Introduction to AMPscript for Email Marketing

If you have been using Salesforce Marketing Cloud and need help learning how to customize Emails using AMPscript, then this introductory video should help you get going. AMPscript is quite powerful but is quite easy to learn and some of the functions are similar to that in Excel – as you can see from the video, you can start building your own personalizations in just minutes.

As with most programming languages, you can refer to the online documentation as and when you need help on syntax, functions and sample code snippets. Below are two of the most useful resources you’ll need to get started when referring to AMPscript syntax and functions:

1. Salesforce Marketing Cloud – AMPscript documentation
2. AMPscript Guide – by Eliot Harper and Adam Briggs – the basic descriptions and code samples are free – but for advanced examples and use cases, you will need to subscribe

AMPscript Editors

1. Visual Studio Code with AMPscript plugin
2. Sublime Text with AMPscript Highlighter plugin

Email Template and Code Snippets for Hands-on

If you have a Marketing Cloud org and would like to try the scenario from the video, you may download the relevant files as per this Quip doc. You will be able to build a sample email as shown below and then customize it using AMPscript for an Abandoned Cart scenario for 6 customers.