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Custom fields hold data Brudcast has no built-in place for: a customer’s plan, their city, their renewal date. Define a field once, then fill it in on each contact and use it as a merge tag.
Before you start: a field’s key and type are fixed the moment you create it, so decide what the field holds before you add it. Values can’t be brought in by a CSV import; you fill them in on each contact, collect them through a form, or write them through the API.

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Create a field

1

Add the field

Go to Contacts > Custom Fields and select Add Field. Enter a Field Name, such as “Company Size”. This is the label people see on the contact page.
2

Check the key

The Field Key is generated from the name, for example company_size. It’s how you refer to the field in merge tags and the API. A key starts with a lowercase letter and holds lowercase letters, digits and underscores, up to 100 characters. Each key must be unique in your organization.
3

Choose a type

Pick a Field Type, then select Create Field.

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Field types

A Select (Dropdown) field needs at least one option and can have up to 50. You can also give a field a Description and mark it Required.
You can’t change a field’s key or type after you create it. To change either, create a new field and copy the values across. Everything else about a field, such as its name and description, can be edited later.
The key and type are fixed because they’re what everything else points at: merge tags in templates and campaigns, form mappings, and your own code calling the API. Renaming a key would quietly break every message using it, and a tag that no longer matches a field sends as empty text rather than failing loudly.

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Fill in a value

Open a contact and select the pencil icon on the Custom Fields card on the Overview tab. Values can also arrive on their own:
  • From a form. Map a question to Custom field so answers land on the contact. A field only accepts questions that produce the right kind of value. See Map answers to contact fields.
  • From a migration. Custom fields come across from your old provider before your contacts do, so contacts land with their values. See Run a migration.
  • From your app. Write values through the Platform API.
A CSV import is the exception: it maps the built-in columns only, so custom field values can’t be imported from a spreadsheet.

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Use a field as a merge tag

Each field’s key works as a merge tag, such as {{company_size}}. Insert one with Insert variable wherever you write copy, and it’s filled in per recipient when the campaign sends. Five tag names are reserved and always come from the contact record: first_name, last_name, full_name, email and unsubscribe_url. A custom field can’t take one of them over. See Placeholders and merge tags.

Placeholders and merge tags

Personalize a message with the fields you just created.

Add and edit contacts

Fill in a contact’s fields, tags and notes.

Create a form

Collect custom field values from the people who sign up.