The dynamic email content is email content that varies across subscribers according to a variable. It’s simpler than it sounds.
Essentially, you craft one email template for a mass email campaign but part of it looks different depending on the recipients. Usually, it’s about a piece of text, visuals or a call to action — parts you can customize.
To make dynamic email content possible you need a lot of data about the users of your product because with data, you can segment your contact list. Only when you’ve got this, you can plan mass email marketing campaigns that include dynamic content.
For example, if you can segment your contact list by location, this can be a great starting place. Say, your subscribers in New York and Seattle will receive different versions of the same email.
Dynamic email content is a part of email personalization because it places customers at the heart of everything. Marketers use dynamic email content to make their campaigns tailored to subscribers’ needs. So, here’s how it may influence your email marketing campaign:
Stats show that 72% of customers only engage with marketing messages if those match their interests and needs. No wonder — you can see this trend on social media platforms: you never know what you’ll see next on Instagram but most likely it’s something that interests you. Ecommerce is no different as the customers now expect content to be in sync with their wants.
That’s pretty easy: more relevant content = bigger chance of a click and a purchase. If you’re a cat owner and a pet shop sends you emails with special offers on cat products, you’re more likely to buy than if they sent you stuff for parrots.
This is big for email marketers. No more need to create multiple campaigns to suit all segments of your audience. Now you can craft one email, set a variable and roll with it.
Typically, dynamic email content is about one variable: a piece of text, a visual or a call to action. Let’s look at what you can do with these.
Imagine you want to give two of your co-workers a tangerine to make them smile. For some, it’ll be enough to put a tangerine on the desk and they’ll understand; for others, you’ll have to hand it over and explain what it’s for. Same offer — different approach.
That’s the analogy for when you tweak your text with dynamic email content — you change it depending on the recipient. Play with sentences or entire paragraphs to create a more targeted and personalized email for each subscriber. And don’t forget, you can also play with the subject line.
Different visuals for the same product are a bit like billboard advertising across the city. You put a billboard here, a billboard there. Each sells the same thing but has a different image.
With emails, you can add 100% the same text but include different images and color schemes. If you think this makes the most sense and will drive conversions, go for it!
Toying with a CTA seems like the minimum amount you can do with dynamic content but it may be worth it. Play with the wording, colors or even email fonts on your call to action to see what results it brings.
Let’s wrap up what you need to get a campaign with dynamic email content going.
First you need to know your subscribers to plan any strategy on segmentation. You’ll have to collect this info when building your email contact list. No secret sauce here — here are some common starting points to help you pick out the segments in your audience:
But don’t just get stuck with it. Get to know your customers more if you can. Know your product well, too, and your customers’ lifecycle. The more you know, the more you can customize dynamic content and make it personalized.
After you’ve collected the right data, you have to decide on the dynamic part of your email. What is it that you want different subscribers to see?
Don’t try to change all the blocks — it’ll just start to look like a totally different email campaign. Only pick the blocks you need. Resist the urge to make the most of email templates and use every customization tool available.
Now you have to pick segments among your subscribers to decide who gets what version of an email. Segmentation helps create more personalized messages, it is basically sending the right emails to the right people.
You can segment by age, gender, location, behavior and pretty much anything else we’ve listed above (even the Zodiac signs if your subscribers believe in astrology — or just for fun).
Segmentation long precedes dynamic content and begins at the stage of gathering data. Use website registration forms, analytical tools (Google Analytics, for example), surveys or past purchase history to know more about your subscribers and spot segments.
In Selzy, you can use merge tags as variables to segment your audience. Merge tags are unique pieces of information that correspond to user data stored in Selzy. When you send a campaign, our ESP replaces the tag with the corresponding bit of data. It can be your subscribers’ names, contact information, links, dates.
You can also use system tags or create customized ones — meaning you can pick any variable you want for your email marketing campaigns.
On a more advanced AMP level that requires help by a developer, dynamic content adapts to a subscriber’s behavior. Subscribers receive emails with dynamic blocks that reflect the previous interactions with the product. For example, if you buy sunglasses online, the confirmation email may contain relevant related products.
Craft an email and use it as a template for dynamic content. Finally, set up a campaign and measure its success.
As shown above, demographics are one of the most common ways to personalize. See how Adidas sorted by gender in their email marketing campaign. Rather than create multiple templates, they crafted one email and made the visuals change depending on who gets the email.
Location is also relatively easy to find out because people buy online a lot and include their delivery address. Here’s Puma’s policy on dynamic email content after the pandemic: they attached a map with their nearest stores in a subscriber’s city. As everyone was walking out of the lockdown, Puma sent a reminder about where they can be found in the streets.
Past activity and preferences are also good options for dynamic content. The best thing here is that automation does all the job for you. Again, this is only possible if you gather user data.
Streaming services like Netflix or Spotify build their email policy around this factor. By knowing what you’ve already watched or listened to, they can make recommendations for what to try next.
Here’s perhaps the most curious example of dynamic email content but one that makes a lot of sense — segmentation by device.
Topshop sends exactly the same email but for one small thing — the link to an app store as a call to action.
So far, we’ve listed the virtues of dynamic email content and how to get the most out of it. And yet, not every company uses it in their marketing campaigns. You may be perfectly fine without it and here’s why.
To see dynamic content implemented, you need a lot of data and it’s not always possible to have that. Data on users is often irregular with lots of crucial information missing. If this is your case, perhaps you’ll want to play it safe and try dynamic email content later, when you have the data.
Since an email with dynamic content is one email, your ESP sees it as one campaign. As a consequence, you can’t track how different segments of your subscribers interact with their versions of the email. You may see improved conversions but still not know which email version brought that about.
Dynamic content is merely a tool in the email marketing world. Using it won’t automatically boost your engagement rates and conversions or make the customer experience better.
You have to work hard on all aspects of your email marketing strategy and spend more time on it (especially at first) to give your subscribers what they need. Lots of brands don’t use dynamic content but still manage to do fantastic email marketing.
Dynamic email content is the type of email content that changes across subscribers. It’s similar to personalized messages, only you don’t need to create multiple campaigns — you need one email and certain variables in it.
Subscriber data is a must for dynamic content. Without the knowledge about the users of your products, there’s nothing to customize.
Dynamic email content helps brands save time while the recipients receive targeted content and are encouraged to interact with the product for longer.
However, dynamic email content is an enterprise that won’t suit all. It has drawbacks and not every company needs it. If you can drive conversions and close sales through email marketing without dynamic content, so be it. After all, dynamic email content is just a tool.
