Dynamic content: best practice when tailoring each campaign to specific demographics

Dynamic content (DC) is a great way to send out personalized emails to different demographics, without having to do much of the leg work. After the initial set up, sending out campaigns using Dynamic Content is a breeze! 

How it works

Dynamic content works pretty similarly to how a Mail Merge does, but with a bit more to it!

In short, Dynamic Content works off of a contact or custom field allowing you to insert customizable and personable content dependant on whether or not the recipient hits specific conditions. For example, if you have a contact 'John Doe' who has a custom field stating they are a part of 'demographic two', they will receive a customizable campaign with personalized content tailored to demographic two.

We also see clients utilizing Dynamic Content to send out one campaign in multiple languages. This way, you can send out multiple campaigns with different content, but still keep them all contained in the same report. This makes it much easier to get your stats all in one place instead of having to combine.

Prerequisites

To get you started, you'll need to have a relevant custom field set up to link the Dynamic Content to.

Navigate to Contacts from the home menu > Click the Advanced drop down menu > Select Manage Custom Fields > Add field > Create a custom field (Whichever type suits your use) > Add

Note: If creating Dynamic Content for different demographics, I'd suggest to create a Multiple Choice custom field. This way, it makes it a lot easier when creating the tags, as it's convenient to have multiple options in one custom field.

Creating Dynamic Content tags

Once you're all set up with the relevant custom fields, it's time to go back into your campaign and create the tags.

Click into the content of the campaign and when the toolbar pops up, click into Insert > Dynamic Content > Add Tag

This will open up the editor for your tag, which has three main areas: Title, Default Content and Conditions. You'll need to title your tag dependant on the use, most commonly we'll see demographics and languages but you can use Dynamic Content for anything.

Enter a title for your tag, make sure you have a generic or default piece of content put under Default Content, then set your conditions to meet the corresponding contact or custom field. Once you've finished, click Add, then you can either use the tag from here or insert it into your campaign manually.

Once inserted, your tag will look like a mail merge, but will have 'dc' in front of it to signal Dynamic Content.

Sending it out

Now you're all set and all your tags are inserted into your campaign, it's time to send it out to your recipients.

Warning! Make sure all of your contacts have their custom or contact fields filled in, otherwise the content will not pull through. To double check the DC is working, in the preview and send section, click through Recipient Preview or Select Recipient to see what the campaign will look like in their inbox.

Once you've sent it out and the recipient has met the corresponding demographic, the tag will be replaced with your content.

Now you're done! Head over to the Reports tab to see the interaction and traction your campaign is getting.