Personalization only pays off when it is easy to add. If you have to remember the exact spelling of every attribute, look up the syntax for a filter, or copy a content block reference from another template, personalizing is slower than it should be — and typos ship.
The Personalization Picker fixes that. It sits inside your Liquid templates and inserts personalized content for you: a customer attribute, a value from a connected data source, a reusable content block, or a formatting function. Search for what you need, see exactly what will be inserted before you insert it, and click to add it at your cursor.
This guide will walk you through how to insert personalized content with the Personalization Picker, from opening it in your editor to looking up a live value from a Data Connection.
How to Insert Personalized Content with the Personalization Picker
Open the Personalization Picker
How you open the Picker depends on which editor you are working in.
| You are editing… | How to open it |
|---|---|
| A Liquid template in the Visual editor (email, web popup, content block, overlay messaging) | Click the Personalization button in the formatting toolbar |
| The HTML editor for content blocks and overlay messaging | Right-click in the editor and select Personalizations |
- Open your Liquid template or content block in the editor.
- Place your cursor where you want the personalized content to appear.
- In the Visual editor, click Personalization in the formatting toolbar. In the HTML editor, right-click and select Personalizations.
Insert a Personalization Tag
The Picker has two tabs — Personalization Tags and Content Blocks — with a search bar at the top. Search filters the tab you are on, so the same term returns different results depending on which tab is active.
The Personalization Tags tab holds customer and event data plus functions. Narrow the list with the category chips:
- Functions — values generated dynamically, such as the current date or time.
- General — template- and campaign-level values, such as PROMO, template name, and template ID.
- Customer Data — customer attributes, for example
{{ customer.FirstName }}. - Content Management — tags such as the open tracking pixel.
- Event data — parameters from the event that triggered the campaign. Triggered campaigns only.
Instructions:
- Select the Personalization Tags tab.
- Type into the search bar, or click a category chip to narrow the list.
- Read the row before you insert it. Each row shows the field name and, beneath it, the exact Liquid that will be inserted — for example
{{ customer.FirstName }}. - Click + on the row. The tag is inserted at your cursor and the Picker closes.
Insert a Content Block
Content blocks are reusable pieces of content built in Content Studio — a footer, a legal disclaimer, a promo module. The Content Blocks tab inserts a reference to the block rather than a copy of it, so the block stays managed in one place.
- Select the Content Blocks tab.
- Search by name, or scroll the list — more blocks load as you go.
- Click + to insert a reference to the block, for example
{{ content_block('footer-ov6obp3cz7') }}.
Because the template holds a reference and not a copy, updating the block in Content Studio updates every template that references it.
Look Up a Value from a Data Connection
Some values are not standard personalization tags — a live price, a jackpot figure, a loyalty tier held in a connected source. For those, use the Data Connection Lookup.
- Click Data Connection Lookup at the bottom of the Picker.
- You are taken to the Data Connection builder, where you build the lookup.
How the Personalization Picker Works
Everything the Picker inserts is plain Liquid. There is no proprietary wrapper and no hidden state — what you see in the row is what lands in your template.
- Insert, then edit: once inserted, you can edit the Liquid in the code, or copy it out to reuse elsewhere.
- Search is per-tab: the search bar filters whichever tab is active. Switching tabs changes the results for the same term.
- References, not copies: content blocks are inserted as references, so a change to the block propagates to every template using it.
- Nothing happens until you click +: browsing the Picker is non-destructive.
For the wider picture on Liquid personalization, see Introduction to Liquid in Optimove and the Liquid Reference Dictionary.