âStrictlyâ tips to use dynamic content to improve conversion

Dynamic messaging has been with us for some time (as has Strictly Come Dancing), but very few people realise the benefits preferring to simply batch it and blast it!

Dynamic messaging isn’t just another marketing buzzword. It’s a critical stage in the evolution from mass marketing to personalised, one-to-one marketing. But it goes beyond making sure that each customer and prospect receives a targeted message via his or her preferred channels.
While proper targeting techniques are critical to the process, utilising response data is equally important. This will help you to determine how, when and with what content you will next contact them.

For example, let’s say your data suggests that Patrick, Sophie and Susanna (if it was a ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ list that is) are most likely to respond to similar personalised email offers they receive at the beginning of the month. While the end result was a familiar outcome i.e. none of them took advantage of your offer – the way they got there was vastly different. Here’s how each scenario (or dance if you prefer) played out:

• Patrick opens the email, clicks through to your website and spends 10 minutes browsing before leaving the site
• Sophie, on the other hand, opens the email, and then discards it
• Meanwhile, Susanna deletes the email without even opening it (that’s newsreaders for you!)

Now, in the past, your contact strategy might have entailed sending all three consumers variations of the same follow-up email. However, a dynamic strategy has rules in place that suggest different follow-up tactics based on differing responses. Here’s an example of how this could play out for you:

• Given that Susanna didn’t even open the email, and history indicates she hasn’t opened any emails in the last six months, your follow-up with her might be via a different medium
• Since Sophie showed she was receptive to email, a change in the offer or creative in the follow-up email might improve her response
• Finally, given the time Patrick spent on your website, you will probably want to get in touch with him sooner than you do the others to keep his attention (given he had a short attention span during the foxtrot!)

Research indicates that leveraging segmentation and personalisation to create a dynamic contact strategy can improve email click-through rates and conversions – just read any of the DMA benchmark reports or national email surveys.

While personalising the content, creative and channel certainly plays a large role in boosting response, the dynamic aspect provides significant lift as well.

Since monitoring response and reacting to it are distinguishing elements of dynamic marketing, it’s easy to reevaluate and tweak individual messages or entire messaging funnels as the campaign continues.

This makes dynamic marketing critical when reaching customers and prospects that are especially difficult to contact and historically challenging to make convert – just like Tony Jacklin’s dancing in fact!