Customise messages when bulk importing

This article covers creating custom content for individual or batch messages and is a great way to insert text, URLs, hashtags and so on into your messages so that when scheduling out content you can prefill custom fields into your messages which are unique to your audience/clients.

This article guides you through how to set up custom fields within the Sendible dashboard and how to utilise these fields when bulk importing messages.

Setting up a custom field

1. Click on your Username on the top right side of the dashboard.
2. To set up a custom field, navigate to your settings and click on Company Settings.
3. Then click on the Custom Fields option from the left-hand side menu. Here you will see a table that will list all of your custom fields after one is added.
4. Next, click on Channels.
5. Click on the New Field button of which a new pop-up will appear.
   Tip: You can create many different fields for different uses, like website URLs, hashtags, custom location names (franchises), promotion names, promotion dates, etc.
6. Here you can enter a Field title for your own reference.
7. You can set if the field is Mandatory or not.
8. You can select the Field Type from the drop-down menu. The options are Text, Text area, Password, List, Date, Time, URL, and Numeric.
   Tip: We recommend choosing the following field types: Text, URL, Numeric, and Date.
9. You can also set the Order of your fields.
10. Once you have set up your custom field, go to My Profiles, where you can then select the profiles you wish to add the custom field to.
11. Click on the three dots on the right side of the profile you want to add custom information for, and from the drop-down menu select the Tags option.
12. Add the custom information you wish to add within the relevant text box with the field name you added.
13. Once saved, repeat this step for all other profiles you wish to add a tag for with the custom fields you have set up.

Composing a message with custom fields

1. To add your custom field into a message open the Compose Box. Then click on the RSS, Content and Trends icon.
2. You will then see a window appear with 4 different tabs. Select the Placeholders tab to find the custom fields you added earlier.
3. Then select Channel tags to find your custom field.
4. After inserting the tag you selected, you will see the placeholder tag for the Custom field in your Compose Box. Once you’ve added all your profiles, content and custom fields you will be ready to post!
   Note: The custom information will only be included if you have filled in a value for the tag belonging to the profile within the list of profiles under My Profiles. For any profiles where the tag has not been added, the custom URL field will not work.
   Tip: If you are using custom URLs you will want to switch off shortening links within your company settings under company preferences first before setting up your custom fields.

How to use custom fields within the bulk importer

If you are looking to save time and use the bulk importer to compose messages with custom fields, this is possible but, before you can bulk import, you will need to follow the previous steps for setting up your custom fields. From the Placeholders screen, add the related placeholder to the Compose Box and copy this so that you get your unique identifier code.

Example: $custom_web_test_1_86889/page 1

You can then add this code into the messages you're looking to bulk import as needed so that the system automatically updates the messages to include the related tag information you've added for each profile you are posting to.