A custom field allows you to pull additional data about your contacts into your scripts. Basically, if your CSV file contains columns with information like street address, past donation amount, or polling location, you can get that information to dynamically populate in your scripts by using custom fields.
It’s easy to do: simply add the columns you want to reference to your CSV, making sure to follow the formatting guidelines below.
How to format your headers
The header row of your custom fields should be formatted as “word” or “word_word”, ex: streetname, or street_name. Do not use brackets or other special characters.
Screenshot of an example CSV file with a column for a “street_name” custom field.
There is no limit to the number of custom fields you can have, nor is there a limit to the maximum length of the custom field.
How to upload your custom fields
When you upload the CSV to your campaign, Spoke turns the column headers into custom fields. (There is no manual mapping step.) You can see which custom fields were uploaded with your file by opening the arrow next to “x custom fields”.
Screenshot showing the custom fields uploaded with a CSV file.
How to reference your custom fields
Custom fields take the form of {word} once they are in Spoke. They will automatically be available for you to use in your Spoke scripts, as shown in the image below.
Screenshot of an example script showing the custom fields available to be added.
To add the appropriate custom field to your script, click on the custom field in the Spoke script box or type it using the {word} format. When your messages are sent, the data associated with each contact (for that column) will dynamically populate in the text.
Troubleshooting custom fields
Custom fields appear green in the Script tab of your campaign when Spoke has mapped them from your CSV.
When there is a mismatch between what you typed and the custom fields available, the custom field will appear in orange. This means that that custom field will not dynamically populate information, and appear to your contacts as {word}!
Example of a custom field that will not populate in a script.
If you are manually typing in your custom fields, watch for typos and keep in mind that the custom fields need to be formatted in {} in your scripts, i.e. "Hi {firstName} ...". This also applies to scripts you are uploading via Google Doc.
Examples of custom fields
Looking for examples of custom fields in action? Here are some example scripts using custom fields:
Hey {firstName}, Brendan Wiles for Dog Catcher here! We are just $500 shy of our end of month fundraising goal. Your generous donation of {pstdnamnt} has gotten us close to the finish line. Can you chip in $5 more, or whatever you can, to help meet our goal? Stop2quit actbluesclues.WilenOut.com
Hey {firstName}, this is {texterAliasOrFirstName} w/ Brendan Wiles for Dog Catcher! Brendan is committed to responsibly catching and humanely rehoming animals of all kinds. Your early voting location is {polling_place}. Do you have a plan to vote early for Brendan? STOP to opt-out