Increasing Relevance with Dynamic Content.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]You only need to look around you to see how much the world has changed in the last 10 – 15 years. We are now living in a world of information overload and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to filter through the noise. We have to be able to help customers filter through the noise, we have to find out what our customers are looking for and overall we need to offer our customers an excellent experience every time they engage with us.

“Companies have to offer something more”

One size does not fit allThe early web was a one-size-fits-all experience. There wasn’t any targeting, or segmentation, or any attempt to offer viewers a personalised experience. Websites presented static pages with information about a company or service, but that information rarely changed. The only thing that might have changed was the content about the company itself. And we all know that this approach might have worked in the past but consumers are a lot more demanding and expect more from companies nowadays!  A few software developments made updating your website a lot easier, namely blogging, RSS feeds and user friendly content management systems. This allowed for easier updating of content on websites and therefore enabled website to be more dynamic and offer a personal user experience.  Only recently have we developed the capacity to adapt websites to individual viewing experiences.

Blogging, RSS Feeds and CMS based websites

 

So what exactly is Dynamic Content?

According to HubSpot, “Dynamic content is the term for aspects of a website or email that change based on a website visitor’s profile data or history of interactions with a company.”

Hubspot logo 

 

hubspot graphic

And where can you use dynamic content? Well you can use it online on your website, forms, landing pages, CTA’s (Call to Actions), or emails that change based on the viewer. Dynamic content creates an experience that is tailored and therefore relevant specifically to the user where the one site can have multiple messages for different viewers.

One site multiple messages

The key to dynamic content’s effectiveness is its relevancy. It makes perfect sense that marketing content that is targeted and more relevant to the person reading it, would have a more positive effect than general content.  In order to be relevant you need information about your customers or prospects. Not just demographic and contact information, but saved information about the materials that have mattered to a particular customer or lead.

dynamic data relavancy

 

That information or data then fuels the technology and the set of dynamic rules that presents the right content to the right person at the right time.

And that is what dynamic content is all about!

 

Be Personal

Dynamic content is all about being personal, it’s about delivering relevant content and web experiences that change based on what you know about each visitor. Put simply, rather than delivering the same web content to every visitor, you should try to give each visitor the most relevant experience possible. Be Personal

Dynamic Content that is relevant and personal can only lead to better results!

The best way to explain what dynamic content is about is to show you an example of how it is being used by others: eCommerce sites have gotten increasingly sophisticated in their personalisation efforts. And one of the best known ecommerce sites using dynamic content is Amazon.

Think of Amazon

Amazon’s recommendation engine, is one of the most well-known examples of dynamic content. Think of the last time you searched online for a product on Amazon. When browsing, you were probably served a list of product recommendations based on what you had been browsing in the past. Amazon presents this dynamic content using such headlines like “Customers with your search history also bought” or “You’re recently viewed items & featured recommendations”

Amazon Featured Recommendations

So, when you visit the website, you see one set of possible purchase suggestions, but your friend or neighbour, on the other hand, will be presented with a completely different set of recommendations. The dynamic website adapts to match your browsing history or behaviour, and therefore shows you suggestions that are relevant to you and not someone else.

 

What do you need for Dynamic Content?

To order to implement dynamic content for your website or email campaigns you’ll need a couple of things to get you started:

  • A good marketing database: Your marketing database is what will drive your dynamic content. If you keep a history of your contact activity on your site, you can profile your customers & segment your database based on the data you have collected and what you already know about your contacts: using demographics, location, industry, past behaviour, interests, job role etc.
  • User friendly web pages: In order to set up a dynamic site it has to be built on a CMS system that is easily editable. If you have to go through an IT department or an external source, updating your site when you require will always cause you problems.
  • Develop a set of dynamic rules: Dynamic content is informed by data about your visitors/contacts and a set of rules. Once you have set up and assigned those rules you can use a content generator tool to execute the dynamic content to show or hide specific targeted content on your website.  ORBTR is an good tool that enables content generation.
  • An integrated email system: Dynamic content can also be incorporated into you email marketing strategy. If your are using an integrated email system to update your contacts database, you can use the contact details to segment your database and send specific targeted content to that particular segment. E.g. Segment your database based on location or gender.

 

So where do you start?

How to get started Dynamic content

You can get started by identifying one or two useful places to use dynamic content on your site or emails. Is your home page the best place to tailor a message to your viewers, maybe you could star with a personalised email based to customers in a specific country? Maybe it’s changing a CTA on a landing page based on a viewer’s history?

Whatever you try, think primarily about the goals that you want to achieve by using dynamic content. Do you want to increase brand awareness? Do you want to find out more about a person for better profiling? Do you want to nurture viewers to bring them through the sales and marketing funnels? Do you want to increase sales? Do you want to gain more insight into a lead, what they like, don’t like etc?

We are living In the Age of the Customer and simply delivering a great product or service isn’t good enough. Companies no longer have the luxury of competing on price or offering alone. Today, what differentiates between companies is the customer experience.The ultimate goal of using dynamic content is to enhance your readers and website visitors experience with your relevant content.

As marketers, we have the opportunity to put out website pages and emails that provide your audience with the right support. Dynamic content uses the valuable insights your readers have provided you with: their details, interests, preferences and historical behaviour.

So lets put that knowledge to work and assist them with the information they are looking for.

Thank you!

Helen O’Connor, Digital Marketing Manager

If you would like more about any of the topics raised in this post please contact IMS Marketing at 091 739450 or email [email protected].

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