Dynamic Web Content 101

From automated email campaigns to retargeted ads, marketing technologies and strategies have become much more sophisticated in recent years. And due to the increasing accessibility of marketing automation software, small businesses and enterprises alike are using these strategies and tools to scale their businesses.

As marketing trends change, customer preferences do as well. It’s no longer enough to send a generic email to everyone who has ever patronized your business.

By using more modern tools and techniques, businesses can tailor the way they interact with customers across emails, social media, their website, and even text messages. However, execution is everything. Today, we’re covering one of those modern strategies—dynamic content—and how you can use it.

What is dynamic content?

Traditionally, businesses use static marketing content on their website. Static content doesn’t change from customer to customer. Although it remains a valuable part of marketing, your marketing content needs to keep up with the day-to-day automation and “smart” technology in our lives.

Dynamic web content, on the other hand, varies based on the customer viewing it and the data you have about them. Dynamic content is adaptive. As a part of a larger online marketing strategy, dynamic content lets you craft customized marketing material to better match the needs and interests of the recipient.

Here are a few examples of what dynamic web content can look like:

• Showing recommend products based on a visitor’s browsing or purchasing history
• Displaying promotions or sales only to previous customers and/or newsletter subscribers
• Showing different articles/videos/etc. on your website, based on the interests a visitor selected when they signed up for your email list
• Displaying different informational or marketing content based on the visitor’s location

For the purposes of this article, when we refer to “dynamic content,” it’s content that exists on a website.

Dynamic content does exist in other mediums, though. Certain types of email marketing software will let you embed sections of dynamic content into an email. For example, you could send an email to a segment of your list based on customer behavior, and each individual email could have a section that promotes products based on the individual subscriber’s browsing or purchasing history. That’s on the difficult side for a new user, and is best used with a large customer/subscriber volume. However, you can still use segmentation and personalization in your emails in the meantime.

Why use dynamic content on your site?

The exact numbers vary, but sources agree: website visitors form their first impressions in a matter of seconds. Once they’re past those first few seconds, the average visit duration is 2-3 minutes, although it varies from industry to industry. This means that companies have a short window to pitch themselves to prospective customers and convert interest into a sale—or even just to take a longer look at what the company has to offer. Engaging and relevant content is more likely to get these results. In fact, according to Accenture, 58% of shoppers are more likely to make a purchase with a business that recommends products based on their purchase history.

Looking at the numbers, you can see why using dynamic content on your site can give you an edge. It can increase trust among repeat customers, due to the relevant and more personalized content they get over time. It can also encourage leads to keep interacting with your business and marketing materials, which gives you more chances to convert them to a customer.

For new potential customers at the top of the sales funnel (awareness or interest), dynamic content can encourage them to go further into the funnel. As noted above, most purchases are completed by repeat visitors. Dynamic content can turn a new visitor into a repeat visitor and eventually, a buyer (and repeat buyer, after that).

Ideally, dynamic web content fits into a much larger “dynamic marketing” strategy. By “dynamic marketing,” we mean that your marketing is tailored for your customer and their interests/wants/needs. By changing your goal from “selling products” to “creating a personalized experience for customers, focused on their needs,” you can create more effective and targeted marketing.

Of course, dynamic content would only be one part of such a strategy. To learn more about some of the other pieces, check out our article on cross-channel marketing, this list of marketing automation examples, and our guide to creating an actionable marketing automation plan.

Tips for getting started

Once you’ve decided to implement a dynamic content strategy, there are a few things to keep in mind.

It’s important to decide what the company’s goals are. Are you hoping to increase conversions from new visitors? Do you want to increase repeat visitors? Is the goal to decrease the bounce rate on the website? Setting expectations early can help you determine if the content is performing well and make necessary changes, if it isn’t.

Second, understand the difference between personalization and dynamic content. Although dynamic content often includes personalization, dynamic content is automatically updated based on collected data and is often more complex than personalization. An example of personalization would be using your customer data to greet them by name (or their business name, or use another piece of text from their database entry). When you compare that to dynamic content that’s being updated in real time based on visitor behavior and history, you can see the difference.

It’s worth noting that it’s easy to go overboard with personalization and that visitors might find it off-putting until they have a certain level of familiarity with your brand. This is why personalization is often saved for email or text message marketing.

Once you have some dynamic content in place, consider A/B testing. A/B testing involves using two versions of marketing collateral or content. For example, with dynamic content, you might test different versions of the headline or design for the dynamic content area, the price range of products displayed, the copy used in/around the content, etc. The test determines which version gets the most positive responses (clicks, conversions, improved time on page, or whatever your goal is). Whichever version “wins” is the new default design. A/B testing is a great way to optimize your marketing metrics and make sure you’re getting the best ROI possible—you can learn more about it with our starter guide.

Dynamic content is a way for you to offer customers a more personal, relevant experience with your brand, without the time investment that comes with high-touch sales tactics. It improves your customers’ user experience and streamlines and simplifies sales and marketing processes, opening endless doors to growth. And, best of all, it’s simple enough to get started. Increasing website conversions and growing your lead database may literally be just a few clicks away.