Important:  The Fall '14 product documentation is available on our new help website.
The information below describes functionality up until our Summer’14 Release.

Overview of Field Merges

Field Merges are used for drawing information from contact records in order to personalize Emails and Landing Pages, for instance, referring to the recipient or visitor by their first name, first and last names, company, country, or other specific information that is in their contact record. Note that Field Merges are highlighted in yellow in order to quickly distinguish them from normal text:

Creating Field Merges

In order to begin creating a Field Merge, you must first create the Contact or Account field in the Settings> Setup > Fields and Views area of the application.  Please refer to http://topliners.eloqua.com/community/know_it/blog/2012/07/09/contact-fields for information on how to create Contact Fields and Views.

To create a Contact Field:

1. From the navigation toolbar at the top of the page, select Settings> Setup > Fields and Views (in the Database section).
2. Click the Fields tab on the right-hand pane if not already selected.
3. Click on the plus sign in the lower-left corner and select Add Contact Field. The New Contact Field page opens in the work area on the right-hand pane.
4. In the Display Name field, enter the name of the new Contact field.
5. Configure the fields as follows:
   • Data Type—Select the data type you want to use as the basis of comparison between this Contact's fields and other Contact fields.  Text is selected by default. The other options are: Date, Large Text and Numeric.  For Text, the following options are presented:
   • Field Type—For each Data Type that you selected in the step above, different choices will be presented for Field Type.  For example, if you choose Text, the following are the valid field types:
   • Checkbox—Allows recipient to select (click box to enable checkmark) or deselect (click box to make checkmark disappear) a checkbox; for example, to signify whether the Contact uses a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).
   • Multi-Select Picklist—Allows recipient to select several options from a list; for example, whether the Contact is a member of multiple professional organizations.
   • Picklist—Allows recipient to select a single value from a drop-down list to populate the Contact field; for example, which mobile business phone service the Contact uses.
   • Textbox—Allows recipient to enter a text value in the Contact field; for example, a person's first or last name.
   • Default Value—If you want the field to be pre-populated (use a default value), enter the value here.  Leave blank if no default value is required.
   • Default Update Logic—When using a Field in a Field Merge or other area of the application, you must specify what happens when data is entered into this field.  For Text, the choices are:
   • Always update: Update regardless of current value in the field
   • Update if blank: Update the field information only if there is nothing currently populated
   • Update if New email address: If the email address entered is new (different from the currently populated address), update the email address with the one in this field
   • Update if new value is not blank: Only add the field data if it contains information, i.e. do not overwrite currently existing data with no data (do not delete pre-existing data). For Date Data type, you can select Checkbox or Textbox for Field Type, and specify whether the field is checked or unchecked by default in the Default Value field.  The additional configuration options for a Date data type are the ability to specify the value to be entered when the checkbox is checked or unchecked (using the calendar icon to display a drop-down calendar), the default date format (defined in Settings> Setup > Date Formats) and finally, the same Default Update Logic that appears for a Text data type as described above.
     
     

To create a Field Merge:

1. Navigate to Settings> Setup > Fields & Views.
2. In the lower-left corner, click the + sign and select either Add Contact View or Add Account View, depending on your needs.
   On the right-hand pane, configure the field settings as follows:  On the right-hand side, configure the field settings as follows:
3. From the navigation toolbar at the top of the page, select Assets> Component Library.
4. Click Field Merges in the left-hand pane.
5. Click New. The Field Merge window opens.
   
6. Highlight Untitled Field Merge and enter the field merge name by typing over the highlighted words.
7. Select the field type from which you want the merge to occur: Contact Fields, Account Fields, Event Session Fields or Event Fields (the last two fields are available by default for Eloqua Team and Enterprise customers; for Eloqua Express customers, you must purchase the Events Module in order to be able to use these fields). All fields from which you can select are created in the Setup > Fields and Views area.  NOTE: You cannot use a Contact Field with a Field Type of Large Text in a Field Merge.  An alternate option is to create Dynamic Content based on the criteria appropriate for the contact.
8. When you have selected the field that will contain your merge data, click Save. The Field Merge is now available in the Field Merge area of the Component Library, and can be used anywhere that personalization is desirable.

Adding a Field Merge to an Email

To add a Field Merge to an Email:

1. Double-click anywhere in a Text Box to enter Edit mode.
2. Click Field Merge from the Toolbar on the left-hand (navigation) panel.
3. In the Field Merge Browser, scroll through the list until you locate the desired Field Merge, or search for it by typing its name in the search field at the top of the Field Merge Browser.
   
4. Highlight the Field Merge, and while holding down your left mouse cursor, drag it to the Text Box.  Once your cursor is positioned over the Text Box, the Text Box border changes to a light blue color.
   
5. Release your left mouse button.
6. Locate the exact location where you wish the Field Merge to appear:
   
7. Then, as per the instructions, click in that location.
   
8. The Field Merge is added to your Email and highlighted in yellow.
9. Save your Email.

Notes:

1. If the name of the Field Merge highlighted in yellow does not match the name of the one you dragged from the Field Merge Browser, it is most likely because the Field Merge had been renamed at some point.  The original name of the Field Merge is always retained and will always be displayed when adding it to an Email.
2. Any spaces or hyphens in the name of the Field Merge are converted to underscores when added to the Email.  Only alphanumeric characters will appear in the Field Merge in the Email (A-Z, 0-9).  For example, if your Field Merge is named First Name, when added to the Email it will appear as First_Name.