Personalizing email Content with ClickDimensions

Background

I have been creating and crafting email templates using ClickDimensions for CRM Dynamics 365 lately. As you personalize emails more to try and get the best responses, every little bit of 'Attention to detail' helps. For example, in the one environment, I found that contacts first names had a mix of different formatting/casing e.g

BRUCE
Bruce
bruce

This to me, wouldn't be a great experience if I received an email that started of like this:

Dear BRUCE,
We hope you....

or

Dear bruce,
We hope you....

Even though most people know that emails are generated automatically, it should still look/feel as natural as possible and having a first name in all caps would show a lack of care to me or at least make it obvious that its just a bulk send and the sender couldnt be bothered with presentation!

Solution

ClickDimensions supports basic free marker functions. Using the capitalize function on the contact first name solves for the above problem.

Dear ${"${Recipient.contact.firstname[0]}"?capitalize},
We hope you....

The above results in formatting the first name into what we/you would expect when sending an email (or writing a letter!).
Following are some examples and their outcomes after applying the capitalize function:

BRUCE => Bruce

bruce => Bruce

BrUCe => Bruce

Happy days!