What is dynamic content?
Dynamic content refers to content on a web page that changes based on factors like user data, user location, and user signals. For example, if a customer places a product in his or her shopping cart, the website may present items related to that purchase as product recommendations.
The importance of dynamic content for digital marketing
Dynamic content, when implemented properly, can deliver a more personalized experience for the user. It may reduce the bounce rate (i.e., the ratio of visitors who quickly leave a website without a meaningful interaction). It may also make cross-selling and upselling efforts more effective.
Dynamic content vs. static content
Dynamic content is essential for digital marketing because it allows businesses to personalize their messages and offers to each individual customer. By using data and automation, businesses can tailor content to the specific interests, behaviors, and preferences of their audience, which can lead to higher engagement, conversions, and customer loyalty. Dynamic content can take many forms, such as personalized emails, targeted ads, or customized product recommendations. It enables marketers to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time, which is crucial for building strong relationships with customers and driving business growth.
Types of dynamic content
Personalized content
Personalized content may be based on user behavior or user demographics:
Based on user behavior
One example of behavior-based personalized content is when a website presents retargeted ads to its users. The content of the ad space will be different depending on which websites the user visited recently. For example, a user who was recently shopping for footwear may see tennis shoe ads in the sidebar.
Based on user demographics
Personalized content often varies based on which demographic or customer segment applies to the user. As an example, new visitors to a website may immediately see a pop-up promoting 20% savings if they sign up for the company's newsletter. In contrast, users who have already subscribed to the newsletter may not see the pop-up at all.
Contextual content
The presentation of dynamic content is often based on the context of the customer's interaction with the brand. This is commonly seen in terms of location and time.
Based on location
In many cases, customers who live in a certain geographical area will see different content compared to customers who live outside of that area. For example, consumers who live in the southeastern United States may see an ad for the grocery store Publix when they visit a site, whereas consumers who live in the Midwest are more likely to see an ad for Kroger.
Based on time
The timing of a customer's website visit is often a key factor in presenting dynamic content. This is often seen in the case of special eCommerce promotions. Visitors may see a timer in the page header that is counting down to the end of the sale period.
Interactive content
Interactive content allows users to directly influence the content that is presented to them. Types of interactive content include surveys, quizzes, and certain infographics.
Surveys
Different surveys may be presented to the user depending on which product is purchased, whether the user is a program member or any number of other factors. The scores the customer submits in the survey may also prompt a dynamic response (e.g., if the customer indicates he or she is not satisfied with the product or service, the survey may generate a comment box in which the customer can explain why that is the case).
Quizzes
Interactive quizzes are often helpful in terms of engaging customers. They can be dynamically designed so that different answers result in a different final score or assessment. In addition, questions may be set up in a cascading style, so that the way a user answers one question will determine which question is presented next.
Interactive infographics
Interactive infographics include dynamic elements that can be accessed or modified by the user, including hyperlinks, search fields, surveys, quizzes, maps, etc.
Shoppable videos
Shoppable videos allow brands to stream interactive videos in their app and make shopping a special occasion for the customers. With Storyly’s shoppable videos, you may add product tags, CTAs and use different interactive components to improve the product discovery experience and lead visitors directly to checkout.
Real-time content
Real-time content includes dynamic content that is updated responsively but not necessarily according to user signals. Social media updates and news updates are two examples of this category.
Social media updates
Social media updates are often posted by the company at set times throughout the week, and will typically appear in the brand's feed regardless of user signals.
News updates
Updates on the latest news (either within the industry or in general) may appear on a company's website or social media profile at regular times throughout the week or month. At times, this pattern may be interrupted by breaking news.
Benefits of using dynamic content
Increased engagement
Dynamic content can increase customer engagement by providing a personalized experience for each user. This is often evident with social media feeds, which consumers may follow and interact with daily.
Improved conversions
Many visitors to a company's site already have a strong intent to buy. Dynamic content can leverage that intent into solid leads and ultimately sales. For example, a customer may purchase another product in addition to the one already in his cart due to a dynamic recommendation.
Better targeting
Even the most striking ads will eventually lose their appeal to consumers after repeated exposure. Moreover, using the same marketing message, again and again, may result in the acquisition of highly similar (or even the same) leads. Dynamic content based on specific criteria like user location, time of day, previous sites visited by the user, and even current weather conditions can prevent being too repetitive and make ads stand out to the right people.
Enhanced customer experience
Apart from the personalization aspect, dynamic content also enhances the customer experience through improved relevance. When consumers receive marketing messages and special offers aligned with their interests and preferences, they are more likely to take action.
Increased ROI
Implementing dynamic content can boost a business's bottom line. For example, one study found that brands that use dynamic content often drive an ROI ratio of 44 to 1, vs a ratio of 36 to 1 with other brands.
Challenges in implementing dynamic content
Data privacy and security
Around the world, laws like the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California's Consumer Privacy Act (CPA) have significantly limited how brands can collect, use, and share consumer data. Moreover, tracking pixels (or "cookies") are rapidly becoming obsolete. In response to these and other privacy/security concerns, many companies are in the midst of radically retooling their dynamic content.
Complexity and cost
Developing and implementing dynamic content requires technical expertise and sufficient capital to cover all associated expenses. This unavoidable expenditure of time and resources may present a challenge to many companies, especially startups and small businesses.
Difficulty in measuring success
It's not always easy to gauge the performance of dynamic content. For example, it may be difficult to estimate how much additional engagement real-time content is generating compared to static content, or how closely such engagement is correlating to lead generation and conversions.
Need for continuous optimization
Dynamic content often calls for dynamic changes to stay relevant. Companies may need to continuously optimize such content according to shifting customer behavior patterns, fluctuations in the market, innovations within the industry, etc.
Dynamic content best practices
There are several best practices that a brand can implement to make its dynamic content more effective. These include:
Understand your audience
To optimize their dynamic content, brands must understand who their core customers are, what their needs are, and which platforms they typically use for shopping and research.
Segment your audience
Brands often categorize customer subsets according to "buyer personas," or semi-fictional profiles of average customers.
Set clear goals
As with other forms of digital marketing, dynamic content should be implemented in the service of clearly defined goals. For example, a goal of increasing monthly sales by 15% may indicate that more dynamic offers and promotions should be developed for the company website.
Use data and analytics
Brands need to collect accurate, detailed data about their target consumers before investing heavily in specific types of dynamic content. Many companies have found that the most effective way to obtain consumer data is simply to ask for it — e.g., through contact forms, emails, or subscription offers. (For instance, almost all sign-up forms require a user's name and email address for submission.)
Use personalization
Business owners and marketing leaders can look for ways to personalize the user experience via dynamic content. Such efforts may include personalized product recommendations, changes to the website based on time, location, user status, etc.
Make it interactive
Interactive content, such as quizzes, polls, surveys and shoppable videos can help increase engagement and make dynamic content more captivating.
Test and optimize
Companies may conduct regular A/B testing to determine which types of dynamic content are yielding the highest performance, and how to capitalize on their success.
Incorporate real-time elements
Dynamic real-time features like news feeds, social media updates, and even messaging based on current weather conditions in the targeted area can enhance user engagement and boost the conversion rate.
Think mobile
With a majority of Internet users accessing the web on mobile devices, it's important to ensure that dynamic content remains mobile-friendly.
Ensure data privacy
Even though they may not be under its jurisdiction, many companies use the GDPR as a guideline for implementing data privacy and security in their dynamic content.
