Using Dynamic Content

What Is Dynamic Content?
Simply put, dynamic content refers to elements of a website or email that change depending on a user’s information or past behavior. 

For instance, the hero image of a marketing email could change to display an image of a beautiful travel destination for a user who’s looking to book a vacation. An offer on a web page might change for a first-time visitor versus a visitor with a high lead score who is likely ready to buy. Another example would be a clothing retailer showing a banner ad for a pair of jeans similar to the pair that you bought from the site last week.

Ultimately, dynamic content creates a personalized experience for every individual user. So instead of everyone who lands on your site or receives your email seeing the same thing, leads may see something different depending on how they have interacted with your company before.

Dynamic Content
Examples

Now, let’s make everything a little clearer with some real-world examples of dynamic content. Thankfully, it’s fairly easy because virtually every major organization in the world uses dynamic content to some degree.

Amazon
Ah yes, Amazon. Love it or hate it, this retail giant pioneered the use of dynamic content in the retail space. You know those ads for suggested products that you see when you first go on the website or when you click on a product that you’re interested in? No, that’s not Amazon hiring an army of private detectives to uncover the interests of the site’s hundreds of millions of users. That’s dynamic content.

Netflix
It’s not just retail websites that utilize dynamic content. Netflix also tracks what you’ve watched and for how long to provide personalized recommendations of programs you might like. Their entire homepage is one huge piece of dynamic content. This means that when you log into your Netflix account, you’ll see something completely different compared to when your spouse or sibling logs into theirs.

Google
It would be surprising if the most-visited website in the world didn’t use dynamic content, wouldn’t it? Google actually uses dynamic content in a number of ways. One way that most people have probably experienced is searching for a “service or shop near me.” In this case, Google will deliver personalized content based on your location. So if a person in Chicago and a person in Seattle both search for “coffee near me,” they’ll see completely different results.

Other Prime Examples
Just about every industry leader makes good use of dynamic web content to personalize the buyer journey and create a better user experience. Using dynamic geo-location, Domino’s Pizza will give a user the closest store based on their location. Hilton Hotels will serve up different offers based upon a user’s indicated travel plans.

Past use or purchase history is another way dynamic content can be leveraged. Udemy, an online learning platform, will offer course recommendations based on a user’s purchase history, and YouTube has a constantly updated list of recommendations based on previous viewing history.

FitBit tracks your food, exercise, sleep and weight profile based on your goals upon signup. It then sends regular emails about your goals throughout the day.

How Does Dynamic Content Work?

Understanding how dynamic content works is actually relatively straightforward. Implementing it, on the other hand, can be much trickier – if you don’t have the right tools. Luckily, marketing automation platforms make providing personalized content for your users a lot easier. It can be as simple as an interface that lets you point and click to swap out options – all without having to touch any code.

The way dynamic content works is that once you’ve collected relevant data from your users (things like name, location, which web pages they visit, what they purchase, etc.), you can then use that data to swap out content on your landing pages or emails to target users on an individual basis.

In order to deliver dynamic content to a user, several elements are required:
A Central Marketing Database
First, data must be collected and stored in a marketing database. Every user will be assigned a unique ID, and every interaction with the website will be recorded in the database.

A Dynamic Content Generator
There must be a way for the data to be taken from the database and displayed on the page or in the email. A dynamic content generator will be able to display information in a number of different elements and automatically show or hide elements depending on the data available.

An Editable Landing Page
For the dynamic content generator to work, the web page must be built in a malleable way. Not only does this allow dynamic content code to be placed throughout the site as necessary, it also allows for greater personalization to be implemented in the future based on the data collected on users.

Integrated Email
Your email marketing system must be integrated with your database to allow for personalized campaigns.

For example, a customer visits an online retailer, looks at several products, decides to make a purchase, enters his details (name, address, etc.) into the order form and buys the product. His contact details, the purchase made and the other products he looked at are all data that is relevant to him and is stored in his lead record. The next time this same customer visits the retailer, the website will recognize him, access his stored data and serve up products similar to previous purchases.
 

7 Ways You Can Use
Dynamic Content

From the examples at the start of this guide, you can see that there are many ways you can integrate dynamic content into your marketing strategy. Below you will find seven examples. But there’s no need to limit yourself to these. Test and experiment different options yourself. The important thing to remember, however, is to always make sure that the content you are serving is relevant to the user.

1.  Landing Pages
Landing pages are a great way to convert users into customers. Consider the impact of delivering a personalized message to every user. The details will, 
of course, depend on the product. Start by integrating the lead’s name into the page design, and then reference products the lead has already used. Go one step further by personalizing the call to action. If a lead has already downloaded one of the opt-in rewards, for example, display another to ensure that she remains in the funnel.

2.  Email
Delivering dynamic content to users in email campaigns is a great way to increase open rates and conversions. Again, there’s much more to personalizing an email than including the user’s name. Content can be changed depending on the user’s location or browsing history in the same way it works on your landing pages.

3.  Forms
With dynamic content, a site can offer a better user experience by delivering personalized forms. When a visitor is identified as “known” versus “unknown,” the site can present variations on forms displayed or hide them altogether. For example, an unknown visitor might receive a form with a special offer whereas a known visitor might simply need to confirm his email address. Other website personalization can happen once someone is a known visitor. A known visitor might see a login page instead of a registration page.

4.  Redirects
Another way to convert users into customers is by using redirects. If a user has been seeking more information about Hawaii, for example, he could be redirected to a
page about Maui. Redirects can happen almost instantaneously, and the visitor may not even realize that they’ve been redirected.

5.  Pop-Ups
You don’t have to rely on past behavior to deliver dynamic content to users. By using real-time signals, such as the time spent on a page, length of inactivity, scroll activity or user clicks, you can deliver intelligent pop-ups to achieve a specific action. Usually, this will be to prevent a visitor from leaving the website without first entering into your sales funnel. Use this type of dynamic content to direct him to the best content based on his location.

6.  Personalized Recommendations
We’ve already talked about how major online companies use personalized recommendations. Both Amazon and Netflix use data-driven recommendations to encourage users to purchase more items (in the case of Amazon) or continue their subscription (in the case of Netflix). But recommendations don’t just have to be product-related. You could also recommend content from your blog based on the articles a user has previously read. In essence, this helps to “free” content from the “confines” of repeat purchases and to ensure users see as many of your products as possible.

7.  Dynamic Searches
On large websites with hundreds or thousands of pages, search bars can become user-unfriendly very quickly. Here, use individual user data as well as site-wide data to deliver a personalized, user-friendly experience. One method would be to suggest the most frequent search queries. Alternatively (or in addition), the site can deliver results based on a user’s previous preferences. For instance, a user might prefer a particular brand of clothing or only buy items in a particular pricing bracket.
 

If your business has refrained from implementing dynamic content so far, now is the time to set the record straight. Put personalization at the top of your strategic planning and start to deliver the user experience your customers are demanding with dynamic content. Your first step?