The Glory of the Custom Field

The most underused tool in your CRM — and why that needs to change.

Can we talk about custom fields for a minute?

I spend a lot of time inside people's CRMs and email platforms, and what I see, over and over again, is this: hours spent on tags, automations, funnels, sequences, and custom fields sitting there, almost completely ignored, doing precisely nothing.

It's like having a brilliant, organised filing system and just... using the floor instead.

Custom fields are one of the most powerful tools in any halfway decent CRM. They're also one of the most consistently overlooked. And I think it's because they're not flashy. They don't trigger anything. They don't send emails or move people through pipelines. They just sit there, holding information.

But that's exactly why they matter. Let me explain.

So What Actually Is a Custom Field?

A custom field is simply a piece of information that lives permanently on a contact record.

Not an action.

Not a trigger.

Just a fact.

Their industry. The package they're on. How they found you. Their business name. Whether they're a current client or a past one. The date they first worked with you.

It's structured, it's searchable, and it stays put. Unlike a tag, it doesn't need to do anything — it just needs to be there, accurately, so the right information is always in the right place whenever you (or your automation) needs it.

That's it. That's the whole concept. Simple, and almost universally underused.

The Tag vs Custom Field Problem

Here's where it gets a bit ranty. Because so many people are using tags to store information that should live in a custom field.

#packagegold. #joinedviainstagram. #basedinmanchester. #b2bclient. #shementionedrebranding.

These aren't actions. They're facts. And facts belong in fields.

When you store facts as tags, a few things happen. Your tag list balloons (see my previous blog post on this). Your automations get cluttered with tags that aren't actually triggering anything. And when you want to find everyone on your gold package, or everyone who came via Instagram, you're relying on the hope that you remembered to tag them correctly every single time  (which, let's be honest, you didn't). 

Custom fields fix this. Package: Gold. Lead source: Instagram. Location: Manchester. Clean, consistent, searchable. There when you need it, not cluttering up your automation logics.

What Custom Fields Actually Unlock

Here's the wonderful bit.

When your data lives in proper fields, suddenly you can do things you couldn't do before.

Personalisation beyond first name. Imagine an automated email that references a contact's business name, their industry, or the specific package they're on. Not just "Hi Louise" — but something that actually feels relevant to them. That's only possible if that information is stored somewhere structured. A tag can't do that. A custom field can.

Smart lists that actually make sense. Instead of hoping your tags are consistent, you can filter your contacts by real, structured data. Everyone in a specific industry. Everyone on a retainer. Everyone who's been a client for over a year. Proper segmentation, built on proper data.

Reporting that tells you something useful. Where are your leads actually coming from? Which package do most of your clients end up on? How long do people typically sit in your pipeline before booking? If that information lives in custom fields, you can answer these questions in about thirty seconds. If it lives in tags  (or nowhere),  you can't.

A CRM that feels alive. There's a difference between a contact list and an actual CRM. Custom fields are a big part of what makes the difference. When you open a contact record and you can see immediately who they are, where they came from, what they're on, and how long they've been in your world, that's a system working properly.

What Should You Create a Custom Field For?

Simple rule: if it's a permanent fact about a contact, it probably wants to be a custom field.

Things that almost always belong in fields: how they found you, their industry or niche, their business name, what service or package they're on, their start date with you, their preferred contact method, whether they're B2B or B2C, their location if that's relevant to your business.

Things that do NOT belong in custom fields: actions you want to trigger, temporary states, anything that changes frequently based on behaviour. That's what tags are for.

If you're not sure which one you need, come back to the question: is this a fact, or is this an action? Facts live in fields. Actions live in tags.

A Word on Dropdowns — and Why They Matter

Creating a custom field is only half the job. The other half is making sure the data that goes into it is actually consistent.

And this is where dropdowns earn their place.

If you create a "Lead source" field and leave it as a free-text box, here's what happens: it says "Instagram" on one contact, "IG" on another, "instagram stories" on a third, and "can't remember" on a fourth. That field is now almost useless for filtering or reporting, because your data is all over the place.

Dropdowns fix this. You set the options — Instagram, LinkedIn, Referral, Website, In person, Other — and that's what goes in the field. Every time. No freestyling.

For any field where the answer should come from a defined list, use a dropdown. Lead source, package type, industry, client status,  all of these should have set options rather than a blank box waiting to be filled in seventeen different ways.

It takes about thirty extra seconds to set up. It saves you a lot of pain later.

Rule of Thumb

If it's a fact about a person — it's a field. If it's an action you want to take — it's a tag. If it's context for a human — it's a note. Everything has a home. Use it.

Ready to Sort Your CRM Out Properly?

If your contact records are full of tags doing jobs that fields should be doing — or if you've got fields that exist but nobody's filling them in consistently, that's exactly the kind of thing I sort out as part of a Done For You build.

A properly structured CRM, with the right fields, the right dropdowns, and the right data flowing into them, makes everything else work better. The automations, the segmentation, the reporting, the personalisation. It's the foundation everything else sits on.