What is Dynamic Content?

What is Dynamic Content?

Dynamic content is a personalization feature that allows you to display text, images, and other user interface elements that will change based on a user’s predetermined targeting value.

With this feature, the interaction that a visitor has with your brand is defined by contextual factors such as cart value, location, weather, and more. For example, the visitor’s prior clickstreams—including their onsite search history and purchase history—might be a determining factor in which content they are served during their visit. In this way, different users with different histories (or demographics, geographical locations, etc.) would be shown content that reflects those differences.

However, what makes dynamic content particularly powerful is that it is responsive not just to differences between users, but also to a single user’s evolving context as they log more behavioral data in the moment. This gives you the ability to adapt an individual’s user experience within a single visit. Well-executed dynamic content is presented as though it were static, seamlessly blending into the user experience.

How Dynamic Content Works

Dynamic content works primarily through scripting and applications in conjunction with the site’s server. These applications are able to take users’ queries or requests and, along with the web server, generate HTML content that is customized for that particular visitor.

The goal is to provide a more personal, individualized experience based on multiple data sets, including demographics, geolocation, and previous interactions. Using audience segment data, marketers can build experiences that are tailored for different visitor attributes, i.e. “if this person is…”, “then they will receive…”

From a user perspective, this type of personalized content is provided as they navigate through the website, open an email, or see an ad.

The Benefits of Dynamic Content

Aside from improving the general customer experience, dynamic content can have a significant impact on the bottom line. By ensuring that content is as relevant as possible to the user, it encourages engagement and time spent on site—leading to improved chance of purchase, and increased likelihood that the visitor will return to the site.

Here are a few other benefits to consider:

  • Provide Relevant Offers, Discounts, & More — Dynamic content continually gives your customers new relevant offers, discounts, and products, while removing offers that they have already used or seen. It can also be used to deliver a unique homepage and other landing pages, or deployed in an email campaign to attract a customer who hasn’t made a purchase in a while.
  • Utilize Multiple Platforms — Dynamic content can be extended across multiple platforms (web, mobile apps, email), creating a consistently personalized experience at several different touchpoints.
  • Personalize Engagements — Since dynamic content goes both ways, you will also be able to tailor an interaction to individual leads. For as much as you are able to interact with the customer, dynamic content enables them to interact with you, too. A personalized engagement is a major benefit, as it can be tied into the user experience in several different ways.

Examples of Dynamic Content 

Dynamic content is best understood in action. From emails to basic form submissions, let’s take a look at a few examples of dynamic content to help illustrate the concept:


Dynamic Emails

Emails can be tailored to customers in more effective ways than a simple name swap. Dynamic content can be used to create customized newsletters based on specific demographics so that readers are only getting the content they’re interested in. Dynamic emails help connect you with your customers right in their inbox.

If you’re aiming for an email blast to target certain customers, you can also send out multiple versions to fit those needs automatically. Marketers are already able to create custom segments to swap out the basics—such as a name or signature—but dynamic content takes it one step further. With the right technology, marketing can automatically change content based on the time it the email is opened or the actions they took onsite. A personalized email landing in a customer’s inbox is more effective than one blanket email to the whole audience, or even segmented emails.

Customized Landing Pages

Customized landing pages create relevancy for the user and show that your brand knows and understands the customer base. Placing dynamic content on landing pages means that the interaction is personalized from the start of the visit.

The interaction flows seamlessly: though the degree of personalization will likely go unrecognized by the user, it can give marketers a way to influence the user’s next steps in their customer journey, which can result in boosted lead generation, conversions, and revenue.

Form Submissions

Optimizing form submissions to drive conversions is also another way to utilize dynamic content. Say a customer has previously searched a set date range. Using this information, brands that frequently utilize forms—such as hotels or airlines—would be able to pre-fill forms with those dates for that customer. It might also reorder the fields of a form to prioritize email capture or remove irrelevant fields. This saves the customer time and eases the process, stimulating the collection of customer data and increasing the likelihood of conversion.

Why You Should Use Dynamic Content

Ultimately, dynamic content drives improved results for the bottom line, but it may not happen overnight. Dynamic content is a personalization feature that requires you to have the right data and the right technology in place before it can be fully implemented. However, the time and resources spent getting started are well worth the effort, as it can be a powerful way to impress customers and drive business results.

When you’re incorporating content specifically coded to fit a visitor’s needs, you’re more likely to see conversions rise. This type of automated personalization brings your brand to the forefront of consumer’s minds and leaves an impression that lasts. All in all, tailoring messages to the consumer is a tried and true tactic for boosting your strategy and making strong connections with your customers.

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