Newsletter Tags

Newsletter uses few tags written as {tagname} as placeholders for subscriber’s values or action links.

Newsletter tags can be used on messages, subjects and on page texts (configurable from the subscription panel). Of course not all tags make sense in every place or every context. For example a subscription confirmation tag has no much sense on the welcome message.

A note of warning: Newsletter tags must not be used on posts or pages, they don’t work! They work only when the text is manipulated by Newsletter, for example while creating the final email or the final message to be displayed to the subscriber.

Many tags are subscriber-linked so they need a subscriber set of data to be generated. Clearly the {name} tag needs a subscriber, but even the {subscription_confirm_url} needs it, since the generated URL contains the subscriber’s keys.

The tag list

General tag

  • {blog_url} – the blog URL, like https://www.thenewsletterplugin.com
  • {blog_title} – the blog title as configured on the WordPress general settings
  • {blog_description} – the blog description as configured on the WordPress general settings
  • {date} – the current date (not time) formatted as configured on the WordPress general settings
  • {date_NNN} – the current date formatted as specified by NNN which is a sequence of characters compatible with the PHP date() function specifications
  • {email_url} – the URL to see the current newsletter online

Subscriber specific tags

  • {name} – the subscriber’s name or first name, it depends on how you use that fields during subscription
  • {surname}  – the subscriber’s last name
  • {title} – the subscriber’s title or salutation, like Mr or Mrs, can be configured on the subscription panel
  • {email} – the subscriber’s email
  • {profile_N} – the profile number N as configured on subscription form fields
  • {ip} – the ip from which the subscription has been started; there is who like to add it on confirmation email

Subscription/unsubscription/profile page process tags

  • {subscription_confirm_url} – to confirm a subscription, to be used only on confirmation email when the double opt-in is used
  • {unsubscription_url} – to drive the user to the unsubscription page where he’s asked to confirm he want to unsubscribe; should be used on every email even is a good alternative is to use the {profile_url} tag
  • {unsubscription_confirm_url} – to definitively unsubscribe; can be used on every email for the “one click unsubscription” or on unsubscription request page (the one references by the {unsubscription_url} tag)
  • {profile_url} – point directly to the profile editing page; I prefer to use this tag to offer the unsubscription feature, adding on the profile page the {unsubscription_confirm_url} so the subscriber can (eventually) review his profile instead of unsubscribe

Forms

Forms tags are of course specific and can be used only on some pages. They can have a different behavior on different contexts.

  • {subscription_form} – generates the main subscription form and should be used only on the subscription page configurable on subscription panel
  • {subscription_form_N} – can be used in place of the {subscription_form} to recall the custom form number N
  • {profile_form} – must be used on profile page text (configurable on subscription panel) and generated the form where a subscriber can review and edit his data; I use it even on the welcome page to let the subscriber to complete the subscription adding more information

The {subscription_form}, when used on the widget, it is replaced by a different form, with the same field but a different layout (that better adapts to a sidebar).