What are variables?
Variables are placeholders you can use in email, LinkedIn, SMS, and WhatsApp templates to automatically pull data from
your contacts and team. They help you personalize messages at scale, without having to edit each one manually.
For example, instead of typing each recipient's name, you can use variables like {{FirstName}} or {{Company}}, and Reply
will fill in the right value for every contact.
Reply supports several types of variables, depending on what kind of personalization you need:
- Basic contact variables – insert contact details such as name, company, or job title;
- Team variables – insert team-level information (like sender details);
- Custom variables – use your own custom fields;
- Advanced variables – use conditions, logic, and dynamic values.
Why use variables?
Using variables in your templates helps you:
- Save time by avoiding manual edits
- Stay flexible when working with large sequences
- Add a personal touch to every message
Personalized messages feel more relevant and thoughtful, which can improve engagement and replies.
💡 Tip: If some contacts are missing data, you can use substitutions or conditional logic to show alternative text. For
example, you can add 'there' as the first name for contacts who don't have one and use the {{FirstName}} variable in
your sequence, so that Reply will display 'Hi there' in a greeting.
How to insert variables in a template?
To add a variable to a message:
1. Create a new sequence or open an existing one.
2. Open or add the step you want to edit (for example, an email, LinkedIn message, SMS, or WhatsApp).
3. Click the Variables icon in the top-left corner of the editor.
4. In the variables window, choose the type of variable you want to use: contact, team, or advanced.
5. Select the variable you want to insert.
6. Save!
Variables pull data from the contact card on the People page. If there are no contacts in the sequence yet, Reply uses
the first contact from the People page (alphabetically) to populate the preview.
Preview and test your variables
To check how your email or message looks with variables applied, you can:
1. Preview your message
- For emails, check the preview on the right side of the template editor.
- For LinkedIn, SMS, and WhatsApp templates, click the eye icon (Show preview) in the bottom-right corner.
2. Send a test email
- Scroll down in the preview and click Send test email
This helps you make sure variables are filled in correctly before launching the sequence.