Sorry to hear you're having trouble!

There are a few things to check.  First of all that the contact list you have contains first name / last name data for you to assign to the fields? 

Secondly, when you create the autoresponder - you are selecting the contact list you want to set up the autoresponder for; you then, on the first page of the setup for the autoresponder, that you have defined what data in your contact list should be used for the firstname / last name settings.  These are the sixth and seventh fields down, they're not required fields but you do need them if you want to use the custom fields.

Thirdly, when you make it on to the next page (where you actually write the autoresponder itself) - make sure that you use the format %%text%% as any extra % will stop it working.

If you're confident that either using the default or custom fields you have the relevant data properly assigned to fields in the list, that you've reminded the autoresponder what to use and that you've formatted the text correctly in the autoresponder itself, please let me know.

I am trying to personalize my autoresponder and email to contain my contacts own name, both in the subject and body text.

I have followed the guidelines but it wont work??

If I put in %%First Name%% I dont get the contacts first name I literally get
%%First Name%%%% in the email or autoresponder.

Any help would be appreciated as its driving me mad!

Many thanks,

Mark.