What are the default merge tags in Mandrill?

Question

I've searched the Mandrill docs, KB and Google for a list of the merge tags that are always available, but can't seem to find just a simple list for the API option.

I created a template in MailChimp then sent it to Mandrill, but it appears that not all of the merge tags I was using are at my disposal.

From testing it doesn't look like any of the *|LIST:*|* tags work. I've tried *|LIST:PHONE|* and *|LIST:COMPANY|*, but I do know that there are some tags out there because *|CURRENT_YEAR|* works and the docs make reference to using the *|UNSUB:*|* tag.

Is there some hidden docs page I can't find or is there a Mandrill rep that could post them?

Answer 1

In general, none of the MailChimp tags will work because they specifically relate to a MailChimp list or integration, which is not accessible by Mandrill. In general, merge tag values should be provided in the API call or SMTP headers since Mandrill processes those on a per-message basis. As you discovered, there are some that may work, but it's generally best not to rely on that working, and instead provide values for things you want to merge in. Right now, the year will work, as will the DATE tag. Others to note:

*|EMAIL|* will pull in the recipient's email address unless you provide a different value for that merge tag in the API call or SMTP headers.

If you use *|FNAME|* or *|LNAME|* and don't provide recipient values for the one you're using, we'll attempt to parse the name parameter from the recipient list (the to array) to get the recipient's first or last name. That's fairly basic, though, so if you want to include them, it's best to actually define them.