1. What Are User Merge Tags?
Demonstration starts at 00:00:00
User merge tags are personal merge tags tied to your user account. They behave just like standard merge tags (e.g. %first_name% or %company_name%), but you define both the tag name and the value.
This makes them incredibly useful for managing things like:
Your scheduler link
Personal landing pages
Phone numbers
Text snippets or even HTML
Instead of hardcoding values into templates, you can use a user merge tag like %user_scheduler% across dozens of templates. If you ever need to update that value, you only need to do it once in your settings.
2. How To Create And Configure a User Merge Tag
Demonstration starts at 00:04:15
Go to Settings
Click on User Merge Tags
In the “New User Merge Tag” box, type the tag name (e.g.
%user_scheduler%)You must include the percent signs
Use a descriptive name so you know what it’s for later
Click Create Merge Tag
Double-click the empty value field next to your tag
Enter the value (e.g. your scheduler link) and press Enter to save
3. How To Insert a User Merge Tag Into a Template
Demonstration starts at 00:06:46
Open any email or text template
Place your cursor where the tag should go
Click the Insert Merge Tag button in the editor toolbar
Open the Your Information dropdown
Select your user merge tag from the list
Save the template
You can also type the tag manually (e.g. %user_scheduler%) if you know the name.
4. How To Hyperlink Text With a User Merge Tag
Demonstration starts at 00:08:13
If you want to use a user merge tag as a hyperlink:
Highlight the text you want to hyperlink (e.g. “Book a Call”)
Click the Link icon
Add your merge tag into the URL field (e.g.
%user_scheduler%)Click Insert Link and save your template
This keeps your templates clean while still pulling in the correct value dynamically.
5. How To Mass Update Templates Using User Merge Tags
Demonstration starts at 00:08:13
The true power of user merge tags comes later - when something changes.
Go back to Settings > User Merge Tags
Find the tag you want to update under User Merge Tags
Double-click the value field
Paste in your new value and press Enter
That change applies instantly to all templates using that tag
No need to update each one manually.
Watch the Full Video
Transcript
Transcript
00:00:00
Drew Ross: Hey everybody, my name is Drew and today we're going to be talking about user merge tags and one use case in particular that I think really illustrates just how useful these can be at mass updating your templates in one fell swoop because if you are somebody who uses a lot of templates and if you've ever just needed to update something find that it can be kind of a a headache like especially like withul links for instance you know you just wind up not being sure if you've caught every single template and then if suddenly somebody is using this outdated information or this updated link, it's kind of hard to track it down. So, with a little bit of planning ahead and using this really useful feature, you can get rid of those kinds of headaches and mass update however many templates you have in moments. So, let's uh let's take a look at what this uh what this looks like because I think it's one of those things that's a little bit easier to show than it is to describe. So, you're going to be able to find your user merge tags under settings.
00:01:36
Drew Ross: So, you click on the gear icon in the bottom left and you'll actually see it in this card up here that says user. We'll see user merge tags right there as well as in that sidebar that says settings under the user section. So, we click on user merge tags. And I can you can see right now that I've got a couple right here. So the and by the way these these merge tags as far as how they behave it's really very much like other merge tags like first name or phone number or company name things like that where it's a little bit of code that gets inserted into a template that then gets substituted with a with a different value when it's actually sent. Except in this case we can actually set the value. So when we look at this example right here, we see a merge tag that says percent discovery calluler percent and then there's this value right here which is auler link. So as a user all I need to do is put this this merge tag percent discovery calluler percent into a template and then when it's sent it'll be substituted with this different value of a of auler link.
