Help · Audience

Profile properties

Profile properties are the things you know about the people whose profiles you hold that we do not collect for you — a skin type, a favorite scent, a size, a pet's name. They arrive from your forms, from files you import and from your automations.

Once a property is on your profiles, you can do two things with it. You can put it in an email — "Your sensitive-skin routine is 20% off" — and you can build a segment from it: anyone whose skin type is sensitive. It is the same property both times, so the email you write and the people you send it to cannot drift apart.

You do not create properties here. They appear as soon as your profiles have them.

Where they come from

A property is written by a field on one of your forms, a column in a file you import, an automation's Update property step, or a question you put on your Preferences page. Each lands on the profile under its own name — the form field's key, the column's name, or the property the step sets.

When you add a question to one of your forms — what is your skin type? — the answer lands on the profile as a property, named by the field's key. The Import people page covers which columns of a file are kept, and the Steps in an automation help page covers the step.

An answer on the Preferences page replaces what the profile had. A form only fills a property that is empty, but on that page the person is the one answering, so their answer stands, and clearing it clears the property.

Nothing declares a property in advance. The menus you see are built from what your profiles actually carry, ordered by how many of them carry it — so the property you use most is the first one offered, and one that was typed onto four profiles by mistake sorts to the bottom where it belongs.

Building a segment from one

In the builder, choose People and their properties. Its field offers the four details we keep our own column for — First name, Last name, Email, Phone — then First seen, and then your own properties, spelled the way your data spells them.

Anyone whose skin type is sensitive.

The text comparisons are is, is not, contains, does not contain, starts with, is set and is not set. (A property that holds numbers gets number comparisons as well — see below.) Capital letters do not matter — VIP and vip are the same answer, so a value you type by hand matches the data you already have.

"Is not" and "does not contain" include everyone who never answered. This is the one behavior worth knowing before you write a rule, because it is the opposite of what some other email tools do. Anyone whose skin type is not oily catches the people who told you sensitive and the people who never told you anything, which is nearly always the group you meant. If you want only the people who answered, add a second condition on the same property: is set. Starts with works the other way — it asks for something that is there, so a blank answer never matches it.

"Is set" means there is something we can print. A property that is there but empty, or that holds a whole list rather than a word, counts as not set — which is the same test the email side applies, so a person who is in the segment is a person whose email shows the real thing.

The property box is a search: type part of a name and the list narrows to the properties that match. It lists your 200 most-used properties. If yours is not among them, type its full name and choose Use “…” at the foot of the list. It builds, counts and saves exactly the same way.

In an email

A property in an email is a variable, the same as a first name: you write it once and each person receives their own.

A fallback is a word to show for people who do not have that property filled in. It is yours to set or leave empty — nothing refuses an email for lacking one, and it saves, sends and goes out in a campaign or an automation either way.

Leave it empty and a person without the property gets nothing there. The email tidies up after itself. If that leaves two spaces side by side in a sentence, they become one. If a line holds nothing but details that all come up empty — a second address line most orders do not have — the whole line goes, so there is no blank gap. Punctuation you typed stays exactly as you wrote it, so "For Skin type, we recommend…" reads "For , we recommend…" for somebody with no skin type — which is why a fallback is worth setting there.

Where the property sits inside a sentence, set one. A property usually arrives through one form field, so a store with 40,000 profiles and a question that has been on its signup form for three weeks might have the answer for 900 of them. "Your daily routine is 20% off" reads fine to the other 39,100 with "daily" as the fallback; without it they read "Your routine is 20% off", which is fine here but may not be in your own sentence. When a property has words before or after it on the same line and no fallback, its box says so, quietly:

Add a fallback so this sentence reads well when it’s empty.

It is a suggestion, never a refusal.

A few things print the fallback even when the property is there. A property holding a whole list, or a yes-or-no, or an answer longer than 500 characters, shows the fallback instead (or nothing, if you left the fallback empty) — those belong in a segment rule, not in the middle of a sentence, and a very long answer would break the layout of the email around it. A property that is there but blank counts as not being there at all.

