Setting up custom profile fields for your community

Custom profile fields let you collect structured information from your community members beyond their name and photo, like their role, location, or how they found you. You choose the questions, whether they're required, and who can see the answers. Every answer writes back to the subscriber's record as an Audience custom field, so the same data works in segments, automations, and merge tags everywhere else beehiiv custom fields already work.

Profile fields are mapped to existing custom fields you’ve created for your newsletter subscribers. You’ll need to have your custom fields set up prior to setting up your profile fields, and you’ll select one during the creation process. 

To get started with custom fields, read Using custom fields with your subscribers. 

Each field can be set to required or optional:

• Required fields are asked during onboarding, when someone first joins your community. Onboarding presents required fields five questions per screen.
• Optional fields appear on a member's profile, but members can skip them.

Follow the below instructions to create a custom profile field: 

1. From the left panel in your account, go to Community > Profile fields, then click on + Add field. 
   
   
2. A modal will pop up to create your profile field. First, use the dropdown to select one of your existing Custom fields to map to your new profile field. If you haven’t created a custom field yet, click on New custom field, or, if you need to make updates, click on Manage custom fields under the dropdown. 
3. Next, choose a Display name. This is what members will see when filling out their profile fields when joining your community. 
4. Then, use the dropdown to choose your Visibility. This decides who will see the field: 
   Visible to all members: the answer shows on the member's profile card for anyone in the community to see.
   Admins only: the answer stays in your dashboard and never appears on the member's public profile.
5. Finally, use the toggle to enable Require when joining to require new community members to fill out your field to join. 
6. Once you’ve made your selections, click on Save to create your new profile field. 
   
   

If you add a new profile field after members have already joined, existing members are asked the new question the next time they visit your community. You don't need to re-invite anyone or reset existing profiles.

Every profile field answer writes back to the subscriber's record as an Audience custom field. That means you can use community profile answers the same way you'd use any other custom field: in segments, in automations, and as merge tags in your posts.