Something’s wrong here. You bought a widget from weBwidgets.com after getting an email from them and following it to their website, where you registered as a user.
So, why do you keep getting emails from the weBwidgets website telling you about the great offer you already took advantage of? Why are you starting at the beginning, and what’s up with going back to the website and signing on as a registered user… only to be asked if you’re ready to buy a widget?
This is 2019. Sure, they’re not Amazon – but they’re also not a lemonade stand. Shouldn’t they be able to tell you’ve already bought one of their widgets?
Your unsatisfactory widget customer experience is a prime example (sorry, Amazon) of the power of dynamic content. It gives marketers the ability to serve up content based on behavior, interests, and preferences of your users.
Let’s take Amazon for example. It’s all done in a non-spooky Big Brother kind of way, but the website has collected data about you. Your name is all over the screen and there are recommendations for you which are based on what you purchased or browsed.
If you had bought your widget there, Amazon likely would ask you how you are enjoying your widget – and by the way, here are some of the things that other widget-buyers have recently purchased.
To bury the dysfunctional weBwidget customer experience even deeper, Amazon wouldn’t at any time in the future, send you an email asking if you’re interested in purchasing a widget.
It’s a simple but effective objective: Amazon, and sites like it, want to move you from stranger to prospect then to a conversion and returning customer. Like you, they know it’s 2019, which means there’s no excuse for not being able to serve up relevant content.
Sure, Amazon nails this in the way you’d expect a company flirting with a market cap of a trillion dollars to do it. But you don’t have to be a unicorn to unleash this kind of rainbow magic on your prospects and customers.
Some of this magic can be done with good old-fashioned HTML, so that an email features location-based information that helps to make an offer more relevant. It doesn’t have to be text-based. It could be images or even colors that are based on trigger data associated with specific users.
There are generally four main elements necessary to create the dynamic content needed to deliver the right stuff to the right people:
A database. Not a special one. It should be centralized because the more user information it can parse, the better personalized results it can provide.
Script or an app that queries the database to show (or hide) content based on prior user activities. (Don’t show the widget! He bought it already.)
A dynamic website. Don’t confuse this with responsive. It means the website has found the balance between breathtaking design and kick-ass functionality. American writer and critic Edmund Wilson once said, “No two persons ever read the same book.” It might have been a prognostication for today’s most successful digital marketing organizations. Using a dynamic website, no two visitors ever see the same content.
Your valuable collection of insightful data is the fuel that powers the engine which creates dynamic email messages. Prospects are treated and nurtured appropriately, and differently than a customer.
We’re all walking the fine line between personalization and privacy, but relevancy still rules. Targeted, customized content can increase lead generation up to 20 percent. And how’s this for some rainbow magic? Huffington Post reports that emails with a high degree of relevancy can drive 18x more revenue than static broadcast versions.
In real estate, it’s location, location, location. Marketing with dynamic content is all about the right content at the right time to the right person for the right reason. Back in the days of broadcast and push media, marketers attempted this with demographics. It was valiant, but that wouldn’t work here. How customized can you get with just age and sex?
That data that you’ll collect and use for dynamic content marketing is all about – well, we’ve already said it. Relevance. You must use this harvested intel to generate insight that allows you to stay one step ahead and anticipate the environment which will facilitate the next step in the buying cycle.
You’re weaving a custom tapestry for each person who’s attracted to the stories attached to your product or service. Inbound marketing is seldom self-promotional. It’s storytelling that helps prospects validate their problem, gain perspective, and become educated about possible solutions. Only then does the selling begin. And now it’s time to change the channel to another analogy.
If storytelling is the signal carrier, dynamic content is the equalizer that allows individuals to receive their desired soundscape. More base for that one. Turn up the treble for this one. We can help you crank up the volume on your quest to deliver the right content at the right time to the right person for the right reason. Learn more about our content subscription service.