# What is a merge field in email?

A merge field is a placeholder in an email that your email tool replaces with each subscriber's own details when it sends, most often their first name. Mailchimp calls them merge tags. One greeting becomes “Hello Ana,” for one reader and “Hello Sam,” for the next.

Last reviewed 30 October 2026. Web page: https://chapbook.ink/glossary/merge-field/

## What it means in practice

Each tool has its own syntax. In Mailchimp, the first-name field is `*|FNAME|*`. Check your tool's help before you paste one in, because a field written for another tool can go out as literal text.

Every merge field needs data behind it. If your form doesn't ask for a first name, you need a fallback for the people who didn't give one, and "Hello Friend" reads better than "Hello ,". Send yourself a test with an address that has no name on file.

## How Chapbook uses it

The sign-up form on a book's public page has an optional first-name box, and Chapbook passes the answer along. The CSV export has a `first_name` column. 

[The launch campaign's](/manual/launch-and-export/#write-the-launch-campaign) emails are written without merge fields. Chapbook fills in their links itself, so what you copy is ready to paste, and any personal touch is yours to add in your email tool.

## Made with Chapbook: The Welcome Sequence

The Welcome Sequence: Seven emails that turn a subscriber into a reader, by Dana Okafor. Lead magnet, 3,626 words, 17 pages. A sample generated from one brief and exported unedited; it is not a customer's book. Read every page: https://chapbook.ink/examples/newsletter/

The brief:

> A seven-email welcome sequence for a new newsletter: what each email does, what to write, and when to send it. Promise: By the end you have a complete seven-email welcome sequence drafted, with a send schedule. Reader: Someone with fewer than a thousand subscribers who writes the newsletter themselves. Voice: Second person, warm and direct, worked examples with fictional newsletters, no invented open-rate statistics.

The outline the planner proposed:

1. Introduction (282 words)
2. Email 1: The one they actually open (681 words)
3. Emails 2 and 3: Who you are and what to expect (729 words)
4. Emails 4 and 5: Your best two pieces, reframed (669 words)
5. Emails 6 and 7: The ask, and the door left open (743 words)
6. The schedule and the template (478 words)

## Questions

### What happens when a subscriber has no first name on file?

It depends on your tool and its settings. In Mailchimp you can set a default value, such as “Friend”, so the email reads “Hello Friend” for anyone whose first name isn't in the system.

### Do Chapbook's emails include merge fields?

No. The launch campaign's emails are written as plain text, without any tool's merge fields, so you can add your own when you paste them in.

## Sources

- [Mailchimp, “All the Merge Tags Cheat Sheet”](https://mailchimp.com/help/all-the-merge-tags-cheat-sheet/)
- [Mailchimp, “Set Default Merge Values for an Audience”](https://mailchimp.com/help/set-default-merge-values/)