you are including payment information, you may want to utilize Listrak's transactional API, which does not store the data that is included in transactional messaging.
Can I change the names of my profile fields?
Yes, however this may require you to take some additional actions. If a profile field is used in a segment it will be locked (noted by a lock icon when viewing the field group) and you will be unable to edit the name. To edit the name, remove the field from any segments or other places it is utilized.
💡 Click on the lock icon to see where the field is currently used.