Create and use custom fields

Go to Settings → Custom fields, click New field, fill in a Key, a Label and a Type, and click Create field. The field then appears on every contact, can be filled from a CSV column or a signup form, and can go into an email as a merge tag.

Add a field

1. Open Settings → Custom fields and click New field.
2. Key: the name you’ll use in emails, like plan, city or renewal_date. It’s saved in lower case with underscores, needs at least one letter or number, and can’t be changed later.
3. Label: the name you see on forms and the contact page, like “Plan”, “City” or “Renewal date”.
4. Type: Text, Number, Date or Yes / No.
5. Click Create field.

Values must match the type

EmailFig checks every value against the field’s type:

• Number: whole numbers only. 49.99 is refused, not rounded, so for prices use a Text field, or store the amount in pence or cents.
• Date: written as YYYY-MM-DD, like 2026-03-01. A date like 01/03/2026 is refused, because it could mean two different days.
• Yes / No: yes or no, such as true/false or yes/no.
• Text: anything, up to 255 characters.

When you add or edit a contact, a value that doesn’t fit shows an error on that field. In a CSV import, the value is left out and listed with the import’s error rows, and the rest of the row still imports.

Fill it in

• On a contact: your fields appear on New contact and Edit.
• From a CSV: each field is offered on the mapping screen as custom: followed by its key. A column headed with the key or label is matched for you. See Import contacts from a CSV.
• From a signup form: add the field to the form.

Use it in an email

Each custom field has a merge tag, listed by its label in the editor’s merge tag menu:

{{ contact.properties.plan }}

Contacts with no value show nothing, so add a fallback where a blank would read oddly. See Merge tags: personalise with contact data.

Edit or delete

Edit, in the field’s … menu, changes the label and type. You can’t change the type while any contact has a value that wouldn’t fit the new one, and the error says how many do. Changing to Text always works.

Delete removes the field and its value on every contact, and merge tags using it go blank. You can’t delete a field while a signup form still collects it, even a draft one. The message names the forms, so remove the field from them first.

Where to go next

• Import contacts from a CSV
• Merge tags: personalise with contact data
• Use tags to label contacts