SourceWhale Variables

This article talks through what each of SourceWhales variables do.

Tim Hogwood avatar
Written by Tim Hogwood
Updated over a week ago

To help you personalise the content in your messages and subject lines, SourceWhale has provided an extensive menu of 'variables'. These variables use the data of the contact you are reaching out to make it a less generic email or message.


Inserting a variable

The variable brackets are located in the toolbar at the bottom of the main body.

When the email is sent to the contact, the variables will be filled in, as shown below:


SourceWhale Variables

Here is a description of the variables that you can use to personalise the content in your campaign steps:

  • First Name/Last Name: These will automatically fill in the targeted individual's First/Last name in the email.

  • SenderFirstName: Senders' first name is automatically filled in, wherever the sender wishes to add their name.

  • Company: When targeting an individual at a specific company, this will automatically fill the individual's company's name in the email. It will also strip out common endings such as Ltd and Inc which if included can make emails sound odd. For example, if contacting someone at SourceWhale (whose profile said they worked for SourceWhale Ltd) through Linkedin, it would strip out the Ltd, making the email sound more natural.

  • Role/Job Title: This will automatically input the individual's specific role/job title in the email.

  • Salutation: This will provide the entire salutation for the contact (i.e., 'Dear Mr Hogwood'). There is no need to put 'Hi' or 'Hello' in front of this variable, as it provides it already. This variable works in English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Japanese, Latvian and Spanish.

  • GitHub Repo: Only works on Github and pulls out the name of that person's best GitHub repository based on; most starred, most forked, and with the least amount of bugs.

  • Location (City): This will automatically identify the city where they live, allowing you to target them with roles located within or near the city.

  • Location (State/County): SourceWhale's Location (State/County) variable will automatically identify the state or county where candidates live, allowing you to target them with roles located within the state/county.

  • Location (Country): This will automatically identify the country where they live, allowing you to target them with roles located within their country, thus providing a more personalised approach.

  • Email address: Email Address is replaced by the primary email address of the recipient.

  • Time of Day: Will be filled in with either of the following depending on what 'Time of Day' your email is being sent: 'Morning', 'Afternoon', or 'Evening'. If you want to, you will need to add 'Good' before the variable. Note: If you are not using the "prefer contact's timezone" option, the variable will adjust to the timezone you are located in. However, if you are using the "prefer contact's timezone" it will adjust to wherever the person you are contacting is.

  • Custom Variables (1,2,3,4): These will allow any SourceWhale customer to input any personalised variables from a spreadsheet into their outbound emails.

    Usually, the variables will be filled in when the contact is added to the campaign and the emails are scheduled to be sent out. There are some variables that will not be filled in the email until just before the email is actually sent out. This is to ensure maximum accuracy on the variables being filled in, as they are all dependant on certain times and days of the week. These variables are as follows:

  • Day of the week: When creating campaigns on SourceWhale you will have emails being sent out on differing weekdays. Therefore, SourceWhale's 'Day of the week' variable will automatically fill in the day of the week when the email is outbound.

  • Tomorrow/Monday: Tomorrow is replaced by "Tomorrow" unless the message is sent on a Friday/Saturday, in which case it is replaced by "Monday". This variable will not be filled out in the email.

  • Previous Step day: Previous step day refers to the day of the previous step in the sequence. It can take values such as: "Yesterday", "On Saturday", "last Wednesday", "a couple of weeks ago", "In January". This allows SourceWhale customers to save time by not having to look back through their campaigns to find the last email they sent to the person they are contacting.

  • Two working days: When getting an email ready to be sent in two working days' time, SourceWhale will automatically recognise that delay and input the correct days.

  • Sender Calendar Link: You can insert your calendar link in your profile and use this variable to easily insert your calendar link, e.g. Calendly, in your outreach.

  • Sender Phone Number Link: You can add your phone number in your profile and then use this variable to easily insert your phone number in your outreach.

    Note: the following variables are only available on the beta version. Please message support if you are interested in trialling the beta version of SourceWhale.

  • Recommendation Comment: If a candidate or client has LinkedIn Recommendations you can insert this variable to reference them, e.g. 'I enjoyed reading [name's] recommendation!'

  • Languages Comment: If a candidate or client's LinkedIn profile states they speak another language or languages you can insert this variable to reference them, e.g. 'You can speak [x number of] languages! Incredible, wish I could say the same.'

  • Experience Comment: You can insert this variable to reference the experience a person has listed, e.g. 'I see you've recently started at [company]!'

  • Past Experience Comment: You can insert this variable to reference their previous experience on their LinkedIn, e.g. 'They must miss you at [old company name]!'


  • Mutual Connections Comment: You can insert this variable if you have mutual connections with the candidate or client on LinkedIn, e.g. 'I see we've got a lot of mutual connections!'

  • University Comment: You can insert this variable to reference the university the candidate or client went to, e.g. 'I see you used to go to [university name]! I’ve heard lovely things about [the city] and I’d love to see [famous landmark in the city] someday.'


Unmapped Variables:

If you are running the SourceWhale extension on someone's profile, you may notice an error message that says that some of the variables have not been filled in. This is because the data is not available on that person's profile, and therefore SourceWhale hasn't been able to capture it. You must manually fill in the necessary data for the contact to map the variable.

If you get the same error when uploading a spreadsheet, check your campaign and make sure all the variables have been set correctly.


Languages

SourceWhale variables also work in the languages of German, French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Japanese, Latvian and Spanish.

Please write your content in the chosen language and then head to settings to change the language of the variables here:


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