Enable Dynamic Content in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Key Takeaways

• Dynamic content enhances user engagement by providing personalised experiences based on individual user data, promoting higher conversion rates.
• Key types of dynamic content in emails include personalised messages, contextual content, and interactive elements, each aimed at creating relevant user interactions.
• Effective implementation involves strategic data management, testing, and continuous optimisation to align dynamic content with business objectives and user needs.

Understanding Dynamic Content

Dynamic or enhanced dynamic content is the practice of creating personalised and variable content within an email that adapts based on specific subscriber attributes or behaviours. Instead of sending a single email to a broad audience, dynamic content enables you to tailor portions of the email based on data stored in your subscriber lists or data extensions.

For example, imagine sending a promotional email where the content displayed varies based on the recipient’s persona. Using dynamic content, a clothing retailer can showcase new arrivals to a first-time buyer, while simultaneously displaying sale items to a loyal customer within the same email campaign. Or a travel company can dynamically insert personalised destination recommendations into email messages based on a subscriber’s past travel bookings.

How to Implement Dynamic Content in Emails

By leveraging dynamic content in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, marketers have the capacity to provide personalised experiences on a large scale that enhance customer interaction and lead to superior outcomes as tracked interactions with the email through Google Analytics.
Follow these simple steps to Implement Dynamic Content in Emails 

1. Navigate to Your Email Template: First, you need to open your email template in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. This is where you will build your dynamic content.
2. Drag and Drop Dynamic Content: Drag and drop the dynamic content block directly into your email template. This block can be placed wherever you want personalised content to appear (e.g., hero images, product recommendations, or promotional offers). In the video example, we placed this block where we wanted to show information about the nearest Salesforce Summit. 
3. Create a Rule: Now comes the exciting part – setting up the rules for your dynamic content. As demonstrated in the video, this is where you define how the content changes based on recipient data, such as showing different Summit locations (London or New York). To ensure that your dynamic content appears to the right audience, you need to define logic that tells the system when to show specific content. Using the right data extension for defining dynamic content rules is crucial. Ensure that the fields in your data extension have the exact same names as those used in your dynamic content rules – like ensuring the 'Location' field name matched precisely in our video example.
4. Choose Your Data Extension or Profile Attributes: Select a data extension that contains subscriber data or use profile attributes. For instance, the video shows selecting a specific prospect list data extension and then using the 'Location' field within it to determine which Summit information to display. You could also use other attributes like persona, purchase history, or donation history depending on your goal.
5. Set Your Logic for Conditions: Once your data source (like the data extension) is selected, define the rules for displaying the content. In the video, we created specific rules based on the 'Location' field: 'If Location is London, show London content' and 'If Location is New York, show New York content'. This could also be simpler logic like “If the subscriber’s persona is donor, show Content A,” or more complex logic like “If the subscriber has donated in the last 30 days, show Content B.” Make sure to define attributes that cater to specific audience segments.
6. Default Content: It's essential to have default content for cases where subscriber data does not meet any of the specific conditions you've set. Just like in the video example, where we set up default content for recipients not located in London or New York, this predetermined content ensures that every email still contains relevant (or at least general) information for each subscriber.
7. Test Your Rules: Testing is a crucial step. Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers testing tools that let you preview how different subscribers will experience the email. As shown in the video, use the 'Preview and Test' feature, selecting different prospects from your chosen list (e.g., one from London, one from New York, and one from elsewhere) to ensure the correct Summit information or the default content appears exactly as intended. Test with various segments to ensure everything displays correctly.

By following these steps, you’ll be able to create personalised email experiences and personalised messages that resonate with your audience.

Key Benefits of Using Dynamic Content

Utilising dynamic content can substantially boost the efficacy of digital marketing initiatives. A key advantage includes delivering custom-tailored messages that facilitate a personalised brand interaction experience for each individual. By aligning content with specific behaviours and stages of users’ customer journeys, engagement and retention are markedly improved.

Dynamic content also plays a pivotal role in lowering bounce rates while simultaneously lifting conversion rates. The delivery of pertinent and well-timed information increases the likelihood that visitors will remain on-site to interact more deeply with what’s offered. For instance, when social media advertisements incorporate dynamic elements, they can spotlight promotions tailored to users’ past behaviour or interests, thus fostering immediate connection and potential sales.

The personalisation afforded by employing dynamic content doesn’t just elevate user experiences. It offers marketers invaluable insights as well. By analysing how users engage with such responsive materials, marketers gain an understanding of customer preferences and activity patterns, which is crucial for ongoing refinement efforts. This data-based approach ensures continued resonance between marketing tactics and evolving user requirements.

How does it work, and what are data extensions?

Dynamic content leverages:

• Profile Attributes: Information stored directly on the subscriber’s profile, such as their name, location, birthday, or past purchase history.
• Data Extensions: Sophisticated tables within SFMC that store a wealth of subscriber data, like demographics, preferences, engagement levels, and more.

Data extension values are crucial in determining which content is displayed to different subscribers, allowing for tailored messaging based on specific user criteria.

By utilising this data, dynamic content ensures subscribers receive relevant and engaging emails, unlike static content, which remains the same for everyone.

Testing and Optimising Dynamic Content Blocks

Testing and optimising dynamic content is crucial to ensure it’s working effectively and driving engagement and conversion rates. Here are some tips to test and optimise your dynamic content.

When testing, ensure that emails are sent to the same data extension that the dynamic content rules are based on, or to another data extension with matching field names.

1. Test with Different Attributes: Test your dynamic content with different attributes, such as subscriber attributes or location-based attributes, to ensure it’s working as expected. This helps you identify any issues and make necessary adjustments.
2. Analyse Results: Analyse the results of your dynamic content tests to identify areas for improvement. Look at metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to gauge the effectiveness of your content creation process.
3. Optimise Content Blocks: Optimise your content blocks to improve engagement and conversion rates. Use A/B testing to compare different dynamic content block variations and determine which performs best. Regularly edit content to keep it current and ensure that any changes are reflected in your dynamic content blocks to avoid sending outdated information.
4. Refine Rules: Refine your dynamic content rules to ensure they’re targeting the right audience segments. Adjust or update the dynamic content rules based on the insights gained from your tests and analysis.
5. Monitor Performance: Monitor the performance of your dynamic content over time and make adjustments as needed to ensure it continues to drive engagement and conversion rates. Regular monitoring helps you stay on top of trends and make data-driven decisions.

While dynamic content can be a powerful tool for marketers, there are common challenges that can arise when implementing and managing dynamic content campaigns. Here are some common challenges and solutions: