How to create a conditional

Requirements

You must have the Developer or Admin role to create a reusable conditional. If your organization uses custom roles, your role needs the Create Conditionals permission to create a conditional, Update Conditionals to edit one and Delete Conditionals to delete one.

This article shows you how to create a reusable conditional, so the people building emails can show different content to different recipients without writing ESP code.

A conditional lets one email show different content to different groups of recipients. For example, a loyalty program email might show one offer to gold members, another to silver members, and a third to everyone else. Each version of the content is called a branch.

You can create a conditional in two places:

Type	Where you create it	When to use it
Reusable conditional	Dynamic Content > Conditionals	The same logic is used across several emails. Update it once and every email picks up the change.
Inline conditional	In the email editor	The logic is only needed in one email. See How to use a conditional in an email.

Before you begin

If you export to more than one ESP, set up a dynamic content profile for each one first. You can then give the conditional different syntax for each ESP.

How branches and syntax work

A conditional is made of branches, plus the syntax your ESP uses to decide which branch each recipient sees. When you export an email, EmailShepherd wraps each branch’s content in the syntax you enter.

For example, here’s a conditional with three branches, written in Liquid:

{% if membership == "gold" %}
  Gold members content
{% elsif membership == "silver" %}
  Silver members content
{% else %}
  Everyone else content
{% endif %}

To set this up, you enter:

• The syntax that starts each branch: {% if membership == "gold" %} for the first branch, {% elsif membership == "silver" %} for the second, and {% else %} for the last.
• The closing syntax that ends the conditional: {% endif %}.

You don’t enter the content itself. That’s added to each branch when someone uses the conditional in an email.

Note

The placeholders in the app use Liquid. If your ESP uses a different language, such as Handlebars or AMPscript, enter the syntax your ESP needs.

Create a reusable conditional

1. In the sidebar, click Dynamic Content, then select the Conditionals tab.

2. Click Add Conditional.

3. In Label, enter the name people will see in the editor, e.g. “Membership tiers”.

4. If the conditional will be used in an email’s subject or preheader, select Can be used in subject and preheader.

5. Under Branches, add a branch for each version of the content. For each branch, enter:

   • Branch label: the name people see in the editor, e.g. “Gold members”.
   • Branch key: a unique ID for the branch, e.g. gold_membership.

   Click the add icon to add another branch.

   

6. Under Default Syntax, enter the syntax that starts each branch, then the closing syntax.

   

7. Click Create Conditional.

Tip

If you’ll use the conditional in a subject or preheader, add a final branch for everyone else, e.g. {% else %}. Otherwise, recipients who don’t match any branch get an empty subject or preheader.

Add syntax for each dynamic content profile

If an ESP needs different syntax from the default, add it for that ESP’s dynamic content profile.

1. In the sidebar, click Dynamic Content, then select the Conditionals tab.
2. Beside the conditional, click the edit icon.
3. Under Dynamic Content Profile Syntax, click the edit icon beside the profile.
4. Enter the syntax that starts each branch, then the closing syntax.
5. Click Update Profile Syntax.

Profiles you don’t add syntax for show as Not configured, and use the default syntax when you export.

Edit, clone or delete a conditional

1. In the sidebar, click Dynamic Content, then select the Conditionals tab.
2. Beside the conditional, click one of the icons:
   • Edit: change the conditional, then click Update Conditional.
   • Clone: enter a label for the copy, then click Clone.
   • Delete: confirm that you want to delete the conditional.

Caution

Don’t change the Branch key of a branch that’s already used in emails. The branch’s content in those emails is linked by its key, so changing it disconnects that content.