Create and use custom fields

Out of the box, a contact has an email, a first name and a last name. Custom fields let you store anything else you want about a person — their company, plan, city, signup date, and so on — and then use it to personalise and target your emails.

Step 1 — Open custom fields

1. Go to Settings → Custom fields.

Step 2 — Add a field

In the Add a field row:

1. Type a label — e.g. Company or Discount code.
2. Choose the scope: Contact (info about a person) or Purchase (info about a sale).
3. Choose the type: text, boolean (yes/no), and so on.
4. Click Add.

About the key: Mailbo auto-generates a key from your label by lower-casing it and replacing spaces with underscores. So Discount code becomes the key discount_code. You'll use this key for personalisation and via the API.

Step 3 — Fill the field with data

Custom fields get values from any of these:

• CSV import — map a spreadsheet column to the field.
• Signup forms — add a custom field to a form.
• The API or webhooks — write to the field's key inside the contact's attrs.
• By hand — on an individual contact's profile.

Step 4 — Use it in an email

Reference a field with double curly braces using its key — for example:

Hi {{first_name}}, your code is {{discount_code}}.

Mailbo swaps in each contact's real value when the email sends. If a contact has no value, that part comes out blank — so it's good practice to write fallbacks where it matters.

Next: Segment your audience