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Fix << Test First Name >> in Mailchimp Email Campaigns

Time needed: 3 minutes.

If you create an email campaign in Mailchimp and send a test email to yourself you may see << Test First Name >> where the first name should appear. This issue is to be expected as there is no first name available for a test email.
Below is a means to check that your merge tags are working as expected even although you may continue to see << Test First Name >> when using the first name merge tag in a Mailchimp email campaign and sending yourself a test email.

  1. Design your email campaign

    Create your email campaign in Mailchimp as you usually would. Continue to design your email campaign until such time as you’re ready to test your campaign.Design email screen in Mailchimp

  2. Enter “Preview Mode”

    Click “Preview and Test” then “Enter preview mode”.

  3. Test that merge tags are working as expected

    Click the slider next to “Enable live merge tag info”. On the right side of the screen you should now see your merge tags working.

Please note that merge tags won’t work when designing a Mailchimp template as there is no associated Audience.

Found this useful? Please share:

Related

  • How to Automatically Insert a First Name in Mailchimp
  • How to Merge Mailchimp Audiences That Have Tags and Groups
  • How to use the Mailchimp Preferences Center

Filed Under: Marketing

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Comments

  1. Alfred Smith says

    April 1, 2020 at 7:38 pm

    I am so embarrassed. I proudly used merge tages for the very first time. (Am I not too clever?) And when the LIVE messages went out every single message started “Dear <> <>” I have checked the audience, and FNAME as well as LNAME are defined. What did I do wrong?

    Please help. I can’t find any help anywhere. Thanks in advance.

    Reply
    • Gary says

      April 2, 2020 at 12:36 pm

      Hi Alfred,
      Are you using a custom coded/HTML template?

      Reply
  2. Alfred Smith says

    April 2, 2020 at 2:35 pm

    Hi Gary, Thanks for the reply.

    No, I used the “1 Column” Template, and have replicated month by month ever since.

    Be blessed

    Alfred

    Reply
    • Gary says

      April 5, 2020 at 10:51 am

      Alfred,
      For your next campaign delete the text content block where you have been adding the merge tag. Then add a new text content block and add the first name merge tag using the button in the text block. Hope it helps 🙂

      Reply
  3. Alex says

    July 13, 2020 at 7:43 pm

    Thank you for this

    Reply
    • Gary says

      July 13, 2020 at 7:47 pm

      Sure Alex

      Reply
  4. Jimmy says

    August 8, 2020 at 12:15 pm

    Hey Gary, I went live with my first Mailchimp and decided to test it. It was flagged as a promotion so it never made it to my main inbox. I noticed that the preview text still said “Hey <>” after the subject, which may be causing problems. Think I’ll just delete the Preview Text because the email starts with Hey (First Name Merge Tag) as it is. Any advice on this issue?

    Reply
    • Gary says

      August 8, 2020 at 2:45 pm

      Hi Jimmy, go for it. Sometimes it takes a bit of testing to get it all going well.

      Reply
  5. Pauline says

    September 22, 2020 at 10:16 am

    Are you saying that even when you send the test email to an address in your Audience that has First Name and Last Name populated, and the merge tags set correctly (in fact they work fine on the Live Merge), the FNAME merge tag still won’t show the first name? Because I’ve been having this problem… it just shows the default (which for me is “Friend”).

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Gary says

      September 22, 2020 at 11:18 am

      Yes that’s correct Pauline.

      Reply
  6. Jonny Pardoe says

    November 6, 2020 at 12:20 am

    None of the above are working for me but would appreciate your helps Gary. When sending a test e-mail to myself it comes up as
    In preview mode it goes blank so no name or and none of my contacts names are shown.
    I’ve tried to create a new box of text too.
    Any other suggestions?
    Many thanks,
    Jonny

    Reply
    • Gary says

      November 6, 2020 at 8:21 am

      Hi Johnny, the best way to see if it’s working is to send yourself the campaign. In a test email Mailchimp doesn’t show the first name because it’s a test. Remember to set a default value for first names where you don’t have the first name for a contact:

      Reply
  7. Molli says

    March 26, 2021 at 4:53 am

    Hi, I am working for a non-profit and they have the free plan for. Mailchimp. I created my first email/newsletter but this message is showing, “To send your email, remove or replace 1 placeholder image”. I can see that there should be a Resolve button to find this problem but in my project it still says Edit. I can’t find the mistake so I can’t send the email. Do you have any suggestions on how to solve this? Thanks.

    Reply
    • Gary says

      March 26, 2021 at 9:08 am

      Hi Molli, when editing the content of your email look for any image blocks where you haven’t added an image. Either delete the image block or add an image to the block.

      Reply
  8. byglamjem says

    November 18, 2021 at 9:10 pm

    How about if you are using a code/html how to insert merge tags?

    Reply
    • Gary says

      November 19, 2021 at 7:34 am

      Insert the merge tag into the HTML e.g.

      Unsubscribe *|EMAIL|* from these emails.

      Reply
  9. Shamilka says

    March 15, 2022 at 4:26 pm

    Hi..How to edit primary account contact informations? Please help..
    When I edit informations & click save button there is a error (“there was an issue validating that address”)

    Reply

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