Knowledgebase

Each contact that you store in your VMA Emailer account contains basic information like email address and the recipient's first or last name. It is possible to store more information with the help of custom contact fields.

Note! This feature is available with the PRO pricing plans only!

Creating and managing custom contact fields

Custom contact fields can be fully created and managed on your account's "Contacts" screen ("Manage contacts" menu -> "Custom fields") or from within specific contacts screen ("Data" -> "Custom fields" -> "Manage custom fields").

You are also able to create them when uploading a CSV file with contacts that include additional fields. 

In order to add a new custom contact field, select one of the predefined custom field types (see below) or your own (you will need to select what datatype it uses - see more details below), name your field and click "Add field". (Note! Field names cannot contain white spaces!). Existing field definitions cannot be edited but can be removed by clicking the "trash" icon.

Important! Each change you make will affect all of your contacts.

Predefined custom fields

Custom contact fields come in the following (including predefined) types:

Birthday (type: date) - use one of the following ISO standard formats for all of your contacts: MM/DD/YYYY or YYYY/MM-DD
Phone (type: text, default max length: 100) - we recommend to use Text as the Data type for this custom field, so please make sure that you choose it for your contact's phone number. Otherwise, the data will not be added.
Company (type: text, default max length: 100)
Street address (type: text, default max length: 100) - separate each part of the address with spaces, not commas. (Note! Text fields are limited to a maximum 250 characters.)
City (type: text, default max length: 100)
Zip code (type: text, default max length: 100) - we recommend using Text as the Data type for this custom field, so please make sure that you choose it for your contact's zip code. Otherwise, the data will not be added.
State (type: text, default max length: 100)  
Country (type: text, default max length: 100)
Consent (type: boolean) - this field is used to store information regarding the contact's consent to receive email from you. There are already three default fields available storing general information but it is possible to add more. This field has to start with "consent" (so the properly added Consent field will look like: "consenttracking" not "trackingconsent").
Custom - see below.

Other custom field datatypes

Text (default max length: 100) - text fields are limited to 250 characters. Feel free to use text fields for data like: first name, last name, language preferences, phone numbers, zip codes and any other information where words are needed.  
Number - number fields are limited to 11 characters. Feel free to use number fields for age, ID numbers or currency values as well as for any other information where numbers are used.  
Date - use this custom field for dates other than birth dates where date format is needed. (Note! This custom field should be added in one of the ISO Standards: YYYY-MM-DD or MM-DD-YYYY)
Decimal - decimal fields are limited to 30 characters. Feel free to use this custom field for credit amounts, currency values and any other information where decimal number format is required. For integers, please use number fields.  
Boolean - use this field in any case where only two values are available: TRUE or FALSE.
Big number - big number fields are limited to 20 characters. Feel free to use these custom fields in any case where big numbers are needed.

API management

Custom contact fields cannot be created or removed via API - this option is available via the dashboard only. Still, it is possible to update these fields with the "CustomFields" call detailed in the API documentation here.