Thanks! I’ll put together a blog post tailored for SFMC beginners that explains the difference between using %%firstname%% and %%=AttributeValue("firstname")=%%, why they both exist, what AttributeValue really does under the hood, and how to use it across email and Cloud Pages. I’ll also walk through why it’s the more reliable method for personalization.

I’ll get that written up for you shortly.

%%FirstName%% vs AttributeValue(“FirstName”): Which Should You Use in SFMC?

If you’ve been using Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) for a while, you’ve probably come across the classic personalization string %%FirstName%% in your emails. It’s a quick and easy way to greet subscribers by name. You might have also seen something that looks a bit more complex, like %%=AttributeValue("FirstName")=%%, used for the same purpose. At first glance, these two approaches seem to do the exact same thing – so why does SFMC offer both? And which one should you be using? In this post, let’s break down the differences between using %%FirstName%% and using the AMPscript AttributeValue function for personalization. We’ll see why both exist, what the AttributeValue function actually does, how to use it in various scenarios (including emails and CloudPages), and why it’s considered a more robust method for personalizing content in SFMC.

Two Ways to Personalize the First Name? Why Both Exist

SFMC provides personalization strings like %%FirstName%% as a convenient, marketer-friendly way to insert subscriber attributes (like first name, last name, email address, etc.) into emails. These are often called merge fields or profile attribute strings. They’re simple: you just drop %%FirstName%% into your email content, and at send time SFMC will replace it with the subscriber’s first name from their profile. No coding required.

On the other hand, SFMC also supports AMPscript, which is a scripting language that allows much more advanced personalization and logic. %%=AttributeValue("FirstName")=%% is an example of an AMPscript function embedded inline in an email. At a glance, it outputs the same thing – the subscriber’s first name – so it’s fair to wonder, why go through the trouble of writing an AMPscript function when %%FirstName%% does the job?

The reason is that while both approaches can display a subscriber’s first name, they work a bit differently under the hood and in different contexts. Personalization strings like %%FirstName%% only pull from a specific source (the subscriber profile attributes, or in some cases, directly from a sendable data extension field if it matches). They’re straightforward but somewhat limited. The AttributeValue function, on the other hand, is part of AMPscript and is much more flexible and error-resistant. It can retrieve values from various sources and won’t break your email send if something is missing. In short, SFMC gives you both options because one is meant for quick basic personalization, and the other is meant for more dynamic and reliable scripting scenarios.

To a beginner, using %%FirstName%% everywhere might seem fine – until you run into a situation where it doesn’t work as expected (like a missing attribute causing send errors, or trying to use it outside of an email). That’s where understanding AttributeValue becomes important.

What is the AttributeValue Function in AMPscript?

AttributeValue is an AMPscript function designed to safely retrieve the value of an attribute (such as a field/column) in SFMC without causing errors if that attribute doesn’t exist. In plainer terms, AttributeValue("FirstName") asks SFMC: “Give me the FirstName value for this subscriber or contact, if it’s available.” If SFMC finds that value in the context of the send or page, it will return it. If it doesn’t find anything (say the field is missing or was not set up), instead of throwing an error, it will return a null/empty value. This “fail-safe” behavior is a big deal, and we’ll see why in a moment.

How do you use AttributeValue? In an email, you use it inside the special AMPscript delimiters. For example, to greet someone by first name using AttributeValue, you would write:

Hello %%=AttributeValue("FirstName")=%%,

Notice the syntax: it starts with %%= and ends with =%%. This tells SFMC to execute an AMPscript function. The word inside, AttributeValue, is the function name, and “FirstName” is the attribute we want. So this snippet will output something like Hello John, for a subscriber whose FirstName is John. If the FirstName attribute is not found, AttributeValue("FirstName") will just return nothing (essentially blank), so you might end up with Hello , (which we can handle gracefully, as we’ll discuss).

Under the hood, AttributeValue is quite powerful. It doesn’t just look at profile attributes; it will also check other data sources based on context, including sendable Data Extension fields, Journey Builder entry data, and more. Essentially, it is context-aware. If you’re sending your email using a Data Extension and that Data Extension has a column called FirstName, AttributeValue("FirstName") will pull from that. If you’re sending to a list (All Subscribers) where FirstName is a profile attribute, it will pull from the profile attribute. If the send context has no idea what “FirstName” is, AttributeValue will quietly return null instead of making a fuss.

In contrast, using the raw personalization string or direct field reference can be less forgiving. If you put %%FirstName%% in an email send where FirstName isn’t defined for that subscriber, SFMC might just insert an empty string (which could be fine), but if you try to use that in an AMPscript block like SET @name = FirstName and FirstName isn’t a known field, the email send can error out. You’d get a send error saying “unrecognized field or attribute” and your email might not go out at all because the system couldn’t resolve that reference. Oops!