00:02:59
Drew Ross: Now, when we're doing this on a one-off basis, it might it it's usually not going to be that useful. Why not just put that URL into a template? Well, if I'm putting my scheduleuler link in in dozens of templates, then suddenly it's really useful to be using a merge tag so that in the future if for any reason I'm needing to change the value of this. Like for instance, maybe if it's a if I'm going to be sharing my templates with team members and I want to be able to just copy these templates into a team member's account or if I'm external going to be externally sharing these uh these templates with other people. If we're just going to use a merge tag, then suddenly it's going to be really easy for that other person who's going to be using these templates. All they have to do is just make a merge tag that matches this with their own scheduleuler link in it. Bada bing, bada boom, it's all updated. They don't need to go through every single template individually or wind up actually having people booking events or like using the wrong information and booking events with me when it should be with somebody else.
00:04:15
Drew Ross: Never want to do that. So, um, what I'm going to do is just create a new merge tag. So, let's just say um so, well, first of all, to create a new merge tag, we've got this little box right up here that says new user merge tag. So, we're going to put in a new user merge tag. Now, you do actually have to put the percents in there. Um, so going to do percent caps or lowercase actually doesn't really matter. So, typing in percent initial call scheduler percent. I I I really recommend keeping this extremely um descriptive. I think that that's kind of a good part of planning ahead. So, then I hit create merge tag. And here we go. Got a new merge tag. This does not have a value though. So, we need to hover over that value column. It says add value. And you can see it says double click to edit value. Press enter to save. So, double click.
00:05:25
Drew Ross: And I'm just going to put in a a bogus link because I don't have a link ready to put in here. So, we're just going to say um fightcal.com/ a random bit of numbers. Hit enter. And there we go. We've now got this configured so that this blink will then get uh inserted. Um, by the way too, these can be used in all in a host of different ways. Does not have to be just links. They can be regular text. They can actually be HTML, too. And that'll the HTML just get inserted into the template as well. You can do a lot of really fancy stuff that way. So, let's uh let's go insert this into a couple of templates. So, we're going to head over to communication emails templates. We're going to jump into some email templates that are used in a series. And first of all, I'm going to just show you an example of how one of these is being used currently in this example account.
00:06:46
Drew Ross: So, we're looking at our template and we're going to say let's hop on a quick call. And we got our discovery call discovery call scheduler uh merge tag in the template. So very very simple stuff. Now let's update a template that does not have or it's just actually just does have it. But that's okay. We're going to just get rid of this. So we're going to put our cursor where we want this to be added. We're going to click on the insert merge tag button in the editor ribbon. You see our menu of merge tags on here and you're going to find all of your user merge tags under the dropdown that says your information. Click on that and then you'll see it probably at the bottom of your of your information section. So you click on the merge tag that you want to use and now it has been inserted and all you have to do is save your template. Now you don't have to just have these be inserted as raw URLs because what what will happen if you do it the way that I'm showing you here is it's just going to be a basic raw URL that is put in there.
00:08:13
Drew Ross: And so maybe you want to hyperlink text or something. So in this case, we we don't want to just say schedule here colon URL, but we want it to be a hyperl here. So I'm going to copy or actually in this case cut the merge tag out of here. I'm going to highlight the text that I want to hyperlink. I'm going to click on the link button and then I'm going to paste this merge tag into where that the URL section of the HTML editor. Click insert link and it'll work exactly as you expect uh at this point. Now uh of course don't forget to save your template. Um, and also just to kind of highlight that scenario that I was talking about the very beginning because it's like this is all the setup. Um, and and so this is maybe like the you could say the tedious part. The really really cool part is down the line. This is where you're going to thank yourself is down the line when you need to mass update these. So what you do in that case if you've already planned ahead and you've got your user merge tags in place is you just go back to where we went before. So we hit the gear icon for settings. We click on user merge tags and and then we just simply doubleclick on the value of the user merge tag that we need to update. And let's say maybe in this case it's uh you know counting down from nine. You hit enter and then however many templates across however many formats. These aren't these don't just work for email templates. They work for text templates. uh anything that's going to be sent out that uses uh merge tags can actually pull from these from these user merge tags. And it's as easy as that to just mass update stuff. So I think that is pretty cool.