Creating a Personalized Email Experience with Dynamic Content What is Dynamic Content and Why Use it? Dynamic content uses the demographic, preference, transactional, and behavioral data that you hold on your subscribers to display personalized and relevant pieces of content to them, and it s one of the best ways to enhance the relevance of an otherwise ordinary email. Dynamic content uses your data and a set of rules and logic to determine which piece of content a particular subscriber will see. This logic could be fairly simple or extremely complex.
Examples of where and when to use dynamic content: Welcome Messages Insert a welcome message at the top of your emails for new subscribers who joined your list since the last email was sent. This is also a good place to remind subscribers to update their preferences, like you on your social media channels, or provide a small discount or incentive. Relevant Product Information Use subscribers product preferences to populate email content so they ll only see products which are relevant to them. This is super effective and actually not that hard to do. Best Customer Rewards Use transactional data to create some really effective pieces of dynamic content. For example, combine total amount spent, number of items purchased, and last transaction date to target subscribers that deserve a special discount.
Content from Subscriber s Birth Year Dynamically insert information about your business, product line, or service from the year of a subscriber s birth. While this takes quite a bit of planning and content preparation, it s the pinnacle of super engaging and relevant content. In-stock Products Show subscribers new products in the brands they have selected in a preference center, and take the subscriber s size and stock levels into account. Cart Abandonment Insert personalized pictures, descriptions, and links back to subscribers shopping carts. Personalized cart abandonment emails perform significantly better than more generic versions; some studies show a 25% increase in transactions. Real-time Product Recommendations Dynamically insert content based on your subscribers recent website browsing behavior if you have access to an advanced analytics system.
Dynamic Content = Huge Potential Why go to all of the effort to personalize the content of your emails? The fact is that your subscribers want more personalized content, and marketers who use it see a higher return on their email marketing investment. Research and case studies indicate that you significantly increase your opens, clicks, conversions, and revenue by using personalization: 6X higher transaction rates 10% increase in conversion rates 10X increase in revenue per email 29% higher unique open rates Getting Started with Dynamic Content Review your data. Make sure you have the necessary data and that it s being uploaded into your email software on a regular basis. It s vital to have as much clean data within your email software as possible, so integrate with your CRM, ecommerce, preference centers, and analytics platforms. The more data you have, the more opportunities for personalizing your content. Determine who will see your dynamic content. This will really depend on what type of business you re in, but it could be men vs. women, customers vs. non-customers, local vs. international subscribers, and so on. Your ideas for what types of dynamic content you use should come from your data; you obviously can t personalize content based on gender if you don t know the gender of your subscribers. Plan content and gather assets. Once you ve determined what data you have access to and what type of personalization you want to do, you ll need to plan and create your content. Take stock of your content, and get all of your images, text, titles, calls-to-action, and URLs in one place so you know what you ll be dealing with. Wireframe and design your template. Wireframes are really helpful for mapping out the structure of static emails, but they become absolutely essential when it comes to dynamic emails. The idea here is to very clearly identify which sections of your emails will be static and which sections will be dynamic. Code and add dynamic content to your email. Dynamic content usually works by adding some kind of logical statement around your content which tells your email software who should see what. The way that you add this statement to your content will vary depending on the software you use. Most ESPs incorporate a dynamic content logic builder into their software which allows you to add content through a WYSIWYG editor; if you have to add your dynamic tags and content directly to your HTMLs, keep your content variations to a minimum.
Test, test, test, and test again. Incorporating dynamic content into your email campaigns can be a challenge. But by following some fairly straightforward testing methodologies, you should be able to avoid any issues: Get each permutation of your content approved separately Go through your data and ensure it s clean Test the most common content variants ALWAYS have default content Five Key Takeaways 1. Personalization is within the grasp of most email marketers. 2. Relevant dynamic content does not have to be overly complicated. 3. Good quality data is a must-have for email personalization. 4. Personalization ideas will come from your data. 5. Your subscribers want personalized emails! Have Questions or Need Help? This brief provides highlights from the Lyris Webcast, Creating a Personalized Email Experience with Dynamic Content. Learn more by downloading the recorded on-demand Webcast. Download Webcast Contact Lyris at 888.465.9749 to speak to a digital messaging expert. Email us at sales@lyris.com About Lyris, Inc. Lyris is a global provider of innovative email and digital marketing solutions that help companies reach customers at scale and create personalized value at every touch point. Lyris products and services empower marketers to design, automate, and optimize experiences that facilitate superior engagement, increase conversions, and deliver measurable business value. The Lyris solutions portfolio is uniquely comprised of award- winning messaging automation software, digital marketing strategy and deliverability services, and a componentized and flexible integration framework that revolutionizes the way marketers can extend digital messaging across the enterprise. More than 5,000 companies worldwide partner with Lyris to manage connected customer communications. Learn more at www.lyris.com Copyright 2014 Lyris, Inc. All rights reserved. lyris.com