So, the AttributeValue function is essentially a safe getter for subscriber attributes. Think of it as a polite way of asking for a value: “Give me this if you have it; if not, that’s okay.” This makes it a cornerstone of defensive scripting in SFMC.

Using AttributeValue in Emails: Examples and Best Practices

Let’s look at how you might use AttributeValue in a typical email, and why it’s useful beyond just printing a name.

Say we want to personalize an email with a friendly greeting. We want to say “Hi John,” for those who have a first name on file, or just “Hi there,” if we don’t know their name. If we only used %%FirstName%%, we could end up with “Hi ,” which isn’t great. We’d prefer to detect the missing name and substitute a word like “there” or “valued customer”.

With AMPscript and AttributeValue, this is easy to do. Here’s an example snippet in an email:

%%[ 
    SET @fname = AttributeValue("FirstName") 
    /* get the first name safely */
    IF EMPTY(@fname) THEN 
       SET @fname = "there" /* default to a generic greeting if no name */
    ENDIF 
]%%

<p>Hi %%=v(@fname)=%%, thanks for being a subscriber!</p>

Let’s break that down: We use a script block %%[ ... ]%% to do some logic. We set a variable @fname to the result of AttributeValue("FirstName"). If that came back empty (meaning the subscriber’s first name wasn’t available), we then set @fname to “there” as a fallback. After that, we close the script block and output the greeting using %%=v(@fname)=%% (this simply prints the value of the variable). The result for a subscriber named John is <p>Hi John, thanks for being a subscriber!</p>. For a subscriber with no first name on record, it would be <p>Hi there, thanks for being a subscriber!</p>.

This small example shows a big advantage of using AttributeValue: control and flexibility. We safely retrieved the name without risking an error, and we added logic to handle the “no name” case – all within our email content. If we had tried to do something similar using just %%FirstName%% without AMPscript, we’d be stuck; the platform doesn’t allow conditional logic directly in the content with raw personalization strings. You would have to rely on default profile values or dynamic content rules, which are separate features and less straightforward than a simple script.

Once you get hold of the above, you can write the same as obove, using more compact notation (benefiting from Inline-IF (IIF) function):

<p>Hi %%=IIF(EMPTY(AttributeValue("FirstName")),'there',AttributeValue("FirstName"))=%%, thanks for being a subscriber!</p>

Another scenario is when your send data might have different field names or you’re not sure if a field exists. Imagine you have a Data Extension for event registrations, and it uses the field “First_Name” (with an underscore) instead of “FirstName”. If you tried to use %%FirstName%% in an email sent to that Data Extension, it might not populate because the field name doesn’t match exactly. However, you could use %%=AttributeValue("First_Name")=%% to retrieve that value. In fact, AttributeValue would also let you try “FirstName” and simply return blank if it wasn’t there – allowing you to then try something else or default it. This flexibility is why a lot of SFMC practitioners prefer AttributeValue in their emails; it makes the code more portable and resilient to changes in data structure.

To summarize this in a quick comparison:

Method	Behavior in Email
Personalization String (%%FirstName%%)	Directly merges the subscriber’s first name from their profile or send data. Simple and works if the attribute exists. However, if the field is missing in the send context (not defined in the data extension or profile), it could lead to a send error or simply remain blank with no easy way to handle logic around it.
AMPscript AttributeValue (AttributeValue(“FirstName”))	Retrieves the first name safely. If the attribute exists, you get the value; if not, it returns null/empty (instead of causing an error). This allows you to handle the “missing data” case with an IF EMPTY check or provide a fallback. It’s slightly more verbose to write, but it makes your email script robust against missing fields or different data sources.

As you can see, both will insert the name when it’s available, but AttributeValue gives you a safety net when it’s not. In email campaigns, that safety net can mean the difference between a successful send and a halted send due to errors.

Using AttributeValue in CloudPages and Landing Pages

Another place SFMC beginners often overlook personalization is on CloudPages (SFMC landing pages). If you’re building a landing page in SFMC and you want to greet the visitor by name, you might be tempted to use %%FirstName%% there as well. However, unlike in emails, a CloudPage doesn’t inherently “know” who the viewer is just from that code. There’s no active subscription send context unless the page was reached from an email with the subscriber info passed along. If you simply put %%FirstName%% on a CloudPage, it will likely stay blank (or show the string literally, depending on the setup) because the page isn’t connected to a specific subscriber by default.

This is where AttributeValue on CloudPages comes in handy, when you have a way to identify the subscriber or context. For example, if you include a link in an email that directs to a CloudPage (using the CloudPagesURL function), SFMC can pass subscriber identifiers behind the scenes. On that CloudPage, you could then use AttributeValue(“FirstName”) to fetch the first name of the subscriber who clicked through. It would work similarly to how it works in email, pulling from the subscriber’s profile data or the send data from the email click.

