To many, Dynamic Content is the future and for good reason. Differentiating itself from more blanketed marketing ads and emails, dynamic content can grow, adapt, and develop day after day and eventually funnel customers to the exact place you want them to be. According to Demand Metrics, over 78% of CMO’s think dynamic content in marketing is the tool of the future!
So What Exactly is Dynamic Content?
For those either new or uninitiated, dynamic content can be any form of marketing (email, webpage, banner ads) that is altered per customer based on their browsing history and the information you have available to you. Most CRM and user tracking programs have this personalization built-in, and when you combine pinpoint advertising with proper content, you can create a really powerful method of drawing in customers.
Let us look at a quick example of how to use Dynamic Content in say…. The travel industry!
Real Examples of Smart Ads
Bill (our potential customer) heads to Travel Site A to start looking to book his next trip abroad to Spain with the family. After some searching he enters his email for future updates, and heads onto travel site B. On travel site B Bill searches for a little longer, gets distracted, and leaves the site to check the score of his game.
So where does dynamic content come in?
Travel Site A has an advanced CRM system in place that adds Bill to a list of leads once he enters his email on the site. By tracking his cooking history across the site and using best practices to filter in a personalized follow-up marketing ad, they can radically increase their chances of bringing in Bill as a customer.
How?
The next morning Bill opens up an email from Site A with the top 10 best vacations in Spain for families. Bill is pleasantly reminded of where he left off, scrolls until he finds the best choice for his family, and books accordingly. One new customer to site A!
So what happened here?
By entering in his email and basic contact information to travel site A, he gave the company the opportunity to tailor pick an email blast for his needs. By leveraging this personalized information alongside their regular business model, they have successfully converted Bill into a paying customer.
So now, let’s talk about the when and where. When should we be using dynamic content to bring in customers, and how can it benefit the company itself?
Put yourself back in the shoes of our old pal Bill. It’s now 2 months since he booked his plane tickets and hotel for his big trip to Madrid! Travel Site A also sells specialized tours and travel packages to and from the airport that Bill and his family could make use of, but he wasn’t aware. Using their CRM platform site A has it set to send Bill a followup email to his booking 60 days before his trip to plan his tours and exclusive dinner reservations.
Wanting to make sure everything is perfect, Bill once again chooses site A to complete his booking and his trip is happily ever after!
By levering the power of dynamic content, site A smartly marketed their products at the right time so that Bill felt empowered in his personalized booking decisions.
Managing Personalized Advertisements
Now dynamic marketing has its pros and cons as the title states. While some methods of this can be successful like with our friend Bill, other methods can strike becoming as invasive… and downright creepy! By not properly managing the dynamic filters you place on follow up advertisements, you can turn customers off before they get comfortable to buy.
For example, if Bill had wandered on-site A for a while longer, looked up trips to Spain, then wandered to another section about trips to Greece, site A may end up thinking Bill’s true intentions were to go to Greece. The next morning he opens up a very different email, feels as if his privacy has been invaded, and heads to site B where he feels less taken advantage of.
Dynamic content can be very powerful, but in an age of skepticism from customers (especially those higher in age), it can have very negative effects on customer retention. As marketers, we need to keep an eye on the level of personalization our dynamic content has, and not filter away options in search of a quick lead conversion!
We have so many leads these days coming from all angles, and these leads have so many options of where to spend their dollar, it is important to use dynamic content to build a relationship rather than soil it!
Making Sense of Dynamic Content Through CRM
Now, this may all sound overwhelming, having to market content through user management, proper cookie tracking, and properly coding personalized emails and advertisements to bring in customers. This filtering of personalized content is a tightrope as we discussed, but fret not! Modern CRM’s have come a long way with their user tracking and given brands and companies a lot of tools to leverage this new level of marketing.
While it may still be a lot of work and a learning process to properly customize your advertising, with a dedication to quality and tenacity to perfect it, you can see a dramatic increase in your customer retention and satisfaction.
So what can we infer? By successfully implementing dynamic content across our marketing channels, we have the ability to engage with customers at a completely different and more personalized level. With the proper tools in place, it is possible to turn a stranger into a lifetime customer in a matter of moments! Don’t get left in the dust, start implementing these practices now and reap the rewards of a more personal connection between brand and customer!
Feature Image Credit: ascent360.com