Ampscript is a server side scripting language used by Salesforce Marketing Cloud and can pick up where basic personalization strings leave off.

For instance if your database contains first names that are empty or are only a first initial, it can make for awkward personalization. Dear J, is not going to win many people over…

By using If/Then statements in Ampscript, you can control when and what personalization is displayed.

Example:

%% [ var @firstname, @length, @salutation

Set @firstname = YourFirstNameAttribute

Set @length = Length (@firstname)

IF Not Empty(@firstname) AND @length > 1 THEN

Set @salutation = CONCAT (“Dear “,CONCAT (@firstname,”,”))

ELSE

Set @salutation = “Dear Customer,”

ENDIF ] %%

The above script will set a salutation of “Dear Firstname” if a firstname exists and is longer then a single letter, but will put the generic “Dear customer” if it is empty or a single letter.