Email Template Placeholders - What they are and how to use them

Placeholders add another layer of authenticity

You may have noticed within the Phishing Tackle platform that some email templates have entries such as "[[FirstName]], [[Domain]], [[CEO]]" or similar in them (such as in the image below).

These are known as Placeholders and are incredibly versatile in creating new layers of authenticity to your email templates.

What do they do?

Placeholders work by referencing data stored elsewhere in a single word or statement within an email template.

For example, rather than make a generic email template that begins "Dear Sir/Madam", you could the FirstName placeholder: "Dear [[FirstName]]".

In this case, each email will reference the recipient's first name when the email is sent within the campaign, so every recipient will get their names at the beginning of the email, making it appear much more genuine.

Which placeholders are available?

Below is a list of what placeholders are available to use, and where their relative data is stored for reference, all are case-agnostic (you can use upper or lower case to reference them). They can all be accessed within the email template editor as pictured below:

The list of available placeholders are:

• [[Domain]]
• [[FirstName]]
• [[LastName]]
• [[Position]]
• [[OrganisationName]]
• [[Department]]
• [[EmailAddress]]
• [[Division]]
• [[Location]]
• [[PhoneNumber]]
• [[PhoneExtension]]
• [[MobilePhoneNumber]]
• [[Manager]]
• [[ManagerEmail]]
• [[EmployeeNumber]]
• [[CS]] (Currency Symbol)
• [[CEO]] (CEO Name)
• [[HR]] (HR Department Name)
• [[IT]] (IT Department Name)
• [[EmailHeader]]
• [[EmailFooter]]
• [[TrainingNotificationHeader]]
• [[TrainingNotificationFooter]]

 Where is the data stored for each placeholder?

Just as important as knowing what placeholders are available is knowing exactly where the data behind each one can be entered/edited. All placeholder locations are detailed below:

Organisation-based placeholders

• [[CS]] (Currency Symbol)
• [[CEO]] (CEO Name)
• [[IT]] (IT Department Name)
• [[HR]] (HR Department Name)

Further down on the same page you can find placeholders for:

• [[EmailHeader]] (Header for simulated phishing emails)
• [[EmailFooter]] (Footer for simulated phishing emails)
• [[TrainingNotificationHeader]] (Header for training notification emails)
• [[TrainingNotificationFooter]] (Footer for training notification emails)

The data for these placeholders can be edited by going to Setup > Organisation > Settings > Template Placeholders. This is shown below:

Recipient-based placeholders

• [[Domain]] -
  • This uses everything after the "@" in the recipient's email address, so there is no need to use ".com" or similar when referencing [[Domain]] anywhere.
    
    • [[CEO]]@[[Domain]] - CORRECT
    • [[CEO]]@[[Domain]].com - INCORRECT
• [[FirstName]]
• [[LastName]]
• [[Position]]
• [[Department]]
• [[EmailAddress]]
• [[Division]]
• [[Location]]
• [[PhoneNumber]]
• [[PhoneExtension]]
• [[MobilePhoneNumber]]
• [[Manager]]
• [[ManagerEmail]]
• [[EmployeeNumber]]

 All above placeholders can be found by editing a recipient:

Some useful notes

• Placeholders can be used in the following fields when creating an email template:
  • From/Reply-To Name
  • From/Reply-To Email Address
  • Email Subject
  • Email Body
• The [[CEO]] placeholder will remove any spaces if used in an email address field
  • E.g. "Joe Bloggs" used in an email address field will become "joebloggs" 

Placeholders in manager notifications (during training courses)

• Be mindful that if you plan to use the template for a manager notification instead of a user notification, that the placeholders will reference the user, not the manager. This enables managers to stay informed by seeing exactly who the training notifications are referencing.
  • E.G: See the recipient details below? 
    
    Jim Phish is the user, Sarah Whale is his manager.
    If Jim hasn't completed his training, and a manager training reminder notification is sent to Sarah, all placeholders in that notification will be linked to Jim.

Should you require any further assistance with this article, or any aspect of our platform, please contact support.