Personalizing Emails and Texts with Insert Fields (Receiver Fields and Tokens)

Who this is for: Insert Fields, also called receiver fields or tokens, are for anyone who wants an email or text to fill in with each client's own details. An Insert Field adds a placeholder in curly brackets (sometimes called a merge tag or variable), such as the primary contact's first name or a policy's effective date, and each placeholder is replaced with the real value for every case the message goes to.

Prefer to watch? See the Using Insert Fields in Emails and Texts video.

Looking to fill in Word documents? See Populate Word Documents Using Mail Merge.

Where Insert Field appears

Insert Field is available wherever you write a message that fills in with a client's details:

• Email templates: go to Settings, then Sales & Marketing Settings, then Email Templates, and click Add Email Template.
• Email campaigns: when you write the campaign's email.
• Workflow emails: go to Settings, then Automations, then Workflows. Open a workflow, go to Actions, and choose Add Action and then Add Email.

In these three places Insert Field works in two steps, described below. Workflow task titles and NextText text campaigns also have an Insert Field list. It is a single list of fields instead of two steps. In NextText campaigns it offers agency details such as your agency name and the name of the user sending the text.

Step 1: Choose an object

Click in the body of your message where you want the detail to go. Under Insert Field, open 1. Choose an object and pick the kind of record the detail comes from.

Step 2: Choose a field

Open 2. Choose a field and pick the detail you want. You can type in the box to narrow the list. The field is added to your message as a placeholder in curly brackets, for example:
 

{{Primary Contact First Name}}. 

When the message goes out, each {{ }} placeholder fills in with that case's own details.

Two things in the list help you choose:

• Individual only and Group only mark fields that suit one type of case. An Individual only field fills in on individual cases and stays blank on group cases. A Group only field does the opposite.
• The question mark beside a field shows a short description of what it fills in with.

If you remember a field by an older name, such as Group Primary Contact First Name, look for the matching name in the list, such as Primary Contact First Name. Messages you wrote earlier keep filling in as they always have.

Case dates

• Case Effective Date fills in with the most recent effective date across the case's benefits.
• Case Renewal Date fills in with the soonest upcoming renewal date across the case's benefits.

Most Recent Benefit and Specific Benefit

The Benefit object has two groups of fields:

• Most Recent Benefit (fields that start with "New Benefit") fills in from the policy most recently added to the case. Use it when you simply want the latest policy.
• Specific Benefit (via Map Benefit) (fields that start with "Benefit") fills in from the policy you choose with Map Benefit. Use it when a case has several policies and the message needs one in particular.

Use Map Benefit to choose the policy

When you add a Specific Benefit field, a yellow notice and a Map Benefit button appear. The button stays available as long as the message contains a Specific Benefit field.

1. Add a Specific Benefit field to your message, such as Benefit Effective Date.
2. Click Map Benefit. The Benefit Resolution window opens.
3. Under Filters, narrow down which of the case's policies can be used. Choose a field, an operator and a value, for example Product Type equals Medical. Click Add Filter to add more rows. A policy must match every row.
4. Choose a Tie Breaker. It decides which policy is used when more than one still matches.
5. Click Save. The yellow notice goes away.

You can filter on Carrier, Product Type, Plan Type, Plan Name, Policy Number, Group Number, Effective Date, Renewal Date, Termination Date, Monthly Premium and Annual Premium.

Choosing a Tie Breaker

For renewal and open enrollment emails, choose Most recent effective so the message uses the policy for the new plan year. If a case still holds last year's policy, Soonest renewal can pick that older one. Adding a Product Type filter keeps a dental policy from being used in a message about medical coverage.

Where you set Map Benefit

• Workflow emails and email campaigns: Map Benefit is saved with the email or campaign, so the same rules apply to every case it goes to.
• A one-off email from a case: a template holds the Specific Benefit field, and you choose the policy when you write the email. Select the template on the case's NextMail tab, click Map Benefit and save. The preview fills in with that case's policy. Map Benefit starts over when you choose a different template, so set it each time.

Why a field can be blank

A placeholder fills in only when there is a value to show. If one comes back blank, check these first:

• The value is not filled in. A field such as Policy Number is blank when the policy has no policy number.
• The field suits the other type of case. Individual only fields are blank on group cases, and Group only fields are blank on individual cases.
• Map Benefit has not been set, or no policy matches it. Open Map Benefit and confirm your filters match a policy that has that value filled in.
• The object does not apply to the message. Employee fields fill in for messages about an employee on a group case, and Sub-Agent fields need a sub-agent.

Common questions

Will changes to the Insert Field list break emails I already wrote? No. Placeholders already in your templates, campaigns and workflows keep filling in the same way.

Why does a date differ from what I expected? If the date comes from a Specific Benefit field, check the Tie Breaker in Map Benefit. A different Tie Breaker can pick a different policy for the same case.

Where did the Map Benefit button go? It appears only while the message contains a Specific Benefit field.