Nothing’s worse than feeling uncared for. With dynamic content, you can show customers that your brand wants to make their experience as smooth as possible.
According to Epsilon Marketing, showing the same content to everyone may cause you to lose 80% of your potential buyers. What really is dynamic content, and how can it help you avoid losing customers?
What is dynamic content?
Dynamic content means changing the content on a webpage, ad, or email based on a viewer’s behavior, preferences, and interests.
Here’s the definition of the term in our Marketing Term Glossary.
Software automatically generates dynamic content when a viewer sees a webpage, an ad, or when your company is sending them an email. This gives consumers a far more satisfying experience, and means more buyers for you.
Why is dynamic content so powerful?
Some people are ready to buy and don’t want to be bothered with more details. Others won’t buy without more information, or without comparing items elsewhere. Dynamic content allows you to appeal to these vastly different audiences at the same time. It also builds trust and relevancy, because those people feel like you understand them.
This content also guides people through a sales funnel. Some are aware of a problem, but aren’t totally convinced that you can solve it. They need far different sales content than someone who’s already convinced that you have the solution.
Years ago, people wanted their phones to do more. Apple’s “There’s an app for that” campaign convinced them to buy iPhones. With Apple’s popularity now, ads only have to show the new model, and a massive rush goes to buy it. However, some people still haven’t switched over to iPhone. New model ads just won’t work on them. Dynamic content is showing the right ad to each person.
How do you decide to change content?
The following data helps you decide:
- Location Data – Target higher or lower-income neighborhoods.
- Buying Behaviors – People browsing or buying baby formula might also want diapers.
- Customer Lifecycle – They’ve nearly used all the supplements they bought by now – time to buy again.
- Pages or Events Visited – If they viewed an event sign-up page but didn’t reserve yet, offer them tickets when they return. Offer an upgrade to people who already signed up.
- Time Spent On The Site – People who spend more time may want even more details or comparisons.
- Engagement Metrics – Customize your offers using viewer clicks, scrolling, search keywords, or pages visited.
What are some examples of dynamic content?
Amazon shows items for each of these categories:
- Pick up where you left off
- Keep shopping for…
- Products related to this item
These items are tailored to each individual, and they make upsells and seamless shopping possible.
There’s also great potential for dynamic content in email. You can insert a recipient’s name, or customize a subject line or email text to match a person’s interests.
If you shop online, you’ve likely also seen retargeting: ads that “follow” you, promoting what you’ve recently browsed.
Dynamic vs static content – What’s the difference?
Static content means words or media delivered to all viewers as-is, without any further modification or processing. Think of static web pages – far easier to create, but nothing makes them personal.
Dynamic content requires a web application. The software evaluates viewer interests, then picks from content options stored in a database. This happens when your company is sending an email or when the user is browsing a web page.
Successful marketing often uses a mix of dynamic and static content, but without any dynamic content, the user’s experience will feel disjointed. Don’t let a reliance on static content kill your conversions.
Developing a dynamic content strategy
How will your dynamic content lead viewers to make beneficial choices? Here are more questions to help you form a strategy:
- What do I want the viewer to do?
- Which path do I want this customer to follow?
- What kind of content will help them to do that thing or follow that path?
- How does this person interact with my brand (e.g. search, social media, email)?
How to implement your dynamic content strategy
If someone already responded to an offer, you’ll obviously want to show them a different offer.
Looking at pages visited helps you predict a prospect’s intentions. Why not show them content that moves them further through the sales funnel?
This is what email nurturing campaigns are for. All your content covers one broad topic that probably contains many subtopics. Depending on how you get a customer’s email address, you’ll know which of these subtopics they’re interested in. Send them emails linking to more content on that specific subtopic, and they’ll definitely stay engaged.
How can dynamic content help people decide to buy?
Dynamic content allows you to always make the most relevant offer possible. For example: People want winter clothes only at some times of the year and in some parts of the country. At other times and in other locations, people want summer clothes. Dynamic content shows the right clothes to the right people, and leads to a smoother customer journey overall.
What does this mean for you?
If you’re not using this marketing method yet, you’re missing out. A full 80% of people base their buying decisions on whether content is personalized or not. Simpler and more cost-effective methods to personalize your marketing are appearing all the time, so there’s no excuse not to start using dynamic content today!
Dynamic content requires planning and effort, but it’s an extremely worthwhile investment.