A preview with nobody chosen shows your fallbacks. That is honest rather than flattering: the fallback is what most people receive, so it is what an unprimed preview should show. A property with no fallback shows there as its name in gray brackets — [Skin type] — so you can see where it stands; no email ever goes out that way. Choose a real profile to preview and you will see that person's own answers.

Numbers and dates

A property that holds numbers can be compared as a number, and one that holds dates can be compared with a day you choose or a number of days from today, in your store's timezone. is and is not still compare the answer as written.

When a property holds numbers — loyalty points, a shoe size, how many orders somebody told you they placed — a rule can compare it as a number: is greater than, is at least, is less than and is at most. Anyone whose loyalty points as a number is at least 500. Compared as a number, 10 comes after 9, which is not true of the same digits read as text.

is and is not on a number property compare the answer as written, so they work whatever it holds. A property imported from another tool can be mostly number codes with a few words among them — a source that is -154 for most people and Spin to Win for some — and whose source is Spin to Win finds exactly the people whose answer is those words, while is -154 finds the code. When you need 500 and 500.0 to count as the same answer, choose is, as a number under Other comparisons. Wherever the two pairs sit on the same menu, the number pair reads is, as a number and is not, as a number, and on a property whose answers we have not read the text pair reads is, as written and is not, as written.

When a property holds dates, a rule can ask whether the date is before, after or on a day you choose, or whether it is in the last so many days, is more than so many days ago, or is in the next so many days — counted from today in your store's timezone. Anyone whose last order date as a date is in the last 30 days. "In the last 30 days" is today and the 29 days before it, and the day exactly 30 days back is "more than 30 days ago" — the same line first seen draws, so every past day is in exactly one of the two. "In the next 30 days" is today and the 29 days after it — 30 days, the same count looking forward.

Which day a value names: a plain date like 2024-05-01 is May 1, and so is 2024-05-01 at midnight marked as UTC (2024-05-01T00:00:00Z), which is how many tools export a birthday. A value with a time and a timezone on it — like 2024-05-01T23:30:00-05:00 — is a moment, and it counts as the day that moment falls on in your store's timezone. A time with no timezone on it stays on the day it says.

Yes or no

When a property holds a yes or a no — a VIP flag, "accepts texts", "has a pet" — a rule asks is yes or is no. Anyone whose VIP member is yes.

Apps do not agree on how to write it: some store “true” and “false”, some “Yes” and “No”, some a real yes-or-no value. All of them count, in any capitalization. “1” and “0” do not — those are numbers, and a number rule compares them.

The comparisons offered follow what the property holds: number ones for a number, date ones for a date, is yes and is no for a yes or a no, and text ones for anything else. You never set a type. A property whose answers we have not read offers every comparison.

We read a sample of your profiles' own answers for each property and offer only the comparisons that fit: number comparisons for a number, date ones for a date, is yes and is no for yes-or-no, and the text ones for anything else — plus is set and is not set on every property but a yes-or-no one. (A yes or a no is not something an email can print, so “is set” would call a real yes “not set” — is yes and is no are the whole choice there.) You never set a type. If nearly every answer is a number and a stray one says "N/A", it is still a number. A property whose answers we have not read — one only a few of your profiles carry, or one you type yourself — offers every comparison.

A rule you saved keeps its comparison even if the property's answers have changed since and it no longer fits; it shows on the menu and matches exactly what it always did.

An answer that is not a number never matches a number rule, an answer that is not a date never matches a date rule, and an answer that is not a yes or a no matches neither "is yes" nor "is no" — not even "is not". "N/A" is not a number that differs from 500; it is not a number. So whose points as a number is not 500 excludes people who wrote "N/A", and the same goes for anybody with no answer at all. That is the opposite of is not over text, which does include them, and it is why the two read differently in the sentence under the rule. The same holds when you exclude: a rule that does not match somebody cannot take them out of a segment. Exclude anyone whose source is Spin to Win takes out the people whose answer is those words and nobody else — everyone with no source at all stays in.

What we do not do yet

There is no rename, no display label and no way to hide a property from the menus. The name your form field gave it is the name it has. Sorting by how many profiles carry it is what keeps the menu useful in the meantime.

The Building a segment page covers the rest of the builder, and Forms covers adding the field that starts a property existing.