How to Personalize Emails with CRM Data

  • Updated

CRM Personalization pulls data straight from your connected CRM — account name, annual revenue, whatever field matters — into your emails and landing pages, so each contact sees content that's actually relevant to them instead of generic copy.

Who does this: Marketing users building emails or landing pages, once an Act-On admin has an active CRM connection and a completed Data Management sync in place.
Why this matters: Generic emails get skimmed and deleted. Pulling in real CRM data — account name, deal stage, revenue, whatever's relevant — makes a message feel written for that specific contact, which is what actually drives opens, clicks, and replies.

Quick Reference (Advanced Users)

  • Requires the Account-Based Marketing add-on, an active CRM connection, a completed Data Management sync, and CRM list(s) imported to Act-On.
  • In a content block, place your cursor and click Personalization > CRM fields > search & select the field > Next.
  • Fallback syntax: {{={{crmmodel.Account.AnnualRevenue}}|no revenue reported}} — always include fallback text, or the message fails to send to contacts with an empty field.

Prerequisites

Instructions

Add CRM Personalized Fields From Your CRM Into Your Design

These instructions add personalized text sourced from your CRM data fields to your emails.

  1. Open the email or Landing Page you want, & in the Design tab, add or select a content block. Personalization is available in the following content blocks: Title, Paragraph, Button, List, Table, AI Create (email only).
  2. In the content block, place the cursor where you want to add a CRM Personalization field & from the toolbar that appears, click Personalization:

Screenshot of the Personalization option in the content block toolbar used to add CRM fields.

  1. In the Personalize dialog, on the left, select CRM fields.
  2. Search for & select the field you want, then click Next.

Examples

  • Without fallback text:
    {{crmmodel.Account.Name}}
  • With fallback text "no revenue reported":
    {{={{crmmodel.Account.AnnualRevenue}}|no revenue reported}}

For more information on personalization, see Use Personalization Fields in Emails or Personalization (Landing Page Composer).

Test & Preview (Email Only)

Once you've entered the fields you want in your design, it's best practice to test & preview your email.

Email Testing Tips

  • To send your email to a test list or test contact, you must have generic alternative text for all fields, or the message will fail to send.
  • To test a live contact with CRM data, you must send the email as a live message to a test contact imported from your CRM.

FAQs & Troubleshooting

Error message asks me to set up a recurring sync

Solution: Set up a recurring sync on the Data Management page.

There are missing fields

First, visit the Data Management page and check the box next to every field you wish to use. You'll need to re-run the sync after you do this.

If a field is still missing, it may not be available for the following reasons:

  • The field is a lookup type (we're not able to sync these)
  • The field is not available to the connected CRM user (your CRM administrator will have to change this)
  • There is a many-to-one relationship
    • These fields/objects can be used for segmentation, but we cannot use them in personalization.
    • Example: Opportunities – a contact may have many Opportunities associated, so we can't identify which specific one to use for personalization

Why did my message fail to send to some contacts?

The most common reason for this is due to empty field values. When there is no text to display, the message will fail. Generic text to display in place of the field data must be included for these contacts to receive the message.

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