Here’s an example of a CloudPage scenario: imagine you have a preference center page that subscribers land on from a link in an email. You want the page to say “Hello, [Name]” at the top when they arrive. In your CloudPage content, you could include:

<h1>Hello, %%=AttributeValue("FirstName")=%%!</h1>

When a subscriber named Jane clicks through the email to this page, she’ll see “Hello, Jane!” because SFMC knows it’s Jane’s profile in context (thanks to the tracking parameters in the CloudPages URL). If someone somehow hits that page without coming from an email (no subscriber context), AttributeValue("FirstName") will just return empty, and the heading would just say “Hello, !” (which might look odd – so you’d likely want to handle that case with a default, similar to the email example earlier).

For more advanced CloudPage use, you might collect an email address or subscriber key via a form or query string and then do a lookup to a Data Extension to get personalization data. In that case, you might not directly use AttributeValue to get the first name (you might use Lookup functions instead to retrieve data). However, AttributeValue can still be useful on CloudPages when working with any available subscriber context or for pulling data passed in via MobilePush or SMS landing pages. The key point is: CloudPages require a bit of scripting for personalization, and you can’t rely on the raw %%FieldName%% merge strings there. AMPscript functions like AttributeValue are your friend for bringing personalization to landing pages.

Why AttributeValue is More Robust for Personalization

To recap and directly answer the burning question – why is using AttributeValue("firstname") considered more robust than simply using %%firstname%%?

1. Prevents Send Errors: The most important reason is that AttributeValue prevents those nasty send-time errors that can occur if a field is missing. If you use a personalization string for a field that isn’t defined in your send, the send can fail. For example, if you accidentally use %%FirstName%% but your Data Extension uses a different field name or doesn’t include first name at all, SFMC might throw an error like “Unable to generate preview” or halt the send. AttributeValue("FirstName") will never do that – it will return an empty result instead, allowing your email to send (and then you can handle the empty case within your content if you want). This makes your emails much more reliable, especially in complex campaigns or when data isn’t perfect.
2. Flexibility Across Data Sources: AttributeValue works with profile attributes, sendable DE fields, and even journey data without you having to change the syntax. If today you send your email using All Subscribers with profile attributes, but tomorrow you switch to a Data Extension with potentially different field mappings, your AttributeValue("FirstName") code can continue to work (as long as there is some field to map to first name, or at worst it just comes back blank rather than erroring). Personalization strings are more tightly tied to profile attributes or exact field names. In short, AttributeValue is adaptable to different contexts, which is great for re-using email templates in multiple campaigns.
3. Allows Conditional Logic and Defaults: As we demonstrated, once you pull a value with AttributeValue into a variable, you can easily apply conditional logic (IF/ELSE) and set default values. This level of control means you can ensure the subscriber always sees something appropriate. If the name is missing, you might show a generic greeting, or if some data is out-of-range, you can substitute a placeholder. This personalized quality control is not possible with a plain %%FirstName%% string alone. It’s a more programmatic approach that might take an extra minute to code, but it pays off in a better subscriber experience (no awkward blanks) and fewer surprises.
4. Consistency with AMPscript Usage: Many SFMC users eventually find themselves using more AMPscript to handle personalization, data lookups, and dynamic content. Using AttributeValue is consistent with that approach. It behaves like other AMPscript functions and plays nicely if you’re already writing script. For example, you might use ProperCase(AttributeValue("FirstName")) to capitalize the first name nicely, or use the value in a further function. Sticking with one method (AMPscript) rather than mixing AMPscript and raw personalization strings can make your email code easier to read and maintain. It’s not that you can’t mix them, but seasoned SFMC developers often prefer the clarity of explicitly grabbing attributes via functions.
5. Use Beyond Emails: As noted, AttributeValue works in places where %%FirstName%% might not. If you plan to use some content in both emails and landing pages, or perhaps in SMS or push messages, using the function gives you a unified way to retrieve data. Personalization strings have different syntaxes in email vs. mobile, etc., but AttributeValue (and the related functions) are available in AMPscript across the board. It’s one of those “once you learn it, you can use it everywhere” tools.

In conclusion, while %%FirstName%% is perfectly fine for quick and simple personalization (and indeed SFMC provides it as a convenience), %%=AttributeValue("FirstName")=%% is the savvy marketer’s choice when you want your personalization to be bulletproof. It may look a tad more complex at first, but it saves you from potential headaches like broken sends or unintended blank content. For SFMC beginners, it’s worth getting comfortable with AttributeValue early on – you’ll gain confidence that your emails and pages will gracefully handle missing data and you’ll be set up for success as your campaigns get more sophisticated.

TL;DR: You can use both %%FirstName%% and AttributeValue("FirstName") to personalize by first name in SFMC, but AttributeValue is the more robust method. It gives you flexibility, prevents errors, and lets you control the output. So next time you’re about to drop in a %%FirstName%%, consider writing a quick AMPscript snippet with AttributeValue instead. Your future self (and your subscribers) might thank you for the extra effort in making your personalization foolproof and friendly!