What is Dynamic Content? And why is it important?

November 15, 2021 Stan

Dynamic content is an important part of email marketing in that it saves time, encourages a closer relationship with subscribers, and provides a closer look into how subscribers engage (or aren’t engaging) with emails. Below are a few areas of insight into why dynamic content is important aspect of an email:

It’s a time saver!

Once upon a time, when marketers wanted to send emails to their customers that included different specific types of content, the marketer needed to spend hours and hours and hours building out multiple static emails, each with its unique content and then set up multiple deployments just to get a unique email experience to their end users. Well, gone are the days of building out email after email because dynamic content is here to save (extra hours of) the day!

Dynamic content allows for the email creator to save time by requiring the build of only one email campaign, while utilizing specific regions in the email to display personalized content to their end users based on various data points.

Let’s say, for example, that a coffee company is having a sale on coffee beans and wants to alert all their nationwide caffeinated subscribers of their amazing sale. There are three unique sale banners that the company would like to display based on where the subscribers live in the U.S. Now, typically this could require three unique static emails, each with its own code, links and images, along with their own separate email dashboard settings.

However, in this example, only one email body is needed with sections dedicated to three separate banner images dynamically populated within, therefore saving significant time and effort when building out the email campaign. Now, instead of the need for three HTML documents with the unique banner in each, only one HTML document is required. Links, headers, footers, and static body content all reside in one HTML document, so only a small data-driven snippet of code is added to call in the dynamic sale banner where it should display in the email*.

*It is important to note that dynamic content functionalities vary between platforms. For example, while Eloqua and Responsys both have dynamic content capabilities that are similar in nature and execution, the set up for each varies slightly. It is best practice to conduct research in order to develop an understanding of how dynamic content functions in your specific email marketing automation platform.

It’s customizable for multiple audiences and encourages engagement

Although somewhat obvious, it’s necessary to state that dynamic content is important because it allows for a more customizable email. With dynamic content, different audience groups can be targeted in one email. It allows for a unique viewing experience for the subscriber based on predetermined data-driven content. A more customized and tailored email can encourage more frequent engagement from the subscriber.

Back to the coffee company example:

After doing some research, the coffee company’s marketing team found that customers living in Washington, California, and New York, typically purchase dark roast coffee beans, while customers in Florida, Minnesota, and Hawaii, typically enjoy a breakfast blend. Coffee Co. wants to customize their emails to display a sale banner for their dark roast coffee in their email to customers living in WA, CA, and NY, while additionally targeting the folks in FL, MN, and HI with a breakfast blend sale banner. All while all sending their subscribers in other parts of the U.S. the email with a general sale banner.

Customizing the email with a dynamically populated sale banner within the email encourages the customers in certain regions of the United States to engage with the email. The goal is to get Howard in Seattle to not only open the email, but click through on the sale link, and ultimately purchase a bag of dark roast coffee beans. (Mmmm… his favorite!) And Kirk in Minneapolis, to click through and stock up on a few bags of the breakfast blend because he needs to capitalize on this great sale for his daily morning cup! Afterall, this email was designed and customized to reflect the interests and location of the subscribers.

Not only does customizing an email with dynamic content garner more engagement with subscribers, it also creates a stronger relationship with them. If a customer continually receives emails that are geared towards their interests, the better the chances the subscriber will open and click through the email. It can keep them coming back for more… emails!

It can provide better insight into engagement data and metrics

Deploying dynamically driven email content not only allows for a more personalized experience for the subscriber but can also allow for more detailed data on how the subscriber is engaging with the dynamic content over time. Based on the customer’s engagement with the dynamic content can provide more insight into how to better target in the future. Depending on the email marketing platform used to distribute emails, reports generated will display the amount of unique click throughs in each dynamic content area, unique opens of the email, and click through ratios, along with other metrics**. Reporting on such data can provide insight into more fine-tuned data driven dynamic content in order to provide an exclusive and one-of-a-kind email experience for subscribers.

**Reporting example is based on various Eloqua reports. All reporting is not the same. It is best practice to research the reporting features of your specific email marketing platform.

In short, utilizing dynamic content in emails allows for customized targeted content, provides a more personalized experience, and encourages subscriber engagement. It saves time by requiring a smaller level of effort on email construction and allows for detailed data gathering and metrics reporting. If you are ready to dive into the dynamic content world, or need a little assistance in building your assets, Relationship One is always here to help.

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