Advanced Custom Fields Guide
Custom fields let you store additional prospect data beyond the built-in fields and use them for personalization.
How Custom Fields Work:
When you import a CSV with columns that do not match built-in field names (email, firstName, lastName, company, role, phone, linkedinUrl, website, country, city, industry), they are stored as custom fields.
Creating Custom Fields:
1) Add extra columns to your CSV with a 'custom:' prefix header:
custom:department, custom:pain_point, custom:referral_source, custom:product_interest
2) During import, these columns are automatically detected and stored.
3) Field names are sanitized: lowercased, non-alphanumeric characters replaced with underscores, max 30 characters.
Using Custom Fields in Emails:
- Reference them with the custom prefix: {{custom.department}}, {{custom.pain_point}}, {{custom.referral_source}}
- The bare shorthand also works: {{department}}, {{pain_point}} (as long as it doesn't conflict with a built-in field name)
- Use with fallback values: {{custom.pain_point | default: 'scaling your outreach'}}
- Combine with built-in tags: 'Hi {{firstName}}, as head of {{custom.department}} at {{company}}...'
Popular Custom Field Ideas:
- Pain point — Pre-research their specific challenge.
- Mutual connection — 'We both know {{mutual_connection}}'.
- Recent event — 'Congrats on {{recent_event}}'.
- Competitor — 'I noticed {{company}} uses {{competitor}}'.
- Personalized line — A fully custom opening sentence per prospect.
- Product interest — Track which product/feature they care about.
- Source — Where the lead came from (event, referral, LinkedIn, etc.).
Segmentation with Custom Fields:
- Use custom fields to create targeted segments.
- Import different CSVs with different custom:segment values.
- Create separate campaigns per segment with messaging tailored to each.
Limitations:
- Field names: max 30 characters, alphanumeric + underscores only.
- Values: text only (no dates, numbers, or booleans as structured types).
- Custom fields are stored per prospect and visible in the prospect detail view.
Best Practices:
- Pre-research 10-20 prospects and add a custom 'personalized_line' field for maximum impact.
- Use consistent naming across imports (custom:source, not source/lead_source/origin).
- Keep custom field names short — they become merge tag names.
- Test your merge tags render correctly with the Preview/Test feature before launching.