Automatically Update Copyright Year

Robert Kohnke

Automatically Update Copyright Year

As we move into the middle of Q4 (for the typical FY) and look to the new year - one of the things that should be on the minds of marketers and web admins is the pesky little number at the bottom of most of our emails, web pages, and landing pages - our copyright year.

Every year we have to (or should) go through and update what can amount to HUNDREDS of assets to change one or two digits - otherwise an un-updated copyright can reflect poorly on us.

This is a simple task - but tedious - and with the ever growing suite of challenges and tasks that the typical marketer faces, why do we have to spend our precious time on something like this?!?!

Well - your Act-On expert is here with a life changing and time-saving tip on how to leverage one of Act-On’s lesser-used features to make this process a one-click for all future updates!

Enter - Custom Account Personalization.

This lets you set a variety of custom personalization strings that you can use in messages, forms, and landing pages - just like you use our standard sender/recipient personalization.

(Note: if you are not using personalization, take a look at this previous tip of the month post on using personalization).


First - the overview

Here is what we will be doing.

First, you will create an account personalization that will hold the current year for your copyright (or any other use).

Then, you will edit each message template, active form, and landing page to replace the hard-coded year with this variable.

Finally, each year all you have to do is update the variable’s value in the personalization settings and all of your assets will be updated!


The Details

 

  1. Navigate to Settings > Other Settings > Custom Account Settings
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find your Customer Account Personalizations
  3. (Note: Don’t see them? Contact support or your CSM for assistance.)
  4. Click the little blue plus icon to create a new personalization.
  5. Insert your field name (we use “year”)
  6. Insert the current value you want that variable to populate (2019) - this is what you will update to 2020 in the new year.
  7. Click Save

You now have your personalization string!


If you used year above, the string you will use is: {{AccountCustom.year}}


Now, all that’s left is to take that personalization string and replace all of the hard coded years in your assets with that string - then, in the new year all you update is the field value in the personalization itself (screenshot above) and all of your assets will update accordingly!

That’s it!

Have a great day and Happy Marketing!

2

Comments

3 comments

  • Comment author
    Tatiana Lea

    Thank you for this share Robert! So in time for the new year indeed.

     

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  • Comment author
    Paul Vrooman

    This was helpful--UNTIL the last part. "...all that's left is to...replace all of the hard coded years...". Sorry, we're not all comfortable with code. Can you continue the instructions all the way through to the desired result?

     

    Thanks

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  • Comment author
    Chris Apgar
    • Edited

    Hi Paul! Good news, there is no code required there. "Replace all of the hard coded years" is just a more technical way of saying, "replace all of the years that were typed in by hand." At that point of the process, you just need to go through your entire account and replace any spot that says " Copyright ©2020" (or 2019 etc.) with your new custom field, eg. "Copyright ©{{AccountCustom.year}}". This takes a bit of time, but once it's done you'll never have to do it again!

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