Adding Merge Tag to Email

Dwayne Burgess

Hello, I'm new to using Blackbaud and I am having major issues with my email campaign. I am trying to add a merge field to the campaign but in doing so, an image appears when I test the preview, see attached.

I cannot seem to figure out how to properly add a merge field that collects the subscriber's name so that I can send the email with a custom greeting. Please help.

Ray Bergman

Dwayne Burgess:

Hello, I'm new to using Blackbaud and I am having major issues with my email campaign. I am trying to add a merge field to the campaign but in doing so, an image appears when I test the preview, see attached

I cannot seem to figure out how to properly add a merge field that collects the subscriber's name so that I can send the email with a custom greeting. Please help.

Hi Dwayne, which Blackbaud Product / Solution are you currently using for this? Might be better for me to move this question to that product's community for better attention towards it.

Dwayne Burgess

Hi Ray,


Thank you for getting back to me. It looks like I am on Blackbaud NetCommunity. That is what it says at the bottom left when logged in. Mind you, I am fairly new to this software and trying to familiarize myself along the way to support my clients issue with their email.

Ray Bergman

Ok, moved this to the BBNC community as it was previously in the Organizational Best Practices community.

Rebecca Leifert 3

Hi Dwayne,
Are you looking to “collect” names or use the firstname you have already in your DB? If it's the latter, then you're in business & doing it all correctly.

BBNC uses images as place holders for their merge fields vs live text as other email platforms do. FYI - Test emails will always show the image & never fill in the name. If you want to make sure it's working, then you'll want to create a test list via RE query (you or other internal testers only) & then send a final email to your test list. That's the only scenario where the field will fill out and not just show you the image. Make sense?

Dwayne Burgess

Thanks for the clarity Rebecca,

Yes, this does make sense. My only issue was sending a live email to myself. I created a new list with just a few emails including my own and two of my colleagues. However, when I tried to create a message and select the data source I was not able to select the data source list that I created to send the live email.

Am I missing something here? Can you share on how to create a test list via RE query?

Atticus Rice 2

Hi Dwayne,

Not sure if you ever got help on this, but I think I'm experiencing the same issue right now. Is your email using the Constituents data merge source? If so, I believe you could create a Query in Database View that includes only yourself (Constituent ID = [your ID]) and then add that to NetCommunity and then to your email as a test source.

If my experience is accurate, NetCommunity is finnicky with data merge sources, the merge fields presented/available, and the like.

Hopefully this is helpful and doesn't add more confusion (and my apologies if it does).