How do I create a dynamic From line?

It's not unusual for (especially B2B) email marketers to want to create a "dynamic" From Line when creating other dynamic content. The most common example is sending a marketing email to opted-in prospects or clients and having the From Line display the prospect/client's Sales Rep or Account Manager's name and email.

This helps personalize messages and make them feel like more of a 1:1 conversation. For example, rather than a From Line reading "XYZ Company" <marketing@XYZCompany.com> you may want an important automated note about your account to come from "CSM Name" <csmemail@XYZCompany.com>. 

Requirements

Data We use merge tags to accomplish dynamic From lines. As these pull from data fields, you cannot personalize a From line without ensuring you have the relevant or necessary data saved in your account. For example, if you want to have the From line be the prospect's sales representative, you need to have both the sales rep's name and email saved on the contact record. 

Domain You must own the domain the email is coming from or it is unlikely the mailing will get into the inbox. 

How-To

There are two ways to achieve this. You can either make the adjustment at the individual campaign level or at the Sender Address level (Settings>Account Management).

With either, you need to make sure to:

1. Determine the merge tag for the fields that store the Name and Email you want to be dynamic. Usually merge tags look like this: %%databasename_%%. You can pull a merge tag into a campaign to determine how it reads exactly. (See: How do I Use Merge Tags? )

2. Either in Sender Addresses or on the campaign itself, paste your merge tags in the correct format (See: How Should the From Line Be Formatted?). If you are using Sender Addresses, it will format the From Line for you.

3. If you used Sender Addresses to add your dynamic From Line, you can choose it in the "Sender Name and Address" drop down on the campaign setup tab. 

Notes (Warnings)

1. If any contacts included in the campaign do not have data stored in the fields being merged, your campaign will fail. To prevent this, utilize default value available for your contact fields.  For example, if the first name is not a stored value, set default to "XYZ Company" or "Friend" to make your greeting still appear customized.  

2. When setting up a campaign that uses a merged From line the authentication indicators for DKIM, SPF, and DMARC will fail in the application.

3. When you change a From Line to make it dynamic, it will also change the Reply To address if you leave the Reply To field blank. Meaning, the Reply To will also be dynamic depending on the From line that is merged.